Awards Season 2026: Academy Award Nominations

 

As reported earlier this afternoon, here are some of the official nominations for the 98th Academy Awards:

BEST PICTURE

Bugonia

F1

Frankenstein

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

One Battle After Another

The Secret Agent

Sentimental Value

Sinners

Train Dreams

BEST DIRECTOR

Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another)

Ryan Coogler (Sinners)

Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme)

Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value)

Chloé Zhao (Hamnet)

BEST ACTOR

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

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)

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)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Elle Fanning (Sentimental Value)

Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Sentimental Value)

Amy Madigan (Weapons)

Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners)

Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another)

A full list of nominees can be found here.

With regards to my predictions, I got 31/35 (89%). I did much better than I expected to, so I'm obviously very chuffed with that. 

Here's the big news: Sinners becomes the most-nominated movie in Oscars history, garnering an absolutely astounding 16 nominations across 21 feature film categories (there are now 24 Oscars awarded with the new Casting award, with three for short films). The previous record was 14, held jointly by All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land. Coming second is One Battle After Another with 13 nods, with Frankenstein, Marty Supreme, and Sentimental Value tying for third with nine apiece. 

A lovely surprise to see Delroy Lindo nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category, metaphorically coming out of nowhere (ie. no previous awards nods) to bolster Sinners' record-breaking number. Another record-breaker is Amy Madigan, who is now the actress with the longest gap between Oscar nominations, racking up an impressive (albeit approximate) 40 years between her first and second nods. 

Interesting that there was absolutely nothing for Wicked: For Good (not even in Original Song or any production categories). Avatar: Fire And Ash mustered two awards, the lowest amount any movie in that franchise has got. 

The 98th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday 15th March 2026, at the Dolby Theatre at the Ovation Hollywood, hosted by Conan O'Brien for the second year running.

Congratulations to all nominees!

Usually there'd be a bit of a break now as the awards ceremonies start rolling in, but this year is different - we have the BAFTA Film nominations coming on Tuesday (27th January 2026). 

Awards Season 2026: Razzies Nominations

Ah, the Razzies. The metaphorical pin to prick the self-righteousness and self-congratulatory balloon of awards season. This year's nominees for the worst cinematic crimes committed to celluloid have been announced. Here is the full list of nominees:

WORST PICTURE

The Electric State

Hurry Up Tomorrow

Snow White 

Star Trek: Section 31

War Of The Worlds 

WORST ACTOR

Dave Bautista (In The Lost Lands)

Ice Cube (War Of The Worlds)

Scott Eastwood (Alarum)

Jared Leto (Tron: Ares)

Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye (Hurry Up Tomorrow)

WORST ACTRESS

Ariana DeBose (Love Hurts)

Milla Jovovich (In The Lost Lands)

Natalie Portman (Fountain Of Youth)

Rebel Wilson (Bride Hard)

Michelle Yeoh (Star Trek: Section 31)

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR

All Seven Artificial Dwarfs (Snow White)

Nicolas Cage (Gunslingers)

Stephen Dorff (Bride Hard)

Greg Kinnear (Off The Grid)

Sylvester Stallone (Alarum)

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Anna Chlumsky (Bride Hard)

Ema Horvath (The Strangers: Chapter 2)

Scarlet Rose Stallone (Gunslingers)

Kacey Rohl (Star Trek: Section 31)

Isis Valverde (Alarum)

WORST DIRECTOR

Rich Lee (War of The Worlds)

Olatunde Osunsanmi (Star Trek: Section 31)

The Russo Brothers (The Electric State)

Trey Edward Shults (Hurry Up Tomorrow)

Marc Webb (Snow White)

WORST SCREEN COMBO

All Seven Dwarfs (Snow White)

James Corden & Rihanna (Smurfs)

Ice Cube & His Zoom Camera (War Of The Worlds)

Robert DeNiro & Robert DeNiro (as Frank & Vito) (The Alto Knights)

The Weeknd & His Colossal Ego (Hurry Up Tomorrow)

WORST PREQUEL, REMAKE, RIP-OFF OR SEQUEL

I Know What You Did Last Summer

Five Nights At Freddy's 2

Smurfs

Snow White

War Of The Worlds 

WORST SCREENPLAY

The Electric State

Hurry Up Tomorrow

Snow White

Star Trek: Section 31

War Of The Worlds

War Of The Worlds and Snow White lead the field with six nominations apiece, while Hurry Up Tomorrow and Star Trek: Section 31 have five each. 

