Oscar 2026: The 98th Academy Awards
The 98th Academy Awards, held on Sunday, March 15, 2026, at the iconic Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles, delivered one of the most historically rich and genuinely surprising Oscar nights in recent memory. Hosted for the second consecutive year by comedian Conan O’Brien — whose return was a direct response to his widely praised performance at the 97th ceremony in 2025 — the evening unfolded before a global television audience tuning in live on ABC and streaming simultaneously on Hulu, with the broadcast reaching more than 200 territories worldwide. The big story going into the night was “Sinners,” Ryan Coogler’s audacious Depression-era vampire film starring Michael B. Jordan in a dual role, which had shattered the all-time nominations record with a staggering 16 nods — breaking the previous record of 14 nominations shared by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997) and La La Land (2016). But the night had different ideas about who would dominate.
By the time Sara Murphy and Paul Thomas Anderson walked to the stage to accept Best Picture for “One Battle After Another,” Anderson’s sprawling Depression-era ensemble drama had become the clear champion of the evening, amassing six Oscar wins from its 13 nominations. It was a career-defining sweep for Anderson, who claimed his first-ever Academy Awards after years of nominations without a single win — collecting Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (for Sean Penn), Best Film Editing, and the brand-new Best Achievement in Casting. The ceremony was equally notable for its historic firsts: the debut of Best Casting as the 24th competitive Oscar category — the first new category since Best Animated Feature was introduced in 2001 — and a rare tie in Best Live Action Short Film, only the seventh such tie in Oscar history. And then there was Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who became the first woman of color to win Best Cinematography for Sinners, in a night that will be studied for years to come.
Interesting Key Facts About the Oscar 2026 Winners Statistics
| Key Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Ceremony | 98th Academy Awards |
| Date | Sunday, March 15, 2026 |
| Venue | Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood, Los Angeles |
| Host | Conan O’Brien (2nd consecutive year) |
| Broadcast | Live on ABC; streaming on Hulu; 200+ territories worldwide |
| Most nominations | “Sinners” — 16 nominations (all-time Oscar record, breaking 14 by Titanic, La La Land, All About Eve) |
| Most wins | “One Battle After Another” — 6 wins |
| Best Picture winner | “One Battle After Another” (Paul Thomas Anderson) |
| Best Actor | Michael B. Jordan — Sinners (1st Oscar, 1st nomination) |
| Best Actress | Jessie Buckley — Hamnet (1st Oscar, 2nd nomination) |
| Best Supporting Actor | Sean Penn — One Battle After Another (accepted in absentia; Penn was reportedly in Ukraine) |
| Best Supporting Actress | Amy Madigan — Weapons (1st Oscar, 2nd nomination; 40 years between nominations) |
| Best Director | Paul Thomas Anderson — One Battle After Another (1st Oscar win) |
| New category debut | Best Achievement in Casting — 24th competitive category; first new category since 2001 |
| First-ever Casting winner | Cassandra Kulukundis — One Battle After Another |
| Historic tie | Best Live Action Short Film — “The Singers” & “Two People Exchanging Saliva” both won (only 7th tie in Oscar history) |
| Total films qualifying for awards | 317 feature films |
| Films eligible for Best Picture | 201 films |
| Best Cinematography historic win | Autumn Durald Arkapaw (Sinners) — first woman of color to win this category |
| First K-pop song to win Best Original Song | “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters |
| International Feature winner | “Sentimental Value” (Norway) — Norway’s first ever win in this category (7th nomination) |
| Warner Bros. total wins | 11 statuettes — most of any studio/distributor on the night |
| Netflix total wins | 5 wins (plus 1 for Live Action Short) |
Source: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (official 98th Academy Awards ceremony results, March 15, 2026); ABC News; NPR; Deadline; The Hollywood Reporter
These facts underline just how extraordinary the 2026 Oscar ceremony turned out to be. The record-smashing 16 nominations for “Sinners” — a film that most considered the frontrunner heading into the night — made the fact that it ultimately converted only 4 of those 16 into wins a fascinating and somewhat dramatic story in itself. For context, La La Land famously received 14 nominations in 2017 and won 6, while Titanic’s 14 nominations in 1998 yielded 11 wins. Sinners’ conversion rate of just 25% is historically low for a nomination leader, though the four wins it did claim — Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Score — were significant and prestigious. Meanwhile, “One Battle After Another’s” six wins from 13 nominations tells the story of a film that swept wherever it mattered most.
The debut of Best Achievement in Casting as the 24th competitive category was long overdue, according to many industry insiders. The Academy first announced the category in February 2024, and the decision to make it a full competitive award — rather than an honorary one — was a landmark recognition of the casting director’s indispensable role in filmmaking. Cassandra Kulukundis’s win for assembling the extraordinary ensemble of One Battle After Another — which included Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall, and newcomer Chase Infiniti — made her an instant footnote in Oscar history. The tie in Best Live Action Short Film between The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva was the seventh in the ceremony’s near-century of history, underscoring how rare and genuinely accidental these moments are.
Complete Oscar 2026 Winners by Category
| Category | Winner | Film |
|---|---|---|
| Best Picture | Sara Murphy, Paul Thomas Anderson (Producers) | One Battle After Another |
| Best Director | Paul Thomas Anderson | One Battle After Another |
| Best Actor in a Leading Role | Michael B. Jordan | Sinners |
| Best Actress in a Leading Role | Jessie Buckley | Hamnet |
| Best Supporting Actor | Sean Penn | One Battle After Another |
| Best Supporting Actress | Amy Madigan | Weapons |
| Best Original Screenplay | Ryan Coogler | Sinners |
| Best Adapted Screenplay | Paul Thomas Anderson | One Battle After Another |
| Best Animated Feature Film | — | KPop Demon Hunters |
| Best International Feature Film | — | Sentimental Value (Norway) |
| Best Documentary Feature Film | David Borenstein, Pavel Talankin, Helle Faber, Alžběta Karásková | Mr. Nobody Against Putin |
| Best Documentary Short Film | Joshua Steftel, Conall Jones | All the Empty Rooms |
| Best Live Action Short Film | TIE | The Singers AND Two People Exchanging Saliva |
| Best Animated Short Film | Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski | The Girl Who Cried Pearls |
| Best Original Score | Ludwig Göransson | Sinners |
| Best Original Song | “Golden” | KPop Demon Hunters |
| Best Sound | Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Juan Peralta, Garreth John, Al Nelson, Gary Rizzo | F1 |
| Best Production Design | Tamara Deverell (PD), Shane Vieau (Set Dec) | Frankenstein |
| Best Cinematography | Autumn Durald Arkapaw | Sinners |
| Best Makeup and Hairstyling | Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel, Cliona Furey | Frankenstein |
| Best Costume Design | Kate Hawley | Frankenstein |
| Best Film Editing | Andy Jurgensen | One Battle After Another |
| Best Visual Effects | Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, Daniel Barrett | Avatar: Fire and Ash |
| Best Achievement in Casting | Cassandra Kulukundis | One Battle After Another |
Source: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, official 98th Academy Awards results (March 15, 2026); Deadline; The Hollywood Reporter; ABC News
The breadth of the 2026 Oscar winners list is striking in how well the trophies spread across the year’s major films, even if One Battle After Another led the count. Paul Thomas Anderson became only the second person in Oscar history to win Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay at the same ceremony — a triple sweep that cements his place alongside the most decorated filmmakers in Hollywood history. His win for Best Adapted Screenplay was especially emotional, as Anderson had received 14 Oscar nominations across his career before finally taking one home. Michael B. Jordan’s Best Actor win for playing twins Smoke and Stack in Sinners — his first nomination and first win simultaneously — was one of the night’s most celebrated moments, and it makes him just the third actor in history to win Best Actor for playing dual roles in the same film.
Jessie Buckley’s Best Actress win for her role as Agnes Shakespeare in Hamnet — opposite a narrative exploring the grief of William Shakespeare’s wife — was Buckley’s second nomination and first win, and it came after months of awards season dominance that saw her collect virtually every precursor trophy on the circuit. Amy Madigan’s win for Best Supporting Actress for Weapons came with an extraordinary footnote: her first nomination was for Twice in a Lifetime at the 1985 Oscars, making her 40-year gap between nominations the longest such stretch for any acting winner in Oscar history. Ludwig Göransson’s Best Original Score win for Sinners was his second Oscar, adding to his 2019 win for Black Panther, while “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters made history as the first K-pop song to win Best Original Song.
Oscar 2026 Wins by Film
| Film | Nominations | Wins | Win Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| One Battle After Another | 13 | 6 | 46% |
| Sinners | 16 | 4 | 25% |
| Frankenstein | 9 | 3 | 33% |
| KPop Demon Hunters | — | 2 | — |
| Hamnet | 9 | 1 | 11% |
| F1 | — | 1 (Sound) | — |
| Avatar: Fire and Ash | — | 1 (VFX) | — |
| Weapons | — | 1 (Supp. Actress) | — |
| Mr. Nobody Against Putin | — | 1 (Doc Feature) | — |
| All the Empty Rooms | — | 1 (Doc Short) | — |
| The Girl Who Cried Pearls | — | 1 (Animated Short) | — |
| Sentimental Value | 9 | 1 (Int’l Feature) | 11% |
| The Singers | — | 1 (TIE — Live Action Short) | — |
| Two People Exchanging Saliva | — | 1 (TIE — Live Action Short) | — |
| Total awards distributed | — | 25 awards (26 statuettes due to tie) | — |
Source: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; Deadline Awards Tracker; Hollywood Reporter; oscarwinners.net (March 15, 2026)
The win-to-nomination conversion rates at the 2026 Oscars tell a story of two very different campaigns. “One Battle After Another” converted nearly half its nominations — a 46% strike rate that reflects the depth of support it had across the Academy’s broad membership. “Sinners” going 4-for-16 is the kind of result that will be analyzed for years: the film’s record 16 nominations are a testament to how widely loved the film was, particularly in technical and craft branches, but it found itself consistently losing the biggest prizes to Anderson’s film. “Frankenstein”, Guillermo del Toro’s gothic epic for Netflix, proved more efficient — its 3 wins from 9 nominations came entirely in the craft categories (Costume Design, Makeup & Hairstyling, and Production Design), building on del Toro’s reputation as a filmmaker whose visual world is consistently recognized by the Academy.
