The Snubs and Surprises of the 2026 Oscar Nominations

The 2026 Oscar nominations continued two recent Academy trends. The Best Picture heavyweights dominated the field like never before, as a whopping six different films scored eight-plus noms. And they were more international than ever before: Four foreign-language performances made it into the acting categories, a new record, and every single category included at least one international title. That made for a whole bunch of unexpected results — some welcome, some not. Gather up your pals for a juke-joint jamboree, then read on for a list of the biggest snubs and surprises of the 98th Oscars.

Sinners broke the nomination record.

The big question ahead of nomination morning was whether Sinners had a chance of breaking the record for most nominations for a single film: 14, jointly held by All About Eve, La La Land, and Titanic. That very thing did happen, and in the best way possible. Had Sinners come away with 15 nominations, its title might have carried an asterisk, given that the Academy added an extra category this year for Achievement in Casting. (Never mind that we’ve also seen two Sound categories whittled down to one recently.) But Sinners ended the morning with 16 nominations, which means that no one can question its dominance. That’s what happens when you’re a critically acclaimed crowd-pleaser that has blockbuster crafts as well as original songs — and if that sounds easy, well, there’s a reason nobody else pulled it off before Ryan Coogler, who earned his first-ever Best Director nom a few months shy of his 40th birthday.

Wicked: For Good was completely shut out.

After defying gravity the first time around with a whopping ten nominations, the Wicked sequel fell back to earth: For Good managed zero. Nada. Zilch. It missed in Costume Design and Production Design, the two categories Wicked won Oscars in last year. Despite Ariana Grande showing up in every precursor so far, it missed in Supporting Actress. It even missed in Original Song, losing its place to “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from Viva Verdi, a film that dozens of people have seen. After mixed reviews and a below-par box office, we knew For Good wouldn’t be as popular as the first part, but few expected how unpopular it would prove to be. No good deed (splitting one musical into two movies) goes unpunished, indeed.

Delroy Lindo got into Supporting Actor over Paul Mescal.

As I like to say, the Oscars are the Academy Awards, not a machine that tabulates guild results. So it went that, although Sinners’s Delroy Lindo had gone entirely unrecognized at the Critics Choice Awards, the Golden Globes, and SAG’s Actor Awards, he was still able to snag a spot in the Best Supporting Actor lineup. (In a weird quirk of the calendar, the BAFTAs this year aren’t releasing its nominations until next week, and there is a chance the London-born actor could get in there.) Perhaps we should have expected this, as Coogler’s films have previously earned acting nominations for veterans like Creed’s Sylvester Stallone and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s Angela Bassett. But few could have predicted the man he’d bump out: Hamnet’s Paul Mescal, who seemed to be riding safely on co-star Jessie Buckley’s coattails. Were voters confused about whether Mescal belonged in lead or supporting, was his downcast performance not enough of a stretch, or did they merely feel that the 29-year-old hadn’t quite paid enough dues to become a two-time Oscar nominee? Either way, it’s surely a sweet relief for Lindo, who has spoken of how much his Best Actor snub for Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods affected him.

Kate Hudson Sung her way into the Best Actress lineup.

The final spot in Best Actress was a showdown between newcomer and veteran. In one corner, One Battle After Another’s Chase Infiniti, giving a breakout performance in the ostensible Best Picture front-runner. In the other, Kate Hudson, looking to earn her first nomination in 25 years for playing one-half of a Neil Diamond tribute act in Song Sung Blue. Though Hudson got in at SAG and the Globes, some pundits (okay, me) wondered whether her film was potentially too basic for the tonier segments of the Academy. However, I’d heard from many people for whom Song Sung Blue was one of the season’s pleasant surprises, a true-story drama that was much better than they expected. That sense of discovery was enough to power Hudson into the Best Actress lineup over Infiniti, who didn’t have the industry track record, or the screen time, of her rivals.

F1 vroom-vroomed its way into the Best Picture lineup.