Several of the usual suspects - Nicolas Cage, Sylvester Stallone, Jared Leto - are present and correct, although there are certain performers from at least two of the Worst Picture nominees who can breathe a sigh of relief and count themselves lucky not to be included (Chris Pratt, Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, I'm mainly looking at you). That said, I think the Razzies would open them up to an absolute shitshow of abuse from various keyboard warriors had either (or both) of the Snow White leads ended up on the shortlisted ballot given some of the less-than-savoury stuff that went on during the film's publicity tour over their respective political views, so that's probably best avoided.

I'll be very honest with you, there are several films here that I've never heard of, and am probably glad not to have. 

Either way, the Razzies will be handed out on their traditional Oscar Eve slot - Saturday 14th March 2026. As the song from Frozen II says, some things never change...

Now we've had the palate cleanser, it's on to the main event. Tomorrow are the Oscar nominations. I've already put my predictions up so let's see how right (or wrong) I am!

Awards Season 2026: Tez's Official Academy Award Nomination Predictions

On Thursday morning (22nd January 2026, 5:30AM PT/8:30AM ET/1:30PM GMT), the nominations for the 98th Academy Awards will be announced. This year, the nominations will be announced by Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple [2023], Peacemaker, Orange Is The New Black) and Lewis Pullman (Thunderbolts*, Top Gun: Maverick, The Testament Of Ann Lee). 

Since 2003, I have tried to predict who will be nominated in six of the major categories (Best Picture, Best Director and the four acting awards) with various levels of success. Below is my list of who I think will be named. 

BEST PICTURE

Bugonia

F1

Frankenstein

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

One Battle After Another

The Secret Agent

Sentimental Value

Sinners

Train Dreams

BEST DIRECTOR

Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another)

Ryan Coogler (Sinners)

Guillermo del Toro (Frankenstein)

Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme)

Chloé Zhao (Hamnet)

BEST ACTOR

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

Jessie Buckley (Hamnet)

Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I'd Kick You)

Chase Infiniti (One Battle After Another)

Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value)

Emma Stone (Bugonia)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Benicio del Toro (One Battle After Another)

Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein)

Paul Mescal (Hamnet)

Sean Penn (One Battle After Another)

Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Ariana Grande-Butera (Wicked: For Good)

Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Sentimental Value)

Amy Madigan (Weapons)

Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners)

Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another)

As we now have 10 Best Picture nominees (in addition to the 20 for acting and 5 for directing), I will be happy with any score over 20. With regards to my predictions last year, I got 29/35 (83%). So, time to explain my thinking....

Best Picture: I'm confident on eight of my ten predictions, with question marks over F1 and The Secret Agent. 

I've included F1 for two reasons. First is the PGA nod. Yes, I know there's rarely a 100% conversion rate between the two but I was struggling with my last two picks. Secondly is a bit of precedent (James Mangold's Le Mans '66 [Ford V Ferrari] surprised many with its Best Picture nod in 2020). It's virtually guaranteed to garner some below-the-line technical award nominations, so it's entirely likely that goodwill extends towards the top of the list. I also picked The Secret Agent (an international movie) to pad out the list, as the Academy have shown a willingness over the last five years or so to include international movies in the Best Picture category. 

Other movies who might claim a spot on this most coveted list (although they feel less likely to be named) are the Lorenz Hart biopic Blue Moon, Noah Baumbach's showbiz comedy-drama Jay Kelly, Jafar Panahi's It Was Just An Accident, Zach Cregger's horror Weapons and musical Wicked: For Good. 

