Our 2026 Academy Awards Hub!

It's time for the 2026 Academy Awards! Join us on March 15th for live updates as the awards are handed out. While we wait, check out our picks and our rationale below! Please note, for four categories we actually have not seen any of the movies so we are pulling the highest score on ESPN's Oscar Pick'em for our pick.

Best Actor In A Leading Role

Timothee Chalamet (Marty Supreme)
Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another)
Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon)
Michael B. Jordan (Sinners)
Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent)

Our Pick: Michael B. Jordan (Sinners)
The acting categories always come down to the debate between who did the most acting vs who did the best acting. Chalamet, DiCaprio, and Hawke (Jesus Christ Hawke) all worked hard for the "most acting" angle so I think Michael B. Jordan's more nuanced performance will end up getting him a win.

Winner:

Best Actor In A Supporting Role

Benecio del Toro (One Battle After Another)
Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein)
Delroy Lindo (Sinners)
Sean Penn (One Battle After Another)
Stellan Skarsgard (Sentimental Value)

Our Pick: Stellan Skarsgard (Sentimental Value)
I'm always hesitant to pick someone if the movie has two nominations in the same category. While Benecio del Toro and Sean Penn's performances are not equivalent by any stretch of the imagination, I do think they'll split the vote among people who want to award One Battle After Another in this category. Stellan Skarsgard did win the Golden Globe for his performance in Sentimental Value so I think he is the better pick of the nominees.

Winner:

Best Actress In A Leading Role

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)

Our Pick: Jessie Buckley (Hamnet)
Look, no offense to anyone else in this category, but I'd expect Jessie Buckley to win this one in a landslide. Put it this way, the prediction markets currently cite a better chance that the second coming of Christ happens in the calendar year 2026 than anyone other than Jessie Buckley wins this award.

Winner:

Best Actress In A Supporting Role

Elle Fanning (Sentimental Value)
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Sentimental Value)
Amy Madigan (Weapons)
Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners)
Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another)

Our Pick: Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another)
I know Amy Madigan has picked up a few awards for her role in Weapons, but the Academy tends not to reward genre movies, especially in a year where Sinners is going to be all over this. I am surprised Hailee Steinfeld isn't here but aside from that, Teyana Taylor is going to win with her short but memorable appearance in One Battle After Another.

Winner:

Best Animated Feature Film

Arco
Elio
KPop Demon Hunters
Little Amelie or the Character of Rain
Zootopia 2

Our Pick: KPop Demon Hunters
Hey, maybe if Pixar didn't cut Elio to shreds it may have had a chance. Now you're going to get crushed by a movie that Sony sold to Netflix because they thought it wouldn't do well in a theatrical release. God this entire category is a comedy of errors this year.

Winner:

Best Animated Short Film

Butterfly
Forevergreen
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Retirement Plan
The Three Sisters

Wisdom of the Crowd: Butterfly (74%)

Winner:

Best Casting

Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sinners

Our Pick: Sinners
The Academy heard our complaints about how there are certain awards they should add, ignored them, and added Best Casting anyway. Sinners is going to win because that ensemble is fantastic with no weak links.

Winner:

Best Cinematography

Frankenstein
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Train Dreams

Our Pick: Sinners
My school of thought when it comes to this category every year is always the same: the movie that sticks with me visually is the one that I'm going to pick come Oscar season. Sinners wins this because of both the phenomenal sequence where I Lied To You is performed and the way the movie transitions visually from a more conventional historical drama to a vampire film.

Winner:

Best Costume Design

Avatar: Fire and Ash
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
Sinners

Our Pick: Frankensten
My annual complaint returns with the nomination of Marty Supreme. Marty Supreme's spot should have been taken by Hedda. Realistically, I think Frankenstein is going to clean up in some of the technical categories and this will be the first of a good night for them.

Winner:

Best Directing

Chloe Zhao (Hamnet)
Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme)
Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another)
Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value)
Ryan Coogler (Sinners)

Our Pick: Ryan Coogler (Sinners)
Here's a limb I'm willing to go out on, Ryan Coogler deserves this win. I liked One Battle After Another and have appreciated some of Paul Thomas Anderson's work, but putting the two head-to-head there is no contest.

