Everything you need to know about the 2026 Oscars

On March 15th, 2026, the 98th Academy Awards were held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, CA.

The season came with a lot of anticipation and popular films from all of 2025 and some of 2026. Sinners made history by leading the pack with a record-breaking 16 Oscar nominations, the most since La La Land in 2017, with 14 nominations. One Battle After Another came second, with 13, while Frankenstein, Marty Supreme, and Sentimental Value were all tied for third place with 9 nominations.

The Oscars also added a new category, Best Casting,  the first since Best Animated Feature was added in 2001. Due to this, the ceremony was more cut for time as each category still had to fit into a roughly 3.5 hour live broadcast.

The night began with its host, Conan O’Brien, dressed as the iconic Gladys from Weapons (2025) running through a bunch of the most popular Oscar-nominated films. The whole sequence was incredibly entertaining and funny. For viewers who had watched the films, the references made the experience all the more engaging.

Almost immediately after the show began, O’Brien took a shot at actor Timothée Chalamet for his controversial comments regarding ballet and opera. The bit was unsurprising, considering how much flack Chalamet received for saying “no one cares” about the art forms anymore. 

The unfiltered O’Brien then went on to make fun of the infamous Kid Rock Turning Point USA show that took place during the Super Bowl so conservatives could avoid Bad Bunny’s halftime show, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos’s comments on the allegedly “outdated” theater model, among many other comments about corporate media (such as Amazon) being commercializing movies and television for the general public. 

And this was only the beginning of the awards ceremony—at this point, both the remote viewers and live audience were bound to be in for an eventful night.

The first award of the night went to Amy Madigan for Best Supporting Actress. Madigan played the sinister yet comical role of Gladys in Weapons, whose Best Supporting Actress nod was the only nomination it received this year. The award was her first, and came after a forty year gap from her last Oscar nomination. 

Madigan’s win came after an incredibly tight race for the coveted Supporting Actress nod, with big contenders such as Elle Fanning in Sentimental Value, Teyana Taylor in One Battle After Another, and Wunmi Mosaku in Sinners all competing for the award. However, Madigan’s win did come after a win at the Actor Awards and the Critics Choice Awards. Her win could have been easily predicted and, for the most part, felt well-deserved despite the other strong contenders.

The next few categories also had very expected winners—the enormously popular KPop Demon Hunters snagged the win for Best Animated Feature, marking the fourth year in a row where a film from a studio other than the Disney/Pixar monopoly has won. The film’s creators gave an emotional speech about the representation of Korean culture in animated films, assuring that they would not be the last winners of the coveted award.

Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein, which was also nominated for best picture, practically swept the design awards—winning for Costumes,  Hair & Makeup, and Production Design. Though there were some tough contenders in all of these categories, Frankenstein had undeniably beautiful sets and costumes that showed off the time period and iconic sci-fi story in a magical way. It was a crowd favorite, and truly had the win in the bag before the ceremony even began.

In between these awards, there were also music performances for some of the original songs nominated—one being I Lied to You from Sinners. While the song and its iconic accompanying scene would have been difficult to adapt live due to the complexity of its choreography and layered vocals, the performance was still fantastic. Miles Caton sung the song live and sounded exactly as he did on film, while the variety of cultural dances (including Misty Copeland’s iconic ballet routine that she did straight out of retirement) incorporated onstage were able to shine alongside him.

The most surprising moment of the night, however, was undoubtedly when the best live action short film category produced a tie between The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva. This has only happened six times in the Oscars’ nearly 100 year history, and the last time it happened was over a decade ago, in 2013.

The ceremony continued with more very predictable wins—at this point, it was anyone’s game for best picture, but Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another pulled ahead with its wins for Best Casting, Best Supporting Actor (Sean Penn), and Best Adapted Screenplay. 

During the screenwriting segment of the program, however, the ever-iconic Sinners finally got its moment to shine. Ryan Coogler received a nod for Best Original Screenplay—and since Sinners as a film was a completely original concept, the award was expected but completely deserved.

In between this segment and the next, there was an emotional part of the program dedicated to all of the artists lost in the year prior to the 2026 Oscars. Among those honored were renowned filmmaker Rob Reiner (When Harry Met Sally, This Is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride), who was found dead in his apartment along with his wife in December 2025, actress Diane Keaton (The Godfather, Annie Hall), and actor Robert Redford (The Sting, Out of Africa). Billy Crystal, a long time friend of Reiner, delivered a particularly emotional speech about the filmmaker.

Following this, Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third movie in James Cameron’s iconic franchise, received an incredibly expected award for Visual Effects. Though the other films in the category also had incredible visual effects that deserved recognition, Avatar and its renowned motion capture technology will usually come out on top unless some massive upset happens.

Best Score and Best Editing went to Sinners and One Battle After Another, respectively, making the race to the coveted Best Picture award even closer. Both easily could have won either award, however—Sinners with its fast paced, quickly-cut vampire fight sequences and One Battle After Another with its riveting music. 

Then, 2026 Oscars once again made history when Autumn Durald Arkapaw received the award for Best Cinematography in Sinners, becoming the first woman to ever win it. Her speech came with a command for “All of the women in the room to stand up, because I feel like I don’t get here without you guys.” Hopefully, this is an indication that more women like Arkapaw will start winning awards in male-dominated categories and fields.

Next was the second musical performance of the night—that being the iconic song “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters. While the performance was not nearly as complex as “I Lied To You” the visuals were nonetheless stunning, with the entire stage bathed in gold as the three sang the catchy song that allowed the Honmoon to be sealed in the movie. The addition of everyone in the audience waving golden lights was also an excellent choice and really made the performance feel like it was a kpop concert.

After a very predictable Best International Feature win for Sentimental Value, “Golden” ended up winning for Best Original Song. While “I Lied To You” from Sinners was undoubtedly the other top contender (given the iconic scene in which the song plays), “Golden”’s cultural impact cannot be denied. The win was definitely more of a popularity vote than a discussion on which song had better production—expected for an awards show like the Oscars rather than something like the Grammys.

Sinners was once again snubbed for awards when the Best Director nod went to Paul Thomas Anderson, though Ryan Coogler and Chloé Zhao (Hamnet) were both in the running for the award. Luckily, the iconic film was able to make a comeback when Michael B. Jordan won Best Leading Actor for his role in Sinners, where he played the mobster twin brothers Smoke and Stack Moore. It would have been ridiculous for Jordan not to win the award, given that everyone else in the category was playing one character, while Jordan most incredibly played two. The award was also Jordan’s first Oscar nomination and win.

One of the other highlights of the night was Jessie Buckley’s acceptance speech for her Best Leading Actress award. Her speech mentioned how it was Mothers’ Day in the UK, and how she would “like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mothers’ heart.” Although Jessie Buckley swept the awards season and was the favorite for winning, her speech was very genuine and had real emotional vulnerability behind it. 

At last, the ceremony concluded with the announcement of the highest honor in cinema—the Best Picture award. While the race was very tight between the two favorites—Sinners and One Battle After Another—ultimately, it was Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another that came out on top. 

Overall, this years’ awards season didn’t really have any huge surprises. Sure, the program was engaging to watch, but there were no upsets like previous years. One can’t help but think that if the awards had been a little less predictable, the whole thing would have been more memorable in years to come.