The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday unveiled the nominations for the 98th Academy Awards, setting the tone for an awards season defined by auteur dominance, genre crossover, and a notable cooling toward traditional musical prestige projects.
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners emerged as the clear frontrunner, leading all films with a record-breaking 16 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and multiple acting and technical categories. Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another followed closely with 13 nominations, reaffirming the Academy’s continued preference for director-driven, adult-oriented cinema.
The nominations were announced early Thursday morning from the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Best Picture Race: Prestige Over Populism
This year’s Best Picture lineup reflects a decisive tilt toward auteur-led projects and mid-budget prestige films. The 10 nominees are:
- Sinners (Warner Bros.)
- One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)
- Hamnet (Focus Features)
- Marty Supreme (A24)
- Bugonia
- The Secret Agent
- Sentimental Value
- Train Dreams
- F1
- Frankenstein
Despite strong box office performances and cultural visibility, several mainstream studio titles failed to translate commercial momentum into top-tier nominations, underscoring a growing disconnect between popular success and Academy recognition.
Acting Categories Highlight Career Turns and Comebacks
The acting races feature a mix of established Oscar favorites and notable first-time nominees.
Best Actor nominees include:
- Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme)
- Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another)
- Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon)
- Michael B. Jordan (Sinners)
- Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent)
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)
Kate Hudson’s nomination marks one of the morning’s most talked-about surprises, signaling the Academy’s renewed openness to performance-driven biopics when anchored by strong critical support.
Director Race Reinforces the ‘Auteur Class’
The Best Director category further reinforces the Academy’s auteur-forward stance:
- Ryan Coogler (Sinners)
- Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another)
- Chloé Zhao (Hamnet)
- Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme)
- Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value)
Notably absent are several high-profile studio-driven productions, suggesting that directorial vision remains the most reliable currency in the current Oscar ecosystem.
A Historic Addition: Best Casting
This year also marks the debut of Best Achievement in Casting, a long-anticipated category recognizing the role of casting directors in shaping ensemble-driven storytelling.
The inaugural nominees are:
- Sinners
- Hamnet
- Marty Supreme
- One Battle After Another
- The Secret Agent
Industry insiders see the new category as a structural shift that could influence how future prestige films are packaged and positioned during awards season.
International and Genre Representation
The international feature category continued its recent expansion in scope, with nominees representing Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Animation and documentary categories likewise reflected a balance between studio-backed projects and independent productions, reinforcing the Academy’s ongoing diversification efforts.
What Comes Next
With nominations now locked, attention shifts to guild awards and final-phase campaigning ahead of the March 15, 2026 ceremony at the Dolby Theatre. Hosted by Conan O’Brien, the telecast will air on ABC and stream on Hulu.
If the nominations are any indication, the 98th Oscars are shaping up as a referendum on authorship, scale, and creative control — with Sinners positioned as both the season’s critical favorite and its most formidable contender.
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