The countdown to the 2026 Oscars is underway, with the spotlight firmly on the nominees. As the 98th Academy Awards approach, with Conan O’Brien hosting the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 15, here is a guide to the nominees for Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Picture. 

Best Picture 

Nominees: Bugonia, F1, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, Sinners, Train Dreams 

The political thriller One Battle After Another appears to be leading the race in this category, although the vampire horror Sinners is emerging as a strong challenger. It is interesting to note that Sinners has earned a record of 16 nominations for this year’s Oscars.  

Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler, is a horror thriller set in Mississippi in 1932. The film stars Michael B Jordan in a dual performance as twin brothers Smoke and Stack. Seeking to leave behind their criminal lives in Chicago, the pair return to their hometown with plans to open a juke joint, only to confront a far darker threat in the form of supernatural vampires. 

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In One Battle After Another, filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson draws inspiration from Vineland to craft a darkly comic thriller set in contemporary California. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as “Ghetto” Bob Ferguson, a former revolutionary trying to outrun his past. His attempt at anonymity collapses when his daughter is threatened by his adversary, the corrupt Colonel Lockjaw, played by Sean Penn. 

Bugonia is a science-fiction thriller with a darkly comic tone from director Yorgos Lanthimos. The film stars Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons and is a remake of the cult South Korean film Save the Green Planet!. 

F1 is a high-octane sports drama starring Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes, a former Formula One driver from the 1990s who makes an unexpected return to the sport after three decades away. Recruited by a friend and team owner, played by Javier Bardem, Hayes is tasked with guiding a gifted young driver portrayed by Damson Idris at the struggling fictional APXGP team. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, the film centres on redemption, fierce competition and the team’s fight to rise up the grid. 

In Frankenstein, director Guillermo del Toro reimagines the classic tale as a gothic drama. Oscar Isaac stars as Victor Frankenstein, a scientist driven to challenge the boundaries of life and death by constructing a living being from corpses. The creature, played by Jacob Elordi, is cast aside by its maker, fuelling a dark and tragic story of rejection and revenge. 

Directed by Chloe Zhao, Hamnet tells the story of the devastating loss suffered by William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes after their young son dies during a plague outbreak in the 1580s. Portrayed by Anne Hathaway, Agnes is depicted as a healer attempting to keep her household intact while coping with grief, with the narrative hinting that the tragedy later shaped Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. 

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Marty Supreme is a drama directed by Josh Safdie and stars Timothée Chalamet as Marty Mauser, a streetwise table-tennis hustler operating in 1950s New York. Loosely inspired by the life of Marty Reisman, the film charts his obsessive pursuit of becoming the world’s greatest player, taking him from shady high-stakes schemes to an international championship in London. 

The political thriller The Secret Agent, from director Kleber Mendonça Filho, is set in Brazil in 1977 at the height of military rule. Wagner Moura plays Armando, a former academic turned dissident who returns to Recife amid Carnival celebrations while trying to find a way out of the country with his son. 

Directed by Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value centres on two sisters who reunite with their distant father following the loss of their mother. The siblings, portrayed by Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, find themselves drawn back into his orbit as the ageing director, played by Stellan Skarsgård, plans a return to filmmaking inspired by their fractured family history. 

Based on the novella by Denis Johnson, Train Dreams follows the life of Robert Grainier across eight decades. Joel Edgerton portrays the reserved logger and railroad worker whose existence takes a tragic turn after a wildfire kills his family, leaving him to grapple with grief and solitude in a rapidly transforming America. 

Best Actor 

Nominees: Timothee Chalamet (Marty Supreme), Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another), Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon), Michael B. Jordan (Sinners), Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent) 

The 2025 box-office hit Sinners saw Michael B. Jordan, 39, earn critical recognition and a best actor nomination for playing twin brothers. His characters, Elijah “Smoke” Moore and Elias “Stack” Moore, travel to Clarksdale, Mississippi, hoping to open a juke joint, but their ambitions soon collide with a sinister supernatural threat. 

Already an Oscar winner, Leonardo DiCaprio returns to the best actor contest with a nomination for his role as Pat Calhoun in One Battle After Another. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the film sees the 51-year-old star play a troubled revolutionary compelled to shield his daughter from an adversary tied to his violent history. 

Among the most prominent actors of his generation, Timothee Chalamet earned his third Academy Award nomination for his role in Marty Supreme, marking his second straight appearance in the best actor race. He plays Marty Mauser, an intensely driven young table-tennis player prepared to go to extreme lengths in pursuit of success. 

Ethan Hawke, a veteran performer, writer and filmmaker with a career spanning decades, has received an Oscar nomination this year for his portrayal of Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon. The film is directed by Richard Linklater. The latest recognition marks Hawke’s fifth Academy Award nomination, following earlier nods for supporting actor and adapted screenplay. 

Brazilian actor Wagner Moura, 49, has received his first Oscar nomination for his role in The Secret Agent. Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, the film features Moura as Armando Solimões, a former academic forced into hiding while trying to flee political persecution. The actor first achieved global fame for his portrayal of Pablo Escobar in the Netflix hit Narcos. 

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Best Actress 

Nominees: Jessie Buckley (Hamnet), Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You), Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value), Emma Stone (Bugonia) 

Jessie Buckley has received her second Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of Agnes in Hamnet. Her performance has already been widely recognised, earning honours including a BAFTA Award, Critics’ Choice Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award. In the film, she plays the wife of William Shakespeare, who struggles with profound grief after their son Hamnet dies during a plague outbreak. 

The spotlight is once again on Emma Stone as she competes for another Academy Award, this time for her role in Bugonia. Stone previously won Best Actress in 2017 for portraying Mia in La La Land. She returned to the winners’ circle in 2024 with her acclaimed performance in Poor Things, the surreal drama directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. 

Kate Hudson has been nominated for Best Actress for her performance as Claire, or Thunder, in Song Sung Blue. The film, directed by Craig Brewer, follows the true story of a Milwaukee couple who built a career performing songs by Neil Diamond, navigating both success and heartbreak. Hugh Jackman appears opposite Hudson as Lightning. 

Rose Byrne earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, portraying Linda, a woman struggling to navigate a series of personal crises, her daughter’s serious illness, an absent spouse, a missing loved one, and her complicated therapy sessions.  

Renate Reinsve has received her first Academy Award nomination for her role as Nora Borg in Sentimental Value, directed by Joachim Trier. The drama explores a filmmaker’s fraught relationship with his daughters, while Nora grapples with her own struggles with mental health. 

Also Read: Oscars 2026: Who Is Conan O’Brien? All You Need To Know About The Host

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