Winner:

Best Documentary Feature

The Alabama Soluton
Come See Me in the Good Light
Cutting Through Rocks
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
The Perfect Neighbor

Wisdom of the Crowd: The Perfect Neighbor (85%)

Winner:

Best Documentary Short Film

All The Empty Rooms
Armed Only With A Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud
Children No More: "Were and are Gone"
The Devil is Busy
Perfectly a Strangeness

Wisdom of the Crowd: The Devil Is Busy (75%)

Winner:

Best Film Editing

F1
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners

Our Pick: One Battle After Another
Tracking shots, tracking shots, tracking shots. Need I say more?

Winner:

Best International Feature

The Secret Agent
It Was Just An Accident
Sentimental Value
Sirat
The Voice of Hind Rajab

Our Pick: Sentimental Value
Is it right that I'm making this pick having seen only one of the five nominees? No. Is it probably accurate because it was also nominated for Best Picture, Joachim Trier was nominated for Best Director, and every actor and actress was nominated in their category? Yes.

Winner:

Best Live Action Short Film

Butcher's Stain
A Friend of Dorothy
Jane Austen's Period Drama
The Singers
Two People Exchanging Saliva

Wisdom of the Crowd: The Singers (78%)
Fun Fact: I almost saw Jane Austen's Period Drama on at least two occasions last year, both at the Hamptons International Film Festival and New York Film Festival. I regret not seeing it.

Winner:

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Frankenstein
Kokuho
Sinners
The Smashing Machine
The Ugly Stepsister

Our Pick: Frankenstein
While he may have still been hot as the monster, Jacob Elordi's makeup was fantastic. Also they made Mia Goth look like two different people with the simple inclusion of eyebrows. Good for Shudder to get a nomination here through with The Ugly Stepsister.

Winner:

Best Original Score

Jerskin Fendrix (Bugonia)
Alexandre Desplat (Frankenstein)
Max Richter (Hamnet)
Jonny Greenwood (One Battle After Another)
Ludwig Goransson (Sinners)

Our Pick: Ludwig Goransson (Sinners)
Similar to Cinematography, I give this to whoever stands out to me at the end of the year. While Greenwood's score in One Battle After Another is great for the movie, Ludwig Goransson has a gift for composing memorable scores that exist above and beyond the movie they were made for.

Winner:

Best Original Song

Dear Me (Diane Warren: Relentless)
Golden (KPop Demon Hunters)
I Lied To You (Sinners)
Sweet Dreams Of Joy (Viva Verdi!)
Train Dreams (Train Dreams)

Our Pick: Golden (KPop Demon Hunters)
While it should not win, I don't see a viable path to victory for any of the other nominees. That's not to say I don't like Golden, I just don't like it as an "I want" song, especially when it does not come back at the end. Your Idol is easily the best song in the movie and can stand alongside Be Prepared and Hellfire among the best villain songs in an animated movie.

Winner:

Best Production Design

Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners

Our Pick: Frankenstein
Another limb to go out on but this movie looks and feels fantastic, even if at times it does not live up to the visual splendor of the set dressing and costumes.

Winner:

Best Sound

F1
Frankenstein
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sirat

Our Pick: F1
Joseph Kosinski knows how to shoot high-octane action in a way that makes the viewer feel like they are living the action. You feel like you're in the car with Brad Pitt in the same way you feel like you're in the cockpit with Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick.

Winner:

Best Visual Effects

Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
Jurassic World: Rebirth
The Lost Bus
Sinners

Our Pick: Avatar: Fire and Ash
Do I really need to explain? Do I need to waste my time writing it and insult your intelligence by assuming you need an explanation? Avatar is going to win.

Winner:

Best Adapted Screenplay

Bugonia
Frankenstein
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
Train Dreams

Our Pick: One Battle After Another
Not only does this year's Best Picture and Best Director races come down to One Battle After Another and Sinners, but this movie does something previously thought to be impossible; it successfully adapted a Pynchon novel for the screen (Inherent Vice is fine).

Winner:

Best Original Screenplay

Blue Moon
It Was Just An Accident
Marty Supreme
Sentimental Value
Sinners

Our Pick: Sinners
I said the race this year comes down to Sinners and One Battle After Another so Sinners will almost certainly win in this category. I will say, I was shocked that Blue Moon was not based on a play because it feels like it came out of an off-Broadway show.

Winner:

Best Picture

Bugonia
F1
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Train Dreams

Our Pick: Sinners
Sinners was the best movie of last year and we crowned it as such in January on Thirty Minute Reviews. It's rare that the best movie of the year can be so well situated to win Best Picture, but here we are. Plus, I'm sure Kevin Feige is going to feel like such an asshole for not offering Coogler Blade if this wins.

Winner: