- The 98th Academy Awards ceremony takes place tonight, March 15, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, hosted by Conan O’Brien for the second year running and airing live on ABC and Hulu.
- Sinners leads the pack with a record-breaking 16 nominations, the most in Oscar history, with Michael B. Jordan receiving his first-ever nomination for playing twins in the horror film set in 1930s Mississippi.
- Jon M. Chu’s Wicked: For Good did not receive a single Oscar nomination despite the original film picking up 10 nods, making it one of the biggest snubs of the year. The Oscars are here. Tonight is the night. And whether you have watched every single nominated film or you are just now frantically googling what on earth Sinners is about, this is everything you need to know before the ceremony kicks off.
This year’s nominations are genuinely one of the most exciting and surprising line-ups in recent memory. A horror film breaking records. A Wicked sequel is getting completely shut out. First-time nominees are having full meltdowns on Instagram. It is a lot. Let’s break it down.
The Film That Is Rewriting Oscar History
The sixteen nominations received by Sinners are the most in Oscar history, surpassing the previous record of fourteen shared by All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land. Read that again. A horror film just knocked Titanic off its pedestal. Ryan Coogler did that.
The film also broke the record for the most Black individuals nominated for a single film, with numerous film critics and journalists praising the Academy for embracing Black cinema and the horror genre. This is not just an Oscars moment. This is a cultural moment.
One Battle After Another follows close behind with 13 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Teyana Taylor, and a nod in the Academy’s brand-new category, Best Casting. Yes, that is a real category now, and it is long overdue.
The Best Picture Race, Explained Simply
Ten films are competing for Best Picture tonight, including the emotionally devastating Hamnet and Train Dreams, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, sports dramas Marty Supreme and F1 The Movie, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, the critically acclaimed Brazilian entry The Secret Agent, the gothic Frankenstein, and the offbeat Bugonia. It is a genuinely diverse and unpredictable field, which makes tonight so much more fun.
On the acting side, it is stacked. Timothée Chalamet is nominated for Marty Supreme, Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another, Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon, Michael B. Jordan for Sinners, and Wagner Moura for The Secret Agent. Five extraordinary performances, and only one winner. Good luck picking one.
The Snubs, the Surprises, and the Instagram Breakdowns
Nobody is talking about the winners as much as they are talking about who got left out. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein earned nine Oscar nominations, but del Toro himself did not receive one for directing. Nine nominations. No directing nod. The internet was not okay about it.
And then there were the first-timers who genuinely could not believe it. Elle Fanning wrote on Instagram that she could not catch her breath and was in absolute shock, while Rose Byrne shared screenshots of herself reacting to the news on FaceTime with her husband, Bobby Cannavale—honestly, same energy.
Teyana Taylor, nominated for her supporting role in One Battle After Another, said she was humbled by the recognition, describing her career as filled with battles, doubts, and moments of deep uncertainty, calling the nomination a soft, beautiful yes from the universe.
Tonight is going to be something else. Clear your schedule.
