Awards Season 2026: The 98th Academy Awards

So the curtain has fallen on the 98th Academy Awards. The winners and losers will now be on their way to the myriad Los Angeles parties to celebrate or drown their sorrows whilst, here in the UK, it's gone 3am and I'm struggling to stay awake to form cogent sentences about my thoughts on the ceremony. It's a very different life I lead. 

Conan O'Brien returned to host for a second year and the show began with an amusing- if slightly overlong- pre-recorded skit showing Conan (in similar make-up to Aunt Gladys from Weapons) being chased by a pack of ravenous kids through some of this year's nominated films. His opening monologue was, much like last year, hit-and-miss but there were a couple of good lines (I particularly liked the dig about the alternate Super Bowl half-time show and I genuinely snort-laughed with his comment about the response to the lack of British acting nominees), although the flight of fancy about what he'd do if he won an Oscar- replete with a Josh Groban cameo- fell flat for me. 

In fact, it felt like this was not a good year for the "guest host banter" sections. Many felt painful and just not very funny, and some went on way too long. There were a couple of standouts: Will Arnett's anti-AI bit when hosting the Best Animated Short Film award was pretty good, and I liked Kumail Nanjiani's quip about the Live Action Short tie. This certainly isn't going to be a banner year for those listicles of "best zingers from the Academy Awards".   

It wasn't all bad. The "In Memoriam" section was beautifully observed, starting with a heartfelt tribute to Rob and Michele Reiner by Billy Crystal (and featuring many stars from Reiner's films). After some VT, Rachel McAdams gave a touching eulogy to Diane Keaton. The last section ended with a tribute to Robert Redford from none other than Barbra Streisand, concluding her tribute with a short rendition of "The Way We Were". It was very sobering to see just how many losses the film industry has endured over the last twelve months. 

The two musical performances- "I Lied To You" from Sinners (recreating the powerful performance from the film live on stage) and "Golden" from KPop Demon Hunters- were both polished, accomplished and energetic. I liked how they presented the inaugural Best Casting award, by having an actor from each of the nominated films to pay tribute to the individual casting director. I hope that's something they keep going forward. 

How did I do with my predictions? 3/6 as expected. I should have stuck my neck out a bit more. 

Amy Madigan gave a wonderfully flustered acceptance speech, the first award of the evening. Sean Penn was not in attendance at the event, so Kieran Culkin accepted the Oscar on his behalf; Penn is notoriously anti-awards campaigning and schmoozing. I was absolutely delighted that Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor, not just because his performance as the Smokestack Twins is superb but because it meant that the fairly odious Marty Supreme got totally shut out (Chalamet was the movie's best chance of taking home any gold). Hey, schadenfreude can be quite cathartic. Jessie Buckley's acceptance speech was also beautiful. Much like last year with Conclave, I'd liked to have seen Hamnet get a bit more awards love but I'm glad it got recognised in such an important category, and for such a powerful performance.

This ceremony has also seen a couple of "firsts". In addition to the first Best Casting award being handed out, Autumn Durald Arkapaw becomes the first female cinematographer to win the Best Cinematography Oscar, for her stellar work on Sinners (her acceptance speech was one of the highlights of the evening). "Golden" also becomes the first KPop song to receive a Best Original Song Oscar. 

One Battle After Another is the big winner of the night with six Oscars, with Sinners coming second with four, and Frankenstein in third with three. Despite multiple nominations, Marty Supreme, Bugonia, The Secret Agent, Train Dreams, Blue Moon and It Was Just An Accident all walked away empty-handed. 

Below is the full list of winners at the 98th Academy Awards:

Best Motion Picture of the Year: One Battle After Another

Best Actor: Michael B. Jordan (Sinners)

Best Actress: Jessie Buckley (Hamnet)

Best Supporting Actor: Sean Penn (One Battle After Another)

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Madigan (Weapons)

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

Best Original Screenplay: Ryan Coogler (Sinners)

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

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year: KPop Demon Hunters

Best International Feature Film of the Year: Sentimental Value

Best Cinematography: Sinners

Best Film Editing: One Battle After Another

Best Production Design: Frankenstein

Best Costume Design: Frankenstein

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Frankenstein

Best Original Score: Sinners

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

Best Sound: F1

Best Visual Effects: Avatar: Fire And Ash

Best Casting: One Battle After Another

Best Documentary (Feature): Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Best Documentary (Short Subject): All The Empty Rooms

Best Animated Short Film: The Girl Who Cried Pearls

Best Live Action Short Film: The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva (tie)

Congratulations to all winners!

So that's awards season 2026 done and dusted for another year. Now it's time for bed. Goodnight, my loves. 

Awards Season 2026: Tez's Official Oscar Predictions

Tonight's the night. The 98th Academy Awards. What's felt like a long awards season (thanks in part to the Winter Olympics) reaches the grand finale this evening at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Conan O'Brien's returning to host for the second year running; once he settled into the role last year, he did well. Hopefully he'll have shed the first time nerves and do just as well tonight. 

As regular readers will know, it has become a tradition for me to predict the nominations and the winners in the main six categories (the four acting categories, Best Director and Best Picture). I've done this since 2003 with varying degrees of success. 

Last year, I slightly underestimated the Academy's love for Anora and got 4/6 (missing Best Actress [Mikey Madison] and Best Director [Sean Baker]). It's been a wide-open awards season in some categories this year, so I don't expect to do as well tonight. But stranger things have happened...