Many pundits chalked Hudson’s nomination up to the strength of the Academy’s “meat and potatoes” voters, middle-aged Hollywood veterans who live in the Valley and are named Carol and Mel. That may be so, and many are also crediting them for the success of F1, which raced into the final spot in the Best Picture lineup on the back of a strong showing in the craft categories. (Though considering how popular the sport of Formula 1 is around the globe, I suspect support from the international contingent helped give the film its winning edge.) Like Ford v Ferrari and Top Gun: Maverick, the two films it was most often compared to, F1 built a Best Picture bid without directing, writing, or acting nods — sometimes all you need are movie stars and things that go fast.

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From Palme d’Or to Palme d’On’t for Jafar Panahi.

While this was a remarkably international set of Oscar nominations, there were still painful reminders of the Academy’s enduring blind spots. Notably around Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, the Palme d’Or winner that at one point in time seemed due for Picture and Director nods as well as the trophy for Best International Film. After earning unanimous raves and dominating critics’ awards, Accident floundered once it came time for the industry to weigh in, quickly losing momentum to its Neon stablemates Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent. Ultimately, Panahi’s film was left out of the Picture and Director lineups, though it did make it into Original Screenplay. Chalk it up to Neon having its hands full with foreign-language contenders this year, or the fact that, while Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent star recognizable actors, Accident has a cast of unknowns. I’ve also heard that those who hadn’t seen Panahi’s film assumed it was far more depressing than it actually is. But it was also hard not to make the obvious assumption: For the directors branch, a European auteur like Sentimental Value’s Joachim Trier is “in the club” in a way Panahi is not.

Neon’s grand ambitions come up just short.

Panahi’s misses show the limits of Neon’s plan to dominate the international lane of the Oscars race, but in the grand scheme, the indie label’s strategy of picking up half the Cannes lineup did pay off. Sentimental Value earned eight nominations, including a double-dip in Supporting Actress. The Secret Agent got into Best Picture, a feat that was far from guaranteed a few months ago, and was the coolest surprise in the new Best Casting category. (Which one of them is the International front-runner remains to be seen, but I’d give the edge to Sentimental Value due to its Director and Screenplay noms.) Voters gave a Best Sound nod to Sirāt, a film that has barely been released in the U.S. However, even the biggest studios have trouble juggling five contenders, and, unfortunately, Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice was the odd one out: The South Korean satire blanked entirely, and its miss in International Film — Tunisia’s The Voice of Hind Rajab got in instead — killed Neon’s dreams of having a full house in that category.

Say a prayer for The Testament of Ann Lee.

This was in the cards once Mona Fastvold’s film failed to show up on any of the Oscar shortlists, but still, what a bummer that the Shaker musical was entirely shut out. It’s fair to side-eye the cold shoulder Ann Lee got from the Academy compared to The Brutalist, the previous collaboration from the same filmmakers. One is about a lone masculine genius; the other about a woman founding a religious community — the whole thing smacks of gender, you might say. But you can also blame critics’ groups, which never sprang for Amanda Seyfried’s go-for-broke performance the way they might have, or Searchlight, a studio with less experience shepherding unconventional contenders than A24, which released The Brutalist.

Avatar got a Costume nomination.

The award is called Best Costume Design, not Best Costumes, but still, we had to laugh about Avatar: Fire and Ash making it in there for outfits that do not physically exist, right? Joke’s on us — turns out every Avatar costume is made in real life before entering Pandora. You’d be forgiven for not knowing that, as neither of the other two Avatar films made it into Costume. But that’s the power of Varang.

Do we have a real race in Best Picture?

Sinners breaking the all-time record for Oscar nominations has opened up space to wonder whether it might have a chance of upsetting One Battle After Another in the Best Picture race. I’d have more faith in Sinners pulling it off had it been released by any other studio but Warner Bros. — the two campaigns are run by the same people, meaning that they are literally competing against themselves. Still, after assuming for months that OBAA was going to steamroll, I’ll welcome whatever suspense I can get. Bring on the race!

This week’s nominations also mean an end to our “Oscar Futures” section — no more ups and downs. But “Gold Rush” will keep arriving in your inboxes every week until the Oscars (and afterward), so keep reading for coverage of the season’s Oscar villains, the Academy’s new Casting category, and more. And if that doesn’t sate your appetite for awards coverage, keep up with our new Critical Darlings podcast as well as the Vulture Movies Fantasy League, both of which are running until the March 15 ceremony.