Best Director: I went with the five DGA nominees, but there's a question over Josh Safdie in my mind. He could very well lose out to Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value)

Best Actor: A solid core of four actors have dominated this awards season (Chalamet, DiCaprio, Hawke, and Jordan). I've included Wagner Moura following his Golden Globe win, but he's perhaps my least sure pick. There might be a surprise nod for either Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams) [one of only two Independent Spirit Award nominees to be featured in more mainstream awards lists; the other being Rose Byrne] or Jesse Plemons (Bugonia). As the Actor Awards completely shut out any international performances, Plemons made the list there. He may do it again here. 

Best Actress: This, to me, is the category that is the most wide open. There have been a lot of great performances that have made various Best Actress lists, so it's a crowded field. The only one I think I can absolutely state with certainty is Jessie Buckley; everyone else could well be replaceable. High profile and powerful performances by Amanda Seyfried (The Testament Of Ann Lee), Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), and Tessa Thompson (Hedda) could provide some surprise nods, and- whilst it's sadly feeling less and less likely- I'd love to see Cynthia Erivo get a nomination for Wicked: For Good (though I feel Ariana Grande-Butera will be leading the charge for that film from an acting point of view).

Best Supporting Actor: I'm fairly confident with this set although we shouldn't discount a curveball or two. Maybe Miles Caton (Sinners)? Or possibly Adam Sandler (Jay Kelly)? No, I'm not kidding with the latter. The Critics' Choice and Golden Globes both gave Sandler a nod for playing Jay Kelly's long-suffering manager Ron. Skarsgård's Golden Globe win, however, puts him slightly ahead for me. 

Best Supporting Actress: Confident on three (Grande-Butera, Madigan, Taylor). Sentimental Value could get a double nomination in this category with Elle Fanning joining the fun as an American actress hired by Gustav Borg to appear in his film. Odessa A'zion got an Actor Award nod for Marty Supreme (they also nominated Monica Barbaro last year for A Complete Unknown which translated to the Oscar nod) so she could sneak in. 

Fun fact for y'all: if Amy Madigan DOES get an Oscar nomination, she'll become a record holder as the actress with the longest gap between Oscar nominations, racking up an impressive (albeit approximate) 40 years between her first and second nods; she was nominated at the 1986 Oscars for her supporting role in romantic drama Twice In A Lifetime. [And if you're wondering, the actor with the longest gap between Oscar nominations is Judd Hirsch, with a 42-year gap between his nods for Ordinary People and The Fabelmans]

So there we have it. Predictions done. What do you reckon? On the money, way off, somewhere in between? We will soon find out. As usual, I'll get a post up as soon as I can on Thursday afternoon with the official nominations.

But before then, we will have a bit of a point-and-laugh at the Razzie nominations which are due to drop tomorrow (Wednesday 21st January 2026)

Awards Season 2026: Directors Guild Awards (DGA), and Producers Guild Awards (PGA) Nominations

So the last little bit of catch-up admin I wanted to do before I do my Oscar nominations predictions was to detail and briefly discuss the nominations from two of the major guilds which came out last week. These will certainly help with my predictions for two major categories, being as they are the nominations from the Directors Guild Awards and the Producers Guild Awards. 

DIRECTORS GUILD AWARDS (DGA)

The film nominees for the 78th Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards were announced on Thursday 8th January 2026:

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film

Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another)

Ryan Coogler (Sinners)

Guillermo del Toro (Frankenstein)

Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme)

Chloé Zhao (Hamnet)

Michael Apted Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Theatrical Feature Film

Hasan Hadi (The President's Cake)

Harry Lighton (Pillion)

Charlie Polinger (The Plague)

Alex Russell (Lurker)

Eva Victor (Sorry, Baby)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary 

Mstyslav Chernov (2000 Meters to Andriivka)

Geeta Gandbhir (The Perfect Neighbor)

Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni (Cutting Through Rocks)

Elizabeth Lo (Mistress Dispeller)

Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus (Cover-Up)

In my mind, Anderson, Coogler, del Toro, and Zhao are virtually confirmed for the Oscar nod; the sticking point is going to be whether Safdie joins them or whether the fifth place will go to Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value. Whilst Trier misses out here, he has received Best Director nods at the Critics' Choice and the Golden Globes. Safdie also received a nod at the Critics' Choice. Either way, it feels a bit superfluous to be worrying: it's almost certainly going to be Paul Thomas Anderson who wins in the end. 