The total 25 awards distributed across 26 statuettes (with the tie creating an extra statue) reflects the breadth of cinema honored at this ceremony. Warner Bros. emerged as the night’s dominant studio force, collecting 11 trophies across One Battle After Another and Sinners — a remarkable haul for a single distribution partner. Netflix followed with 6 wins (5 competitive plus the Live Action Short tie win), led by Frankenstein’s craft sweep and KPop Demon Hunters’ two prizes. Apple Original Films’ F1 walked away with just Best Sound from multiple nominations — a film that many expected to dominate the technical categories but found itself outmuscled by Sinners in several key races.
Oscar 2026 Historic Firsts and Records
| Historic Achievement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Most nominations ever (single film) | “Sinners” — 16 nominations (breaks record of 14 held by All About Eve, Titanic, La La Land) |
| First woman of color to win Best Cinematography | Autumn Durald Arkapaw for Sinners |
| First-ever Best Casting Oscar winner | Cassandra Kulukundis for One Battle After Another |
| First K-pop song to win Best Original Song | “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters |
| 7th tie in Oscar history (Live Action Short) | The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva |
| Norway’s first ever Best International Feature win | Sentimental Value — Norway’s 7th nomination, 1st win |
| PTA’s first Oscar win after 14 career nominations | Paul Thomas Anderson finally wins after decades of near-misses |
| Longest gap between acting nominations — winner | Amy Madigan — 40 years between 1st (1985) and 2nd (2026) nominations |
| New 24th competitive category | Best Achievement in Casting — first new category since Best Animated Feature (2001) |
| Sean Penn absent from ceremony | Won Best Supporting Actor; Kieran Culkin accepted on his behalf; Penn reportedly in Ukraine |
| Total number of competitive Oscar categories in 2026 | 24 (up from 23) |
| 317 feature films qualified for awards consideration | Of those, 201 were eligible for Best Picture |
Source: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; NPR; The Hollywood Reporter; Variety; oscarwinners.net; Deadline (March 15, 2026)
The 2026 Oscars will go down as one of the most record-setting ceremonies in the award’s near-century of history. Sinners’ 16 nominations shattered a benchmark that had stood since 1950 — when All About Eve first set it — and was tied across three decades by two of the most celebrated films ever made. The fact that it arrived in 2026 via a Black filmmaker (Ryan Coogler) and a film rooted in Black Southern history made it culturally resonant beyond the numbers. Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s historic win for Best Cinematography — the first time a woman of color has claimed this prize in the category’s entire history — was arguably the most significant breakthrough of the night, coming in one of Hollywood’s historically least diverse departments. Her win, combined with Coogler’s Best Original Screenplay win, made Sinners a landmark chapter in the story of whose voices and visions the Academy chooses to celebrate.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s long road to a first Oscar is one of Hollywood’s most discussed narratives, and his triple sweep at the 2026 ceremony — collecting Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay in the same night — means he leaves the Dolby Theatre with three Oscars after arriving with none. The fact that Amy Madigan waited 40 years between Oscar nominations and then won on her second attempt is the kind of human drama that makes the ceremony compelling beyond the statistics. And Sean Penn’s absence from the night — reportedly in Ukraine while Kieran Culkin accepted his statue with a dry joke the audience clearly loved — added a layer of real-world gravity to an otherwise celebratory evening.
