The nominations for the 98th Academy Awards are here, and we already have a broken record. Sinners led the pack with a historic 16 nominations and One Battle After Another followed with 13, while Wicked: For Good’s bubble burst with zero nods. So where does everything stand heading into March’s Oscar ceremony? Here are all of the winners and losers from Thursday’s nominations.
Winner: Sinners
After the Golden Globes, in which Sinners won for only Cinematic and Box Office Achievement and Best Original Score, it seemed like Ryan Coogler’s masterpiece had had the wind knocked out of its sails. But while Sinners might not be the Best Picture front-runner—that honor is still reserved for its Warner Bros. counterpart, One Battle After Another—there’s no denying that the film has sunk its teeth into the Academy. In all, Sinners scored a whopping 16 nominations, breaking the record for the most nominations in a single year, once held by All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land, with 14 apiece. (One small caveat: Sinners’ tally includes a new category—Achievement in Casting—but even if that were omitted, it still would’ve made history.) That historic number included some surprise noms, including nods for Wunmi Mosaku and Delroy Lindo for Best Supporting Actress and Actor, respectively. Regardless of how many Oscars Sinners ends up winning in March, it’s already cemented Coogler’s standing as one of the few filmmakers who can turn an original blockbuster into an awards juggernaut. We will watch your career with great interest.
Loser: Wicked Is Done—for Good
Last year, Wicked was one of the greatest success stories of awards season, winning two Oscars (Best Achievement in Production Design and Best Achievement in Costume Design) and earning 10 nominations, including Best Picture. Fast-forward to 2026, and its sequel, Wicked: For Good, has come up completely empty. It’s a shocking 180—even a resident Wicked hater like me would’ve assumed that its production and costume design would earn it another shout, some combination of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande would get recognized for their performances, or the land of Oz would be welcomed into the Best Original Song category. Alas, even Jurassic World Rebirth has more Oscar nominations than Wicked: For Good. If you ask me, no one should mourn the wicked—that’s what they get for turning a two-hour-and-45-minute Broadway show into two bloated blockbusters.
Winner, Unfortunately for the Haters: F1
While there were certain Best Picture locks—One Battle After Another, Sinners, Hamnet, Frankenstein—the rest of the 10-film field was up in the air. Could The Testament of Ann Lee or Sirāt sneak into the race? Would Avatar: Fire and Ash have to settle for some technical categories because it grossed a meager [checks notes] $1.3 billion (and counting) at the box office, a relative pittance for James Cameron? As it turns out, the biggest surprise in the Best Picture category was F1, the Apple Original Films blockbuster that’s Formula One propaganda by way of old-fashioned, craft-forward moviemaking. Even the industry’s biggest Oscar prognosticators aren’t thrilled about F1’s inclusion, but as someone who bows at the altar of Dad Cinema, I can’t be mad. If we can’t get Fire and Ash a Best Picture nod, the Academy might as well nominate another nine-figure spectacle that demands to be seen on an IMAX screen. It’s Ford v Ferrari all over again—and to my fellow Dad Cinema acolytes, that’s a good thing.
Loser: Paul Mescal and Attempting Category Fraud
With Timothée Chalamet, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Michael B. Jordan leading the way, the Best Actor in a Leading Role category is absolutely stacked this year. It’s hard to blame Paul Mescal, then, for opting out of the race altogether. Even though he was the clear colead of Hamnet, Mescal was submitted for Best Actor in a Supporting Role—a clear case of category fraud, of which the Oscars have a rich and controversial history. Thankfully, if you care about rewarding actual supporting roles, the Academy didn’t take the bait. Mescal missed out in favor of Benicio del Toro (One Battle After Another), Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein), Delroy Lindo (Sinners), Sean Penn (One Battle After Another), and Stellan Skarsgard (Sentimental Value). To be or not be a category fraud—that was the question, and the Academy answered it with a resounding no.