The DGA Awards ceremony is on Saturday 7th February 2026.

* * *

PRODUCERS GUILD AWARDS (PGA)

The film nominees for the 37th Producers Guild of America (PGA) Awards were announced on Friday 9th January 2026:

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures

Bugonia

F1

Frankenstein

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

One Battle After Another

Sentimental Value

Sinners

Train Dreams

Weapons

Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures

The Bad Guys 2

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle 

Elio

KPop Demon Hunters

Zootopia 2

Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures 

(previously announced)

The Alabama Solution

Cover-Up

Mr Nobody Against Putin

My Mom Jayne

Ocean with David Attenborough

The Perfect Neighbor

The Tale of Silyan

So the surprises here are F1 and Weapons; for the rest of awards season, the latter has been flagged up for Amy Madigan's performance whilst the former has been recognised in many below-the-line technical awards (usually sound and editing). It's the first either film has received a Best Picture equivalent nod. I don't know if the Academy will necessarily follow suit but we have less than a week to find out. 

The PGA Awards will be handed out on Saturday 28th February 2026.

Before I forget, there's one last stop we will be making on the awards season trail before we get to the Oscar nominations, and that will be the nominations for this year's Razzies which- as is tradition- are due out the day before the Oscar nominations (so the cinematic crocks of crap they're dishonouring will be revealed on Wednesday 21st January 2026). 

As I now have all the information I will have to do my Oscar nomination predictions, I might do them early next week rather than waiting til Wednesday. Keep your eyes out for them.  

Awards Season 2026: Actor Awards Nominations

In my attempt to catch up on some awards season nonsense before the Oscar nominations next week, here are this year's nominations for the Actor Awards. 

But what are the Actor Awards, you may ask? Is this a new award added to what could be considered an already bloated season? Nope - the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) have decided to change the name of their awards. The statuette that winners receive is called "The Actor" so they decided that, from this year, they are The Actor Awards. Fair enough.  

"The Actor" award - you can see where they got the name from

Anyway, here are this year's nominations, which were announced on Wednesday 7th January 2026:

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

Frankenstein

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

One Battle After Another

Sinners

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme)

Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another)

Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon)

Michael B. Jordan (Sinners)

Jesse Plemons (Bugonia)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

Jessie Buckley (Hamnet)

Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I'd Kick You)

Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue)

Chase Infiniti (One Battle After Another)

Emma Stone (Bugonia)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

Miles Caton (Sinners)

Benicio del Toro (One Battle After Another)

Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein)

Paul Mescal (Hamnet)

Sean Penn (One Battle After Another)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role

Odessa A'zion (Marty Supreme)

Ariana Grande-Butera (Wicked: For Good)

Amy Madigan (Weapons)

Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners)

Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another)

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture

F1

Frankenstein

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

One Battle After Another

Sinners

One Battle After Another cements itself as a 2026 Awards Season juggernaut by become the most-nominated film in the history of the Actor Awards with seven nods covering all six categories (the first film to do this since the Stunt Ensemble award was introduced in 2007). Sinners has a perfectly respectable five nominations, with Frankenstein, Hamnet and Marty Supreme joint third with three apiece.

Couple of things to discuss here. The major elephant in the room is the complete and utter shutout of any foreign-language/international films. The Secret Agent and Sentimental Value, two of the most high profile international movies of the year, nowhere to be seen despite strong showing for both in other award nominations. I don't necessarily think the Oscars will repeat this; the last couple of years have seen films like Emilia Pérez, Anatomy Of A Fall, Past Lives, Drive My Car, Parallel Mothers and Minari all major contenders, so I think we'll see them mentioned there. 

However, with the absence of these films, in each of the solo acting categories, there was one pleasant "oh really?" nominations. It was good to see Jesse Plemons, Kate Hudson, Miles Caton, and Odessa A'zion included in the awards conversation. Whilst both Plemons and Hudson received Golden Globe (Musical/Comedy) nods for their lead performances in Bugonia and Song Sung Blue respectively, this is the first major awards recognition for both Caton (in his film debut) and A'Zion. 