So, without further ado, here are my predictions for who will win.

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

Because the supporting acting categories have been so wide open this year, I've focused on seeing those films which contain the nominated performances (I try and see as many nominated films as I can but I don't always manage it). But, this year, I've managed to see them all, and- for me- Teyana Taylor's fierce, ferocious turn as compromised revolutionary Perfidia Beverly Hills just squeaks it over Amy Madigan's performance in Weapons (although I won't be mad if Madigan wins; she is great, even if the film surrounding her isn't). The first part of One Battle After Another positively crackles with Taylor's kinetic, livewire performance and, for me, the movie loses something once her character steps out of the frame. 

Best Supporting Actor: Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value)

I've got a feeling this one is just going to be wishful thinking on my part, although Skarsgård did win the corresponding award at the Golden Globes. He gives a considered and measured performance as lauded movie director Gustav Borg, attempting to make his most personal film yet. Borg's not a nice guy: he's an emotionally distant father, a borderline alcoholic, and utterly selfish but, crucially, there's a charm and charisma that helps you overlook some of those worst excesses. Josh Safdie could have taken a leaf our of Joachim Trier's book for that, but I'll get onto Marty Supreme in a bit. It's also the only one of this year's Supporting Actor nominees which feels the most grounded and the most "real" (Penn and del Toro play their characters very broad; Elordi and Lindo are in genre movies where their characters are heightened anyway). This feels unlikely (Sean Penn's BAFTA and Actor Award wins could see him take the gold) but I'm still holding our for it. Fun fact: if he does win, Skarsgård will be the first Supporting Actor Oscar winner in a foreign-language/international film. 

Best Actress: Jessie Buckley (Hamnet)

Groucho Marx is said to have called Judy Garland not winning Best Actress for A Star Is Born (1954) "the biggest robbery since Brink's". I mean absolutely no disrespect to the other four actresses in this category with my next statement, but if- by some strange turn of events- Jessie Buckley doesn't win tonight, you can apply that comment here. Not only has she been the runaway winner throughout the awards season (the only consistent acting winner across all awards) but her performance as Agnes Shakespeare in Chloé Zhao's beautiful meditation on grief and loss is utterly tremendous. Buckley grounds the movie; her anguish at the loss of her son is emotionally affecting and I'm not afraid to say I cried several times throughout. There's been some claims that the movie is emotionally manipulative but I didn't feel that way about it. Unsurprisingly, for those who know me, Hamnet has been my favourite film of this awards season and it will be entirely fitting to have it honoured at the Oscars with Buckley's win.  

Best Actor: Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme)

Full disclosure here, folks: I did not care for Marty Supreme. Two and a bit hours of unpleasant, amoral people doing unpleasant and amoral things to each other isn't my idea of a good time. And they don't come more unpleasant and amoral as the lead character, played by Timothée Chalamet. Marty Mauser is brash, unapologetically self-centred, possessed with an unshakable self-belief that he's the next best thing in table tennis and pretty much steps on, manipulates and cons those around him to make this dream a reality. The last act attempt to redeem this irredeemable arsehole felt emotionally hollow and manipulative and, crucially for me, didn't work- but that's more a problem with the script and less to do with the performance. Did I like the film? No. Did I like Chalamet's performance? Ish. He's given better performances elsewhere. But he's definitely committed to the bit here, and I think that might see him through, despite awards love cooling from him recently (see BAFTAs and Actor Awards). Personally, were I a voting member of the Academy, I would have put my vote in for Michael B. Jordan for his stellar work in Sinners; and there's still a chance (given his win at the Actor Awards) that this might happen. 

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

Best Picture: One Battle After Another

From the get-go of this awards season, One Battle After Another has been the runaway winner. Nabbing Best Picture from the Critics' Choice Awards, the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs and the Producers Guild, it really has stood tall against the other nominees. A strangely timely movie, there's no way that anyone involved in its production could have predicted exactly how close to home its themes of revolution and resistance against authoritarianism would get. It's a film that meets the moment we find ourselves in, whether by accident or design, and- whilst I might have personally resonated with other nominees better- it's an undeniable triumph.

And no small part of that triumph comes at the hands of its director, Paul Thomas Anderson. He gets superb performances from his ensemble cast, balances comedy and drama expertly, and also pulls off one of the most tense and technically accomplished car chases I've seen on film in years. Again, Anderson has won all the major precursor awards so he seems fairly nailed on for tonight.

Whilst these aren't official predictions, I think Sinners and One Battle After Another will get the Original and Adapted Screenplay awards respectively (as they did at the Writers Guild Awards earlier in the month), Frankenstein will get a lot of technical love (I'm expecting to see it get Production Design and Hair & Make-Up at the very least), and KPop Demon Hunters will win Best Original Song for "Golden". 

So there are my predictions. What do you think?

For the third year, ITV and ITVX will be broadcasting the telecast in the UK, starting at 10:15PM GMT with the ceremony due to start at 11:00PM (as the U.S. has already swapped to Daylight Saving Time whilst the clocks don't go forward here until the end of the month). 

I'll be watching. Will you? 

A full write-up of my thoughts on the ceremony, plus a full list of the winners, will follow as soon as possible once the ceremony finishes. 

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: 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)