It’s January 22nd 2026 and the Oscar Nominations are out!
So, here are the nominations for the 2026 Oscars, as just announced in Los Angeles. From my previous post, you might remember that the Flickering Dreams team – myself, The Reverend Andy Godfrey, Scott Forbes and Emma Sewell – had a podcast to predict these nominations for the main categories…. so I have also tallied up how we did with our predictions! In fact, we got 38 out of the 45 nominations right, getting the “Best Actress” nominations 100% correct but dropping only one nomination in each of the other categories. Not too shabby!
The headline here though is that Sinners has made Oscar history by getting 16 nominations, smashing the previous record of 14 held by All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land. The other big hitters (in terms of number of nominations) were:
- One Battle After Another – 12
- Sentimental Value – 9
- Marty Supreme – 8
Perhaps the film most snubbed was Wicked For Good, not picking up a single nomination, not even in the technical categories. I’m also surprised that Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Choice” came away empty handed.
Best Film
- Bugonia (Focus Features)
- F1 (Apple Original Films/Warner Bros.)
- Frankenstein (Netflix)
- Hamnet (Focus Features)
- Marty Supreme (A24)
- One Battle After Another (Warner Bros)
- The Secret Agent (Neon)
- Sentimental Value (Neon)
- Sinners (Warner Bros)
- Train Dreams (Netflix)
Well, do we know our stuff or do we know our stuff? The Flickering Dreams team predicted 9 out of the 10 Best Film nominees. The only one we got wrong was suggesting It Was Just an Accident instead of the (surprise) inclusion of F1 in the list.
I just have Train Dreams (which is streaming on Netflix) to watch on this list and then I have a full house of the Best Pictures.
Best Director
- Chloe Zhao, Hamnet
- Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
- Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
- Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
- Ryan Coogler, Sinners
The Flickering Dreams team got what will be the first of many 4/5’s in this list. We predicted Jafar Panahi for It Was Just an Accident instead of Josh Safdie for Marty Supreme. But hats off to Scott Forbes for correctly predicting the directing snub for Guillermo del Toro for Frankenstein, which indeed came to pass.
Best Actress
- 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
Woohoo! The Flickering Dreams team got a 5/5 on our predictions for this one. No surprise that Buckley and Byrne are on this list, but I am so delighted Kate Hudson got a nomination!
Best Actor
- Timothee Chalomet, Marty Supreme
- Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
- Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
- Michael B Jordan, Sinners
- Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
The Flickering Dreams team got another 4/5 on this category…. we predicted Jesse Plemons for Bugonia (who I would have LOVED to have got a nomination) instead of Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon. But I would have loved for both of these to be in the list anyway, so I am delighted for Hawke.
Best Supporting Actor
- Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another
- Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
- Delroy Lindo, Sinners
- Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
- Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value
The Flickering Dreams team again got 4/5 on this one: we suggested Paul Mescal for Hamnet instead of the surprising, but really excellent, inclusion of Delroy Lindo for Sinners.
Supporting Actress.
- Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
- Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
- Amy Madigan, Weapons
- Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
- Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
The Flickering Dreams predictions yet again got four out of five… we selected Odessa O’Zion for Marty Supreme instead of Elle Fanning, which I frankly would have preferred. But this is not a bad list. Nothing again for Wicked: For Good and Ariana Grande though.
Adapted Screenplay
- Bugonia – Will Tracy
- Frankenstein – Guillermo del Toro
- Hamnet – Chloe Zhao, Maggie O’Farrell
- One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson
- Train Dreams – Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar
The Flickering Dreams team got (yep another) 4 our of 5 on this category. We added in No Other Choice instead of Train Dreams (which I must admit was my bad, since I pushed for that one!)
Original Screenplay
- Blue Moon – Robert Kaplow
- It Was Just an Accident – Jafar Panahi
- Marty Supreme – Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie
- Sentimental Value – Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt
- Sinners – Ryan Coogler
The Flickering Dreams team (still yet) again got 4/5 of these, swapping out Blue Moon for Weapons. But I’m actually personally delighted that Blue Moon got nominated for this: a fantastic script.
Casting:
- Hamnet – Nina Gold
- Marty Supreme – Jennifer Venditti
- One Battle After Another – Cassandra Kulukundis
- The Secret Agent – Gabriel Domingues
- Sinners – Francine Maisler
This was the first new Oscar category in over 20 years. So congrats to these casting directors!
Animated Feature:
- Arco – Ugo Bienvenu, Félix de Givry, Sophia Mas, Natalie Portman
- Elio – Mary Alice Drumm, Adrian Molina, Madelina Sharafian, Domee Shi
- KPop Demon Hunters – Chris Appelhans, Maggie Kang, Michelle L.M. Wong
- Little Amélie or the Character of Rain – Claire LaCombe, Edwina Liard, Henri Magalon, Nidia Santiago, Maïlys Vallade
- Zootopia 2 – Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Yvett Merino
I’ve got some catching up to do in this category!
