The 98th Academy Awards are officially in motion, with the Oscars 2026 set to take place on Sunday, 15 March 2026 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
And while the full nominee list is packed with heavyweight titles, one film has become the clear headline-maker: Sinners, which has emerged as the most-nominated movie of the year.
When are the Oscars 2026, and what do we know so far?
The Academy has confirmed the ceremony date as 15 March 2026, honouring films released in 2025.
Nominations, meanwhile, paint a tight race across Best Picture and the acting categories, with multiple films showing up repeatedly across major and craft awards.
‘Sinners’ is the nomination leader, and it’s everywhere
If you are looking for the film with the most heat right now, it’s Sinners.
The Ryan Coogler-directed title leads the nominations overall, and it is also firmly in the Best Picture line-up.
It also landed major acting recognition, including Michael B. Jordan in Actor in a Leading Role, plus Delroy Lindo (supporting actor) and Wunmi Mosaku (supporting actress).
The Best Picture race is stacked
The Academy’s Best Picture nominees include:
Sinners, Hamnet, One Battle after Another, Marty Supreme, Sentimental Value, The Secret Agent, Frankenstein, Bugonia, F1, and Train Dreams.
Translation: there’s no single “easy winner” narrative yet, but there are clear camps forming, especially around the year’s big prestige dramas and ambitious adaptations.
The acting categories are a high-wattage mix
This year’s Actor in a Leading Role line-up includes Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme), Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle after Another), Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon), Michael B. Jordan (Sinners) and Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent).
On the actress side, Jessie Buckley (Hamnet), Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You), Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value) and Emma Stone (Bugonia) are up for Actress in a Leading Role.
The biggest talking points, snubs and “wait, what?” moments
Every Oscars year has its why-did-that-happen list, and 2026 is no different.
One of the most discussed surprises is Wicked: For Good, which did not show up where many viewers expected to see it after the film’s high-profile awards-season run.
The wider conversation this year is also about how the Academy leaned: towards darker, director-driven projects (like Sinners and Hamnet), and away from some of the more populist or heavily campaigned titles that felt “inevitable” a few months ago.
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Featured Image: Getty