 

The 32nd Actor Awards will be handed out on Sunday 1st March 2026, with the ceremony broadcasting on Netflix for the third year running. 

Next with my catch-up will be the Directors Guild Awards (DGA) and Producers Guild Awards (PGA) nominations. This will probably be at some point over the weekend. 

Awards Season 2026: Critics' Choice Awards and Golden Globes Winners

I'll be very honest with you all, my loves, I wasn't 100% sure I was going to cover any stuff for the 2026 awards season. The world's a raging dumpster fire of hate, division and general shittiness; personally, the end of last year and the beginning of this one haven't been the best (putting it ever so mildly), and this unashamedly self-indulgent pastime felt more hollow and more farcical than usual in the backdrop of these things. 

And yet... as shallow and as narcissistic as awards season can get, and with what little actual importance can be attached to these baubles, it's still a brief little moment of respite, a place to breathe and pause against the relentless rage-inducing nightmare we're currently going through. I shouldn't deny myself any moment of respite against this hellscape - it's sadly still going to be there when I stop looking at which movies have been awarded stuff. And if I am going to keep on with my Oscar predictions, you should at least see some of the data I'm working with. 

So, I'm not going to go backwards and discuss the nominations for awards which have already been handed out. But I will show you the winners. 

* * *

CRITICS' CHOICE AWARDS

The 31st Critics' Choice Awards were handed out on Sunday January 4th 2026 in a ceremony at the Barker Hanger at the Santa Monica Airport. Stand-up comedian Chelsea Handler returned as host for the fourth consecutive year. 

Ryan Coogler's period horror Sinners led the nominations with an amazing 17 nods across all categories, with Paul Thomas Anderson's black comedy action thriller One Battle After Another coming second with 14.

Here is a full list of the Critics' Choice Awards movie winners: 

Best Picture: One Battle After Another

Best Actor: Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme)

Best Actress: Jessie Buckley (Hamnet)

Best Supporting Actor: Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein)

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Madigan (Weapons)

Best Casting/Ensemble: Sinners

Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another)

Best Original Screenplay: Sinners

Best Adapted Screenplay: One Battle After Another

Best Comedy: The Naked Gun

Best Foreign Language Film: The Secret Agent

Best Animated Feature: KPop Demon Hunters

Best Score: Sinners

Best Song: "Golden" (KPop Demon Hunters)

Best Sound: F1

Best Production Design: Frankenstein

Best Editing: F1

Best Costume Design: Frankenstein

Best Hair & Makeup: Frankenstein

Best Visual Effects: Avatar: Fire And Ash

Best Stunt Design: Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

Best Cinematography: Train Dreams

Best Young Actor/Actress: Miles Caton (Sinners)

Sinners and Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of Frankenstein share the most awards with both winning four gongs each, One Battle After Another takes three, and animated musical KPop Demon Hunters and sports drama F1 have two apiece.

Quite a bit of comment was given about the winners in the Supporting acting categories, with both Jacob Elordi and Amy Madigan winning gongs for their roles in horror films - Elordi as Frankenstein's Creature and Madigan as the malevolent Aunt Gladys. But as you're about to see, these might be outliers. 

* * *

GOLDEN GLOBES

The 83rd Golden Globe Awards were handed out on Sunday January 11th 2026 at a ceremony at the Beverly Hilton. Stand-up comedian Nikki Glaser returned to host for a second year running. 

One Battle After Another led the nominations with nine, whilst Joachim Trier's Norwegian family drama Sentimental Value came second with eight. 

Here is the full list of film winners.

