Oscars 2026: Full List of Winners and Nominees

The 98th Academy Awards ceremony took place overnight, where the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored the best films of 2025. Opinions about the show itself may vary — some viewers find such events entertaining, while others consider them dull. Still, the Oscars remain above all a good way to draw attention to strong films you might have missed. In this article, we have gathered the full list of winners and nominees from the Academy for your convenience, so it is easier to pick something to watch on your next free evening.

First, let’s take a look at the winners in the most important and prestigious categories.

The main and perhaps the most predictable Oscar winner, especially if you followed critics’ opinions and the preferences of American audiences over the past year, even casually. We have a separate article on our site explaining what made One Battle After Another so widely discussed, so we won’t go into unnecessary detail here. In short, it is a political drama with action elements about the confrontation between revolutionaries and government representatives, effectively reflecting the social tensions present in modern-day United States.

Nominees for Best Picture:

Paul Thomas Anderson was named Best Director for his work on One Battle After Another. Even before this win, he was widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in contemporary auteur cinema. Anderson became famous for his complex and expressive visual style, which regularly places his films on lists of the best movies of their time. One of his earlier works, the drama There Will Be Blood, in particular received widespread acclaim and is often described as one of the defining films of this century.

Nominees for Best Director:

Paul Thomas Anderson’s film is a loose adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland. In the book, the story unfolds in 1984 against the backdrop of Ronald Reagan’s re-election. The narrative focuses on former members of the counterculture and radical movements of the 1960s who, years later, try to live ordinary lives while government structures and unresolved political conflicts once again interfere with their fate. One Battle After Another borrows some ideas and characters from the novel but significantly reworks the plot, turning the story into a more action-driven narrative.

Nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay:

The horror-action film Sinners received nominations in as many as 16 categories — an absolute record — and ultimately won four of them, including Best Original Screenplay. The script, as well as the direction of the film, was handled by Ryan Coogler. We covered in detail what makes the story of Sinners so compelling in our full review of the film.

Nominees for Best Original Screenplay:

The Oscar became the cherry on top for the hugely successful animated film KPop Demon Hunters. The story follows the members of the girl group Huntrix, who spend their time not only performing music but also hunting down malevolent spirits. Last year, the film accumulated more than 500 million views on Netflix, making it one of the most successful animated releases in the platform’s history.

Nominees for Best Animated Feature Film:

The award for Best International Feature went to a Norwegian drama about an aging and self-absorbed film director whose career is in decline. After the death of his ex-wife, he returns to his adult daughters, whom he had effectively abandoned years earlier, and tries to make a film about his own mother. He even asks one of his daughters to portray her own grandmother, hoping to revive his career by capitalizing on her popularity.

Nominees for Best International Feature Film:

Next on the list are the winners in the acting categories for both leading and supporting roles.

In Sinners, Michael B. Jordan plays two characters at once — twin brothers with a criminal past, Smoke and Stack. He manages to make the two roles feel genuinely distinct, giving them different mannerisms, temperaments, and emotional tones, which makes them come across as two separate individuals. Even knowing in advance that both characters are played by the same actor, it is easy to forget about it while watching.

Nominees for Best Actor:

Jessie Buckley plays the wife of William Shakespeare in Hamnet. The story focuses specifically on her life and emotional journey after the death of her son. Buckley conveys a mother’s grief with such intensity and sincerity that many critics have described her performance as “devastating” and “almost unbearably emotional.”

Nominees for Best Actress:

In One Battle After Another, Sean Penn plays Steven Lockjaw — a harsh and authoritarian antagonist. The actor manages to strike a delicate balance between grotesque exaggeration and realism, adding important nuances to the role that prevent the character from turning into a simple caricature.

Nominees for Best Supporting Actor:

Amy Madigan received the award for her role as the main villain in Weapons. However, saying anything specific about her character would inevitably lead into spoiler territory. The film’s story — full of mysteries and intrigue — remains its greatest strength, as we mentioned in our review of Weapons.

Nominees for Best Supporting Actress:

This section of the article lists the remaining nominations from Oscars 2026.

The Oscar for Best Casting did not exist before, so the victory of One Battle After Another became historic: the statuette was awarded to casting director Cassandra Kulukundis. And deservedly so — the film stands out primarily for its powerful ensemble cast, bringing together actors from different generations and acting traditions.

Nominees for Best Casting:

Could any other film realistically have won in this category? Sinners not only masterfully uses a wide range of musical styles — from blues to Irish folk — but also employs music as one of its key narrative tools.