Winner: Neon’s Status as Hollywood’s Prestige Indie Studio
Excuse the most Ringer-coded metaphor of all time, but A24 and Neon are the Magic Johnson and Larry Bird of indie studios: two prestige juggernauts that have plenty of plaudits to their names. (Both studios have also won Best Picture twice: Moonlight and Everything Everywhere All at Once for A24, Parasite and Anora for Neon.) In 2026, however, the indie crown belongs to Neon. In the International Feature Film category alone, Neon is responsible for four of the five nominees: The Secret Agent, It Was Just an Accident, Sentimental Value, and Sirāt. (If No Other Choice had made the cut over The Voice of Hind Rajab, the studio would’ve dominated the category all on its own.) In the Best Picture race, Neon also edged out A24, with Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent crossing over into the category, while A24 will have to settle for a single slot for Marty Supreme. A24 might have mastered the art of convincing hipsters to buy its overpriced merch, but Neon is becoming the go-to studio for putting international cinema on the Academy's radar.
Loser: The Palme d’Or to Best Picture Pipeline
Speaking of Neon: When the studio acquired last year’s Palme d’Or winner, It Was Just an Accident, all signs pointed to Jafar Panahi’s film getting a Best Picture nomination, as Anora, Anatomy of a Fall, Triangle of Sadness, and Parasite had done in recent years. That Panahi has been sentenced in absentia to a year in prison in Iran—and continues making movies in secret—only seemed to bolster It Was Just an Accident’s odds. Unfortunately, a Best Picture nomination eluded Panahi, although he did earn another nomination for Best Original Screenplay. For now, at least, the Cannes to Best Picture pipeline has finally sprung a leak.
Winner: Timothée Chalamet’s and Leonardo DiCaprio's Best Picture Streaks
In the Best Actor category, it’s shaping up to be a two-horse race between DiCaprio (One Battle After Another) and his heir apparent, Chalamet (Marty Supreme). These two obviously got nominated because they're exceptional actors, but their inclusion in a movie has also proved to be a boost for its Best Picture chances. At just 30 years old, Chalamet has already appeared in eight Best Picture nominees, the same number as the likes of Daniel Day-Lewis, Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda, Harrison Ford, Meryl Streep, and Elizabeth Taylor. Pretty elite company, if you ask me. Leo, meanwhile, is up to 12 Best Picture nominees himself—which is tied for second of all time—and is so selective with his roles that anything he stars in draws plenty of intrigue. (My future Oscars wish is a Best Picture nomination for Heat 2, which Leo is confirmed to star in.) At this point, DiCaprio and Chalamet don’t chase Best Picture contenders—they define them.
Loser, Somehow: Daniel Lopatin
In recent years, Best Original Score has been the one category that reliably produces a boneheaded snub (see: Justin Hurwitz for First Man, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for Challengers). Unfortunately, this year, that honor belongs to Daniel Lopatin, whose electric score for Marty Supreme came up empty-handed. Lopatin, who also teamed up with Josh Safdie on Good Time and Uncut Gems, is an essential component of the filmmaker’s ability to make viewers deeply anxious but also completely engaged—to give Marty Supreme a Best Picture nomination without acknowledging the score is like celebrating a running back’s rushing totals without acknowledging the offensive line blocking for him. The Academy might not appreciate Lopatin’s score, but it’ll be a mainstay on my Spotify writing playlist for years to come.
Winner: The Diane Warren Best Original Song Nomination Experience
Give it up for Diane Warren. Before this year, the composer had already tied the record for the most Oscar nominations without a win at 16, alongside sound designer Greg P. Russell. But despite her status as an annual nominee, nobody would’ve blinked an eye if Warren had missed out on another Best Original Song nod this year, especially since KPop Demon Hunters, Wicked: For Good, Sinners, and Train Dreams had made the category extremely competitive. But Wicked’s loss is Warren’s gain: “Dear Me,” the song she created for her own documentary, Diane Warren: Relentless, sneaked into the race. And since KPop Demon Hunters’ “Golden” is a near lock to win, that means we’re one ceremony away from Warren becoming the losingest Oscar nominee in history. You hate to see it, but I have faith that, much like an Avenger, Warren will return.