Best Motion Picture (Drama): Hamnet

Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy): One Battle After Another

Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another)

Best Actor (Drama): Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent)

Best Actor (Comedy or Musical): Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme)

Best Actress (Drama): Jessie Buckley (Hamnet)

Best Actress (Comedy or Musical): Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I'd Kick You)

Best Supporting Actor: Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value)

Best Supporting Actress: Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another)

Best Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another)

Best Original Score: Ludwig Göransson (Sinners)

Best Original Song: "Golden" (KPop Demon Hunters)

Best Foreign Language Film: The Secret Agent

Best Animated Feature Film: KPop Demon Hunters

Cinematic And Box Office Achievement: Sinners

Cecil B. DeMille Award: Helen Mirren

One Battle After Another walked away with the most Globes, winning four, whilst Shakespearean drama Hamnet, Brazilian political thriller The Secret Agent, KPop Demon Hunters, and Sinners also won two each. 

Quite a few surprises here, namely the wins for Teyana Taylor, Rose Byrne and Wagner Moura. Moura becomes the first Brazilian actor to win a Best Actor award at the Globes, his win an echo of Fernanda Torres' surprise win at last year's Globes for Best Actress (Drama) for I'm Still Here. I'd hazard to guess that the definition of "musical/comedy" was stretched to breaking point to justify Byrne being nominated in that category as the film sounds about as funny as The Martian. Oh wait... But Byrne is a great actress and, even if there has been a bit of category fraud going on, her win is deserved. 

There's a couple of things us prognosticators need to remember though, lest these results cloud things too much: firstly, the Golden Globes split a couple of the acting categories into drama and comedy/musical, and traditionally the Oscars favour drama; secondly, the make-up of the voters for the Golden Globes is a FRACTION of that which vote for the Oscars so we shouldn't necessarily read TOO much into this. 

That said, Jessie Buckley, Timothée Chalamet and Paul Thomas Anderson might be clearing a bit of space on the mantelpiece for the Little Naked Gold Men. 

In the next few days, I'll post about the nominations for the Actor Awards (previously the SAG Awards) and the PGA/DGA nods, as we have over a week until the next major awards season stop... the nominations for the 98th Academy Awards, which will be announced on Thursday 22nd January 2026!

Yes, this year the Oscar nominations are out before the BAFTAs (BAFTAs are out on Tuesday January 27th 2026, although their longlists have already been revealed) so I don't have the usual full set of nominations to work with. But it'll be fine. It's all just a bit of fun. 

Awards Season 2025: The 97th Academy Awards

So there we have it, folks. The 97th Academy Awards have been handed out and there were a nice couple of surprises along the way. 

After a fantastic opening number by Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo- incorporating music from the various cinematic iterations of The Wizard Of Oz- Conan O'Brien's opening monologue was a little bit hit-and-miss (he was definitely very nervous) but there were a couple of nice little zingers- I did like the comment about the amount of swearing in Anora linking to the Emilia Pérez controversy. The Adam Sandler skit and "I Won't Waste Your Time" bits weren't great, but weren't massively egregious (Seth MacFarlane's ill-conceived "We Saw Your Boobs" song was much worse). He got a couple of nice one-liners in as the night went on, getting one of the biggest reactions to his crack about Anora featuring an American standing up to a powerful Russian. I liked him bringing on members of the LA fire department for a well-deserved standing ovation, but didn't feel it was necessary for him to get them to read out some "jokes". All said, though, once he settled in to the gig, he was a perfectly serviceable host. I certainly wouldn't object if he was hired to host again. 

Aside from the host, how was the rest of the show? Like most Oscar telecasts, there were some good bits and some not-so-good bits. Morgan Freeman's heartfelt tribute to co-star and friend Gene Hackman before the moving "In Memoriam" (done to the mournful strains of "Lacrimosa" from Mozart's Requiem) was rather beautiful; the very uplifting tribute to Quincy Jones (featuring Queen Latifah singing "Ease On Down The Road" from The Wiz) was also very well done. A surprise tribute to the Bond franchise felt a little superfluous, although there was a slightly tenuous link in that former Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson had been honoured at the Governors' Awards in November. It still wasn't great though with a medley of Bond themes being slightly mangled by well-meaning but not-particularly-strong singers. There was also no performances of the Best Original Song nominees which felt odd; however, the show was running to around three-and-three-quarter-hours as it was, so having all five nominees performed would have pushed the show to four. 

