Oscars 2026

Better late than never!

Awards season, if you don’t know, sustains its own cottage industry. Entire columns and columnists are devoted to thinking about the Oscars year-round, and Oscar campaigns require money—serious money—to keep a film circulating in voters’ minds. That means awards often, but not always, follow the movies and nominees with the most buzz and visibility. This year, the Academy introduced a rule requiring voters to check a box confirming they’ve watched all the nominees. A little bit of friction that, anecdotally, has some voters opting out altogether rather than pretending. This email, from what we can say, is probably from a well-known filmmaker and past nominee to Pete Hammond, columnist at Deadline, gives you some insight into what things are really like:

I will, of course, still be watching. I ordered a box of beef patties from Big Chune just for the occasion.

Despite my reservations about both Sinners and One Battle After Another—which will likely take home the bulk of the awards—it was still a good year for mainstream and arthouse movies. The success of Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent landing on the best picture list is a minor miracle. If you’re not into the awards, then watch it on Hulu as counterprogramming.

Predictions and stray thoughts below. Tell me who you’re rooting for!

Best Picture

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

If it were up to me, my vote would go to Marty Supreme. It’s irrepressible and alive, old-fashioned but also not. Best review: my friend Mark Asch for Reverse Shot.

Director

Chloé Zhao, Hamnet
Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another ❌
Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
Ryan Coogler, Sinners

Here is a good take on One Battle After Another by Brooke Obie

Actor in a Leading Role

Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme
Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
Michael B. Jordan, Sinners ❌
Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent

Literally anyone but Leo, please. Whatever emotion he’s playing can usually be modified the same way painfully. Painfully sad, painfully aggrieved—here, painfully stoned. It’s presumably meant to be funny, but his acting style remains the very embodiment of the opposite.

Actress in a leading role

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

Buckley will win, but I wish it were for a better movie than Hamnet. In our hearts, we all know Rose Byrne deserves it. For the 15th time, my thoughts on Bugonia here. And, unless you know what “Soolaimon” is, there’s very little reason to watch Song Sung Blue, but reader, I still did. I wondered why Hugh Jackman wasn’t nominated for anything, given that whoever was campaigning managed to get Kate Hudson nominated. Then I watched this biopic about a Neil Diamond–Patsy Cline tribute act, and understood: Hudson’s character is the one who suffers the tragic disfiguring accident that leaves her without her legs. She must feel some irritation toward the agent who neglected to mention that the bar for winning an Oscar by playing a suffering woman has risen considerably.

Actress in a Supporting Role

Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
Amy Madigan, Weapons ❌
Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another

I was listening to a podcast where one of the hosts said Julia Garner has yet to beat her masterful work in the show Ozark, to which I must counter—clearly, sir, you have not seen Inventing Anna.

Actor in a Supporting Role

Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
Delroy Lindo, Sinners
Sean Penn, One Battle After Another ❌
Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value

I’m still mad Delroy Lindo wasn’t nominated a few years ago for Da Five Bloods.

Casting

Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sinners ❌

All the awards to Jennifer Venditti for Marty Supreme.

Animated Feature

Arco
Elio
KPop Demon Hunters ❌
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Zootopia 2

Disclaimer: I have not watched any of these.

Documentary Feature

The Alabama Solution
Come See Me in the Good Light
Cutting Through Rocks
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
The Perfect Neighbor ❌

It’s on Netflix and very very good. Director Geeta Gandbhir made history with dual nominations, also earning a nod for her short film The Devil Is Busy, which is on HBO.

International Feature Film

The Secret Agent ❌
It Was Just an Accident
Sentimental Value
Sirât
The Voice of Hind Rajab

Honestly, this isn’t too bad a list. It’s historically been much worse. Interview with Sirat director Oliver Laxe here.

Cinematography

Dan Laustsen, Frankenstein
Adolfo Veloso, Train Dreams
Darius Khondji, Marty Supreme
Michael Bauman, One Battle After Another ❌
Autumn Durald, Sinners

Train Dreams, a mercilessly generic adaptation of Denis Johnson’s novel, suffers from what might be called Netflix cinematography: a gauzy, algorithmically rustic look that makes everything appear simultaneously important and weightless. Someone on substack (Swabreen Bakr maybe?) who said this was the male counterpart to prairie-girl cosplay—a sort of trad-husband pastoral—and it’s hard not to agree.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

Robert Kaplow, Blue Moon
Jafar Panahi & Script Collaborators, It Was Just an Accident
Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
Joachim Trier & Eskil Vogt, Sentimental Value
Ryan Coogler, Sinners ❌

My vote goes to Blue Moon, which I wrote a little about here.

Writing (Adapted screenplay)

Will Tracy, Bugonia
Guillermo del Toro, Frankenstein
Chloé Zhao & Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another ❌
Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar, Train Dreams

Film Editing

Stephen Mirrione, F1
Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
Andy Jurgensen, One Battle After Another
Olivier Bugge Coutté, Sentimental Value
Michael Shawver, Sinners ❌

Former architect Joseph Kosinski’s F1 Apple movie is to Brad Pitt what Top Gun: Maverick was to Tom Cruise, and it reminds us that aging stars look good when filmed next to expensive machinery. Except that since it’s about high-end sports cars and euro-coded— and not about fighter pilots and American jingoism, it is much, much more dull. This movie’s inclusion in the top ten is proof enough of the Oscar’s voting body—white males over 60, of which Brad Pitt is one.

Music (Original Song)

“Dear Me” from Diane Warren: Relentless
“Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters ❌
“Highest 2 Lowest” from Highest 2 Lowest
“I Lied To You” from Sinners
“Sweet Dreams of Joy” from Viva Verdi!
“Train Dreams” from Train Dreams

Music (Original Score)

Bugonia
Frankenstein
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
Sinners ❌

Sound

F1 ❌
Frankenstein
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sirât

Production Design

Tamara Deverell, Frankenstein ❌
Fiona Crombie, Hamnet
Jack Fisk, Marty Supreme
Florencia Martin, One Battle After Another
Hannah Beachler; Set Decoration: Monique Champagne, Sinners

Visual Effects

Avatar: Fire and Ash ❌
F1
Jurassic World Rebirth
The Lost Bus
Sinners

I watched all the Jurassic Park movies in anticipation of the new one because I thought it was a slow summer, and I had Peacock. It was deadening and worse than The Bride.

I had trouble concentrating on The Lost Bus because the fire chief is played by Adam Scott’s Lumon coworker from Severance, the one who goes berserk. Once you’ve seen someone scream about corporate compliance in a windowless office, it’s difficult to accept them calmly coordinating wildfire evacuations.

Costume Design

Avatar: Fire and Ash
Frankenstein ❌
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
Sinners

Makeup and Hairstyling

Frankenstein
Kokuho
Sinners
The Smashing Machine ❌
The Ugly Stepsister

I thought they did a good job with The Rock’s makeup. More on The Smashing Machine here.

Best Animated Short

Butterfly ❌
Forevergreen
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Retirement Plan
The Three Sisters

Best Documentary Short

All the Empty Rooms ❌
Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud
Children No More: “Were and Are Gone”
The Devil Is Busy
Perfectly a Strangeness

Best Live-Action Short

Butcher’s Stain
A Friend of Dorothy
Jane Austen’s Period Drama
The Singers
Two People Exchanging Saliva ❌

Disclosure: I know Natalie and Alexandre, directors of the above. I expect to be congratulating them very soon.

---

Honest opinions on this year's Oscar nominees

Oscars 2024