Production Design:
- Frankenstein – Tamara Deverell, Shane Vieau
- Hamnet – Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton
- Marty Supreme – Jack Fisk, Adam Willis
- One Battle After Another – Florencia Martin, Anthony Carlino
- Sinners – Hannah Bleachler, Monique Champagne
Cinematography:
- Frankenstein – Dan Laustsen
- Marty Supreme – Darius Khondji
- One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.) – Michael Bauman
- Sinners – Autumn Durald Arkapaw
- Train Dreams – Adolpho Veloso
Costume Design:
- Avatar: Fire and Ash – Deborah L. Scott
- Frankenstein – Kate Hawley
- Hamnet – Malgosia Turzanska
- Marty Supreme – Miyako Bellizzi
- Sinners – Ruth E. Carter
The big surprise for me on this list was Avatar: Fire and Ash… when all of the cast wore green suits with little black dots on them! I guess someone had to design the virtual costumes for the screen, but this still feels a little odd to me.
Film Editing:
- F1 – Stephen Mirrione
- Marty Supreme – Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
- One Battle After Another – Andy Jurgensen
- Sentimental Value – Olivier Bugge Coutté
- Sinners – Michael P. Shawver
Makeup and Hairstyling:
- Frankenstein – Mike Hill, Cliona Furey, Jordan Samuel
- Kokuho – Kyoko Toyokawa, Naomi Hirino, Tadashi Nishimatsu
- Sinners – Ken Diaz, Mike Fontaine, Shunika Terry
- The Smashing Machine – Kazu Hiro, Glen Griffin, Bjoern Rehbein
- The Ugly Stepsister – Anne Catherine Sauerberg, Thomas Foldberg
I was generally down on The Smashing Machine as a film, but you have to hand it to the makeup team that this nomination is well deserved.
Sound:
- F1 – Gareth John, Al Nelson, Juan Peralta, Gary A. Rizzo, Gwendowlyn Yates Whittle
- Frankenstein – Greg Chapman, Christian Cooke, Nelson Ferreira, Nathan Robitaile, Brad Zoern
- One Battle After Another – Jose Antonio Garcia, Christopher Scarabosio, Tony Villaflor
- Sinners – Benny Burt, Steve Boeddeker, David V. Butler, Felipe Pacheco, Chris Welcker
- Sirât – Amanda Villavieja, Laia Casanovas and Yasmina Praderas
Visual Effects:
- Avatar: Fire and Ash – Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, Daniel Barrett
- F1 – Ryan Tudhope, Nicolas Chevallier, Robert Harrington, Keith Dawson
- Jurassic World Rebirth – David Vickery, Stephen Aplin, Charmaine Chan, Neil Corbould
- The Lost Bus – Charlie Noble, David Zaretti, Russell Bowen, Brandon K. McLaughlin
- Sinners – Michael Ralla, Espen Nordahl, Guido Wolter, Donnie Dean
An astonishing nomination for me here is Jurassic World Rebirth, since I thought some of the Visual Effects in that film (the T-Rex in the river being a notable example) were TRULY AWFUL! But a good call in the list is The Lost Bus, which I actually called out in my review.
Original Score:
- Bugonia – Jerskin Fendrix
- Frankenstein – Alexandre Desplat
- Hamnet – Max Richter
- One Battle After Another – Jonny Greenwood
- Sinners – Ludwig Göransson
Original Song:
- Diane Warren: Relentless – “Dear Me” by Diane Warren
- KPop Demon Hunters – “Golden” by EJAE and Mark Sonnenblick
- Sinners – “I Lied to You” by Ludwig Göransson and Raphael Saadiq
- Viva Verdi – “Sweet Dreams of Joy”, Nicolas Pike
- Train Dreams – “Train Dreams” by Nick Cave, Bryce Dessler
International Feature:
- The Secret Agent (Brazil) – dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
- It Was Just an Accident (France) – dir. Jafar Panahi
- Sentimental Value (Norway) – dir. Joachim Trier
- Sirât (Spain) – dir. Oliver Laxe
- The Voice of Hind Rajab (Tunisia) – dir. Kaouther Ben Hania
A really strong set of international films this year and thanks to the LFF I’ve managed to see all but one of them already!
My mission to fully watch all the films in these last four elusive categories begins!!
Documentary Feature:
- The Alabama Solution – Andrew Jackson, Charlotte Kaufman
- Come See Me In The Good Light – Ryan White, Jessica Hargrave, Tig Notaro, Stef Willen
- Cutting Through Rocks – Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki
- Mr. Nobody Against Putin – TBD
- The Perfect Neighbor – Sam Bisbeem Geeta Gandbhir, Alisa Payne
Animated Short:
- Butterfly, Florence Miailhe, Ron Dyens
- ForeverGreen, Nathan Engelhardt, Jeremy Spears
- The Girl Who Cried Pearls – Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski
- Retirement Plan – John Kelly, Andrew Freedman
- The Three Sisters – Konstantin Bronzit
Documentary Short:
- All the Empty Rooms – Joshua Seftel, Trevor Burgess
- Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud – Brent Renaud, Craig Renaud
- Children No More: “Were And Are Gone” – Hilla Medalia, Sheila Nevins
- The Devil is Busy – Geeta Gandbhir, Christalyn Hampton
- Perfectly A Strangeness – Alison McAlpine
Live Action Short:
- Butcher’s Stain – Meyer Levinson-Beount, Oron Caspi
- A Friend of Dorothy – Lee Knight, James Dean
- Jane Austen’s Period Drama – Julia Aks, Steve Pinder
- The Singers – Franz Böhm, Hayder Rothschild Hoozeer
- Two People Exchanging Saliva – Natalie Musteata, Alexandre Singh
I shall, of course, be posting a traditional “Will Win/Should Win” set of predictions ahead of this year’s Oscar ceremony, hosted by Conan O’Brien, on March 15th.
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