All The Snubs And The Biggest Records Of The 2026 Oscar Nominations

This year's record-breaking Oscar nominations are one for the history books.

The Oscar's return with record-breaking nominations and major snubs.

(Photo Courtesy: Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

In April last year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences introduced a new rule, stating that members must watch "all nominated films in each category to be eligible to vote in the final round for the Oscars," making the biggest shocker of this awards season the fact that they they weren't already doing that.

The Oscars announcements are always polarising, but nine months on, even the most curmudgeonly among us would have to admit that this year's set of nominees are one of the Academy's most promising yet.

'Best Picture' Nominees

Several themes recur across the 10 films nominated for Best Picture.

Ryan Coogler's period horror Sinners—last year's most celebrated movie—follows twins (double the Michael B Jordan) who return to their hometown for a fresh start, only for vampires to descend on the juke joint, just as intent on co-opting their art as they are on drinking their blood.

Ryan Coogler's Sinners now holds the record for the most Oscar-nominated film of all time.

(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)

Like it, Best Documentary Feature Film nominee The Perfect Neighbour also examines a predominantly Black community ripped apart by violence, unfolding like a horror movie constructed out of police bodycam footage. Its director, Indian-American Geeta Gandbhir, is a double nominee this year. Her film about reproductive health care—The Devil Is Busy—earned her a Best Documentary Short nod.

Past ghosts haunt Clint Bentley's elegiac period drama Train Dreams about a 20th century labourer (Joel Edgerton) who witnesses the death of a co-worker; and Paul Thomas Anderson's epic action thriller One Battle After Another, in which a washed-up revolutionary in hiding (Leonardo DiCaprio) must flee from a dangerous nemesis (Sean Penn) who's resurfaced 16 years after they last clashed.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars in Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another.

(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)

Likewise, Kleber Mendonça Filho's 1977-set thriller The Secret Agent follows a technology expert on the run from mercenary killers. Guillermo del Toro's gothic sci-fi drama, Frankenstein, on the other hand, deals with a mad-science reserruction. You know the story.

Joachim Trier's drama Sentimental Value and Chloé Zhao's tragedy Hamnet—which fictionalises the life of William Shakespeare, both feature fathers who process familial grief and loss by turning it into art.

Joseph Kosinski's sports drama F1 also nabbed a slot, appreciated by voters who the LA Times referred to as "steak eaters" or "men in the autumn of their years who appreciate a good Dad movie centred around old(ish) guys who most definitely know best."

Rounding off the 10 Best Picture nominees are Josh Safdie's drama Marty Supreme—the director's first solo directorial feature since 2008—and Yorgos Lanthimos' dark comedy Bugonia.

A Record-Setting Year 

Sinners racked up a record-breaking 16 nominations—the most ever received by a single film, beating the previous tally held by La La Land (2016), Titanic (1997), and All About Eve (1950).

That wasn't its only historic achievement: Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman of colour to be nominated for Best Cinematography, a well-deserved accolade.

Consider Sinners' show-stopping single-take centrepiece alone, in which the camera roves around a juke joint, as a guitarist's electrifying skills summon spirits from the past and future.

With a nomination for Best Actress, and a production credit for Bugonia—nominated for Best Picture—Emma Stone is a double nominee this year.

Emma Stone breaks records with her role in Yorgos Lanthimos' Bugonia.

(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)

At 37, she's now the youngest woman in Academy history to secure seven Oscar nominations, a record Meryl Streep previously snagged at age 38. With a Best Actor nomination for Marty Supreme, 30-year-old Timothée Chalamet is the youngest to earn three acting nominations since Marlon Brando in 1954.

Bugonia and Marty Supreme couldn't be more different—one is a comedy about a CEO kidnapped by conspiracy theorists convinced she's an alien; the other, a sports drama following a table tennis player's single-minded pursuit of greatness. But both these record-setting actors play wily shapeshifters adept at smooth-talking their way out of dire circumstances.

Timothée Chalamet stars as ambitious, hustling table tennis player Marty Mauser in Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme.

(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)

Four non-English language acting performances were nominated this year, setting another record.

Wagner Moura from the Brazillian thriller The Secret Agent got an Oscars nod, as did Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Renate Reinsve, and Stellan Skarsgård from Norwegian drama Sentimental Value (Skarsgård is the first-ever non-English-language performance ever nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category).

And The Snubs...

In his 34 years of directing, South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook has yet to receive a single Oscar nod, a disappointing tradition carried forward by No Other Choice being completely shut out of this year's nominations.

The unpredictable dark comedy about a desperate man who sets out to eliminate all other potential contenders for his dream job, makes for a perfect double-bill with last year's elegantly plotted Hedda, animated by the barely restrained tension between a scheming woman (Tessa Thompson) and her former lover (Nina Hoss), whom she must prevent from securing a university position that her husband is also vying for.

Nia DaCosta's Hedda, starring Tessa Thompson, was also snubbed, receiving no nominations.

(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)

Unlike her fellow Marvel Cinematic Universe alumni Coogler and Zhao, however, director Nia DaCosta had no luck at the Oscars this year. While The Bone Temple, her new instalment of the 28 Days Later apocalyptic horror series, opened to largely positive reviews this month, it's her visually playful, queer reworking of Henrik Ibsen's 19th century play Hedda Gabler that deserves more attention.

Similarly absent from the Oscar buzz is Wake Up Dead Man, writer-director Rian Johnson's mystery about a sleuth investigating a murder in a quiet church community, the most moving of his Knives Out series so far.

Twisty, meditative, deftly plotted and beautifully shot, the film's snub is a let-down, particularly since the franchise's first instalment was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, while the second secured a Best Adapted Screenplay nod.

Daniel Craig's return as Benoit Blanc in Knives Out: Wake Up Dead Man was surprisingly snubbed from any nominations this year.

(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)

Also surprising—though less so upon reflection—is the fantasy Wicked: For Good's complete Oscar shutout. Part one of the film, loosely based on the stage musical, netted 10 nominations (including Best Picture) in 2025, winning Best Costume Design and Best Production Design. This year's competitive tally of zero is a massive decline, but poor reviews and a box-office drop of more than $200 million in comparison to the first half couldn't have helped its prospects.

Sundance breakout Sorry, Baby, a warm, tender attempt to make sense of life in the aftermath of a sexual assault, received a shoutout from Julia Roberts at this year's Golden Globes ceremony—an endorsement many were hopeful would help first-time director Eva Victor (who also wrote and starred in the film) gather enough momentum to secure an Original Screenplay nomination. Victor may have lost out on the nomination, but has established herself as a major independent film talent to watch for. Heed Roberts' words and watch Sorry, Baby (available for rent on Prime Video).

(Gayle Sequeira is a film critic and reporter whose work has appeared in The Guardian, Sight and Sound, Vulture, GQ, and more.)