Sunday night marked the 98th Academy Awards, when the most acclaimed films and performers of the last year vied for Hollywood’s top honor.
Among the projects in contention? We had Ryan Coogler’s epic Sinners, which, with its 16 nods, broke an Oscars record previously shared by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2016), each of which received 14. There was Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, with nominations for Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Teyana Taylor, and Anderson himself, among others (it had 13 total). Frankenstein, Marty Supreme, and Sentimental Value were tied with nine, including a best-supporting-actor nod for Jacob Elordi, a best-actor look-in for Timothée Chalamet, and a first best-actress nomination for the luminous Renate Reinsve. And then there was Hamnet (eight), with its sensitive direction by Chloé Zhao—who this year became only the second woman (after Jane Campion) to be nominated for best director twice—and barnstorming lead performance from Jessie Buckley.
The final tally? Six wins for OBAA, four for Sinners, three for Frankenstein, and two for KPop Demon Hunters, with single awards doled out to the likes of Sentimental Value, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Hamnet, Weapons, and F1.
If, going into the night, one of two categories seemed fairly predictable—looking at you, Ms. Buckley—most of the rest felt thrillingly up in the air, from best picture (OBAA or Sinners?) to best actor (did Michael B. Jordan’s win at the Actor Awards signal a future upset over Chalamet? Apparently!). And, honestly, we wouldn’t have had things any other way.
Catch up on all the winners at the 2026 Oscars—hosted by Conan O’Brien at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles—right here.