How some of the awards were announced was interesting; they had previously announced the return of the "Fab 5" presenters- where former winners pay tribute to the current nominees; this had previously been done for the acting categories- but extended this to the Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design categories instead for this year (presumably to save someone the embarrassment of praising Karla Sofía Gascón after the fiasco over her tweets). It was also tweaked by having members of the respective casts to pay tribute to the nominees, which I thought worked. They also had Robert Downey Jr. and Da'Vine Joy Randolph give short testimonials to the Best Supporting Actor and Actress nominees rather than show a clip of their performances (although didn't do the same for Cillian Murphy and Emma Stone, presumably for the reason given above).  

On to my predictions. Well, 4 out of 6 ain't bad. I slightly underestimated how much love there was going to be in the Academy for Anora. 

So where were the surprises? Firstly, Flow winning Best Animated Feature over The Wild Robot (although I'd have dearly loved to have seen Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl win). Then I'm Still Here winning Best International Feature (I did think that would have gone to Emilia Pérez). And I will say it was a surprise- but not an unwelcome one- for Mikey Madison to win Best Actress. I was pleased that Conclave took home the Best Adapted Screenplay award; I'd have liked to have seen it take home more, personally, as it has been my favourite film that I've seen in this awards season. 

There were several nice acceptance speeches. As a creative and a cinephile, I particularly enjoyed Sean Baker's plea for filmmakers to focus on cinema releases for films (to keep the moviegoing experience alive) as well as his co-producer Samantha Quan's advice to make the stories you want to make and follow your heart. It was also refreshing to hear both Sean Baker and Mikey Madison pay tribute to the sex worker community (as Anora is about a sex worker). Perhaps the most overtly political moment came with the acceptance speech by the makers of the Best Documentary Feature winner No Other Land which explicitly deals with the issues of Palestinians being forcibly removed from their homes by Israel, although there was a lot of mentions in other speeches about how music and art can help bridge divisions and bring people together in these interesting times of ours without anyone really mentioning anyone by name. Although Daryl Hannah did start her introduction to the award she was presenting with "Slava Ukraini"!

This ceremony saw quite a few "firsts" - Flow is the first film from Latvia to be nominated for (and win) an Oscar; Zoe Saldaña is the first actress of Dominican descent to win an Oscar; Paul Tazewell becomes the first Black male winner of the Best Costume Design award, and I'm Still Here is the first Brazilian film to win the Best International Feature award (although it was the fifth film to be nominated). Sean Baker also becomes the first person to win four Oscars in one night for his work on Anora. 

 

Anora was the big winner of the evening, taking home five Oscars (and it was nominated for six, only losing Best Supporting Actor). In second place was The Brutalist, with three. It's then a three-way tie for third, with Emilia Pérez, Wicked and Dune: Part Two winning two apiece. 

Despite multiple nominations, A Complete Unknown, Nosferatu, Sing Sing, The Wild Robot, Nickel Boys, and The Apprentice all walked away empty-handed. 

Below is the full list of winners at the 97th Academy Awards:

Best Motion Picture of the Year: Anora

Best Actor: Adrien Brody (The Brutalist)

Best Actress: Mikey Madison (Anora)

Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain)

Best Supporting Actress: Zoe Saldaña (Emilia Pérez)

Best Director: Sean Baker (Anora)

Best Original Screenplay: Sean Baker (Anora)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Peter Straughan (Conclave)

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year: Flow

Best International Feature Film of the Year: I'm Still Here

Best Cinematography: The Brutalist

Best Film Editing: Anora

Best Production Design: Wicked

Best Costume Design: Wicked

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: The Substance

Best Original Score: The Brutalist

Best Original Song: "El Mal" (Emilia Pérez)

Best Sound: Dune: Part Two

Best Visual Effects: Dune: Part Two

Best Documentary (Feature): No Other Land

Best Documentary (Short Subject): The Only Girl In The Orchestra

Best Animated Short Film: In The Shadow Of The Cypress

Best Live Action Short Film: I'm Not A Robot

Congratulations to all winners! And with that, the curtain has now come down on this year's awards season. Thank you for your indulgence; I hope it's been a nice little distraction for you all. Same time next year?