Oscar 2026 Best Picture Nominees — Full Stats
| Best Picture Nominee | Director | Studio/Distributor | Nominations | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One Battle After Another | Paul Thomas Anderson | Warner Bros. | 13 | WON — 6 Oscars |
| Sinners | Ryan Coogler | Warner Bros. | 16 | 4 wins |
| Frankenstein | Guillermo del Toro | Netflix | 9 | 3 wins |
| Hamnet | Chloé Zhao | Focus Features | 9 | 1 win (Actress) |
| Sentimental Value | Joachim Trier | Neon | 9 | 1 win (Int’l Feature) |
| Marty Supreme | Josh Safdie | A24 | 9 | 0 wins |
| F1 | Joseph Kosinski | Apple Original Films | — | 1 win (Sound) |
| Bugonia | Yorgos Lanthimos | Focus Features | — | 0 wins |
| The Secret Agent | — | Neon | — | 0 wins |
| Train Dreams | — | — | — | 0 wins |
Source: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; Deadline; The Hollywood Reporter; ABC News (March 15, 2026)
The Best Picture race at the 2026 Oscars was contested across the broadest and arguably most diverse field in years. 10 films competed for the top prize — the maximum allowed under current Academy rules — and the range of genre and geography was striking. From Ryan Coogler’s vampiric Southern Gothic (Sinners) to Guillermo del Toro’s sweeping monster epic (Frankenstein) to Joachim Trier’s intimate Norwegian family drama (Sentimental Value), the list reflected a genuinely global and genre-spanning moment in filmmaking. Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet” — an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s celebrated novel about Shakespeare’s family — earned 9 nominations and won Best Actress for Jessie Buckley, but fell short in the directing and picture categories despite Zhao’s widely praised work. Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme”, which earned 9 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Timothée Chalamet’s portrayal of a competitive ping-pong player, left completely empty-handed — one of the bigger upsets of the night.
“F1”, Apple’s big-budget racing blockbuster produced by and starring Brad Pitt, generated enormous box office returns in 2025 but converted just one nomination into a win, suggesting the Academy’s technical branches appreciated the film’s sound design while leaving its broader cinematic ambitions unrewarded. Yorgos Lanthimos’s “Bugonia” — starring Emma Stone in her second consecutive Best Actress nomination — went home without a trophy, though the nomination itself signaled the Academy’s continued embrace of Lanthimos’s idiosyncratic filmmaking style. The distribution landscape was itself a major storyline: Warner Bros. had two of the night’s biggest films (One Battle After Another and Sinners), and the $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. by Paramount Skydance — which was ongoing during the awards season — gave the night an undercurrent of corporate drama behind the creative celebrations.
Oscar 2026 Acting Winners — Full Statistics
| Category | Winner | Film | Character/Role | First Oscar? | Previous Nominations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best Actor | Michael B. Jordan | Sinners | Twins: Smoke & Stack | Yes — 1st win, 1st nomination | 0 prior nominations |
| Best Actress | Jessie Buckley | Hamnet | Agnes Shakespeare | Yes — 1st win | 1 prior nom (The Lost Daughter, 2022) |
| Best Supporting Actor | Sean Penn | One Battle After Another | — | No — 3rd Oscar | Multiple prior wins |
| Best Supporting Actress | Amy Madigan | Weapons | Aunt Gladys | Yes — 1st win | 1 prior nom (Twice in a Lifetime, 1985) |
| Best Director (acting-adjacent) | Paul Thomas Anderson | One Battle After Another | — | Yes — 1st win | 14 total career nominations prior |
Source: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; GMA Network; NPR; ABC News; The Hollywood Reporter (March 15, 2026)
The acting winners at the 2026 Oscars are a fascinating cross-section of career trajectories and long-overdue recognition. Michael B. Jordan’s win for Sinners was one of the most celebrated of the night — he plays twin brothers Smoke and Stack, using remarkable physical and emotional differentiation that the Academy clearly found irresistible. Jordan had never previously been nominated for an Oscar, making his win on his first nomination an achievement that places him alongside a select group of actors who converted their debut nominations into wins. Jessie Buckley had been nominated once before for The Lost Daughter in 2022 and lost to Jessica Chastain — her Hamnet campaign effectively ran the table on every precursor circuit and arrived at the Oscars as the heavy favorite for Best Actress, a rare position that she converted cleanly.
Sean Penn’s win as Best Supporting Actor for One Battle After Another — his third Oscar — came with the most memorable presentation moment of the night. Penn’s well-documented involvement in Ukraine meant he skipped the ceremony, and Kieran Culkin — last year’s winner in this same category — accepted with the remark that “Sean Penn couldn’t be here this evening, or didn’t want to,” which the audience greeted with knowing laughter. Amy Madigan’s 40-year gap between nominations is a genuinely extraordinary footnote: her first nomination for Twice in a Lifetime came at the 1985 ceremony, and she spent four decades working steadily without another nod, before Weapons finally brought her back to the stage. Opening the ceremony with the night’s first award going to Madigan — and watching her evident shock and joy — was the kind of human moment that defines why the Oscars, for all their complexity, remain a cultural institution.
Disclaimer: The data research report we present here is based on information found from various sources. We are not liable for any financial loss, errors, or damages of any kind that may result from the use of the information herein. We acknowledge that though we try to report accurately, we cannot verify the absolute facts of everything that has been represented.