Nominees for Best Original Score:

The track Golden became a global hit: it topped the Billboard Global 200 chart and reached number one in more than 30 countries, while also winning several major awards — now including the Oscar for Best Original Song.

Nominees for Best Original Song:

The impeccable sound design of F1 fulfills a key task — immersing the viewer inside the cockpit of a racing car and amplifying the adrenaline-fueled action on screen. The sound perspective changes depending on the camera angle: from the outside, you hear drivers and engineers communicating as during a real broadcast, while inside the cockpit the clicks of gear shifts, the squeal of tires, the work of the brakes, and the roar of the engine move to the foreground. More details are available in our F1 review.

Nominees for Best Sound:

Without a doubt, Frankenstein is one of the most visually striking films of recent years, so its victory in this category comes as no surprise. Every scene looks like a living gothic painting. Rich set designs, expressive costumes, and the combination of practical effects with CGI create the feeling of an almost theatrical world. Even the darkest moments — such as the protagonist’s experiments with the bodies of the dead — are presented not as shocking horror, but as a strange yet mesmerizing artistic process. We discussed this in more detail in VGTimes’ review of Frankenstein.

Nominees for Best Production Design:

The outstanding cinematography is one of the key elements of Sinners, as its memorable visual style helps the film avoid feeling chaotic when it jumps between different genres and tonal shifts.

Nominees for Best Cinematography:

We mentioned the mesmerizing, almost “aestheticized” grotesque of Frankenstein earlier. Just like the work of the production designer, makeup here is a crucial component of the film: without it, the crew would hardly have been able to fully achieve the desired effect.

Nominees for Best Makeup and Hairstyling:

Equally important to the success of Frankenstein is its captivating Victorian costume design — it helps fully establish the film’s gothic atmosphere while also highlighting the personalities of the characters.

Nominees for Best Costume Design:

One Battle After Another is an extremely dynamic film, and that effect is largely achieved through its excellent editing. The movie rarely pauses and moves forward at a rapid pace, with scenes almost “flowing” into one another. The car chase sequence is particularly impressive. It was shot and edited in the spirit of the grittier, more realistic thrillers of the 1970s: the editing relies on fast but clear cuts that preserve the sense of spatial geography and speed rather than disorienting the viewer with chaotic montage.

Nominees for Best Film Editing:

James Cameron’s new film is above all impressive for its technical achievements and visual execution. It once again turns Pandora into an almost tangible world: new tribes, floating jellyfish, volcanic landscapes, and familiar biomes all look incredibly detailed and alive. CGI barely feels like computer graphics anymore — body movement, facial expressions, and even tiny skin details appear absurdly natural, which makes the Oscar for visual effects more than deserved. The story itself, however, largely continues the broader saga and does not introduce fundamentally new ideas, as we discussed in our review of Avatar: Fire and Ash.

Nominees for Best Visual Effects:

A documentary about a schoolteacher who secretly records changes in the education system, the growing ideological pressure, and the increasing influence on both students and teachers — showing how state messaging gradually seeps into everyday school life.

Nominees for Best Documentary Feature:

All the Empty Rooms tells the story of families in the United States who lost their children in school shootings. Over several years, the filmmakers visited these families’ homes and filmed the bedrooms of the children who died — spaces that parents often preserve almost untouched. Through personal stories, video, and photographs, the film focuses not on the tragedies themselves but on life afterward. Its central message is to shift attention away from the perpetrators and toward the victims and their families.

Nominees for Best Documentary Short Film:

This category ended in a tie. Both films — The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva — received the same number of votes from the Academy and were declared winners. This is an extremely rare situation that has occurred only seven times in the history of the Oscars.

Nominees for Best Live Action Short Film:

In The Girl Who Cried Pearls, an elderly man recalls his childhood in Montreal, when he was a homeless boy surviving by rummaging through trash. One day he hears a cruel stepmother abusing a girl in a nearby house and notices that her tears turn into real pearls. After selling several of them, the boy gets money and a chance to escape poverty, but soon realizes that for this to continue, the girl must keep suffering. This realization confronts him with a painful moral dilemma.

Nominees for Best Animated Short Film:

This year the honorary award was presented to three individuals for their overall contribution to the film industry. The recipients were American actress, choreographer, and director Debbie Allen, legendary production designer Wynn Thomas, and popular actor Tom Cruise.

A special humanitarian award presented by the Academy. It is given for charitable work and contributions to improving society through the entertainment industry. The recipient was Dolly Parton — one of the most famous figures in the history of country music.

What do you think about the nominees and winners of Oscars 2026? Do you agree with the Academy’s choices? Perhaps some films seem overrated to you? Share your thoughts in the comments.