Ryan Coogler’s box-office-smashing vampire film “Sinners” broke yet another record Thursday when it landed 16 Oscar nominations — the most of any film in history, besting the 14-nod totals earned by 1950’s “All About Eve,” 1997’s “Titanic” and 2016’s “La La Land.”
The feat is especially remarkable given the perceived bias among awards bodies against horror and genre flicks. But the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences displayed a willingness to share the wealth this time around, doling out nominations to a wide array of films.
A few titles expected to dominate did exactly that: Paul Thomas Anderson’s action-packed thriller “One Battle After Another” trailed “Sinners” with 13 nominations; Josh Safdie’s table tennis caper “Marty Supreme,” Guillermo del Toro’s gothic fantasy “Frankenstein” and Joachim Trier’s family drama “Sentimental Value” each earned nine; and Chloé Zhao’s heart-wrenching adaptation of “Hamnet” landed eight. (It should be noted that “Sinners” and “One Battle” were both distributed by Warner Bros., a significant achievement for a studio on the brink of being acquired by Netflix.) Cast nominations boosted each total, as they triumphed over actors from movies such as “Wicked: For Good,” which was entirely snubbed.
Amy Madigan’s grassroots campaigning for “Weapons” paid off, as her supporting-actress nod joined a decent amount of recognition for smaller candidates. Tunisia’s “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” for instance, appeared in best international feature over South Korea’s “No Other Choice,” helmed by legendary director Park Chan-wook. The documentary category honored “Come See Me in the Good Light,” a film about the late poet Andrea Gibson, alongside more widely seen titles such as “The Perfect Neighbor” and “The Alabama Solution.”
While there are a number of front-runners in each race — best actress is probably between Golden Globe winners Jessie Buckley for “Hamnet” and Rose Byrne for “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” for instance — it feels like the other major races are anyone’s game. Will “Sinners” thrive at the March 15 ceremony, or might “One Battle” — which has won far more precursor awards for best picture — come for its crown? Will Coogler become the first Black filmmaker to win best director? Is “Marty Supreme” star Timothée Chalamet about to be one of the youngest best-actor winners of all time, or will “Blue Moon” lead Ethan Hawke swipe the honor?
Here are our thoughts on some of the biggest snubs and surprises among nominations for the 98th Academy Awards, which will be hosted by returning comedian Conan O’Brien.
SNUB
‘Wicked’ comes down to earth
The “Wicked” franchise seems to have worn out its welcome — or else the Academy just decided that the 10 nominations the Broadway musical adaptation got last year were plenty. “Wicked: For Good” emerged Thursday with a shocking zero (zip! zilch!) nominations.
Ariana Grande, considered a strong contender for best supporting actress for her emotional turn as Glinda when the movie released around Thanksgiving, didn’t make the cut. Nor did her co-star Cynthia Erivo in lead actress, or either of the movie’s original songs, “The Girl in the Bubble” and “No Place Like Home.” Those Stephen Schwartz tunes were bested by ever-reliable Diane Warren and two slightly out-of-left-field entries: “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from “Viva Verdi!,” a documentary about opera singers in Milan, and the title track from “Train Dreams” — a Nick Cave song, so maybe that’s not much of a surprise.
When “Wicked: For Good” got blanked for production design and costume design, the two awards it won in 2025, its chances started looking bleak. Did director Jon M. Chu and Universal Pictures make a mistake by breaking the film into two halves? From a box office perspective, no. But maybe it’s a sign that future Oscars aspirants should keep their movies to under five hours total. — Jada Yuan
SURPRISE
Kate Hudson breaks through
While Kate Hudson’s nomination for her role in “Song Sung Blue” isn’t unearned, it is a surprise that she landed a spot in the best-actress race over buzzier, more emotionally charged performances by Amanda Seyfried in “The Testament of Ann Lee” and Jennifer Lawrence in “Die My Love.”
In the musical biopic directed by Craig Brewer, Hudson plays a Wisconsin woman who joins her husband, portrayed by Hugh Jackman, in performing as the Neil Diamond tribute band Lightning & Thunder. The film works because of Hudson, who anchors every twist and turn in the narrative with nuanced emotion and heartfelt singing. (Her slightly husky voice is something to behold.)
But still, wow! The Academy has deemed this the moment to quit underestimating the former rom-com star. — Sonia Rao
SNUB
Category fraud (again)
Every year, actors commit what’s known as “category fraud,” also known as running in a supporting category even though you were clearly a co-lead (or vice versa). It helps avoid two actors from the same movie winding up in the same category and canceling out each other’s votes, or allows someone a leg up in what might be an easier category to win. The technique worked out great in 2025 for Kieran Culkin in “A Real Pain” and Zoe Saldaña in “Emilia Pérez,” both the juiciest parts of their respective movies, with ample screen time. But there seems to be a backlash.
Grande, who’s arguably the lead of “Wicked: For Good,” didn’t repeat her supporting-actress nomination. Paul Mescal got left out of the love for “Hamnet” in a crowded supporting-actor race. (Stellan Skarsgard is still favored to win best supporting actor, even though many have complained he’s the film’s male lead. He’s also 74, has never won an Oscar and is campaigning like crazy.) And Chase Infiniti, who was nominated for lead actress for “One Battle,” was the only one of the actors predicted to get nominated from that film to miss out. She had run in that category, rumor had it, largely so that Teyana Taylor (who got nominated) and Regina Hall (who didn’t) would have a chance in the supporting-actress race.
In the end, lead actress feels like all lead roles, and there’s not a whiff of fraud to be found in the supporting category, which includes the surprise nomination of Elle Fanning (who missed out last year for “A Complete Unknown”) alongside her Norwegian “Sentimental Value” co-star Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas. — J.Y.
SURPRISE
The rise of ‘Secret Agent’
It was a pleasantly shocking nomination in casting — the first new Oscars category in 25 years — that assured fans of “The Secret Agent” that the movie was going to do well. Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s political thriller, set in 1977, about a man trying to find connection and live while on the run from the country’s military dictatorship, has the most fantastic array of faces, including a knockout performance from Tânia Maria, a 79-year-old whom the New York Times credited with incredible “cigarette acting” and whose only other credit is another Mendonça Filho film.
The movie’s theme of a populace resisting authoritarians has resonated with Hollywood, which tends to lean liberal. Its star, Wagner Moura, is considered a strong contender for lead actor, even against a dominant Chalamet. And the film also picked up a best-picture nomination, which at least leaves it in a great position to win best international feature. — J.Y.
SURPRISE
Delroy Lindo gets his due
Delroy Lindo landed a nomination for best supporting actor, joining “Sinners” lead Michael B. Jordan and supporting actress Wunmi Mosaku in being recognized by the Academy. While a number of critics singled out Lindo for his dynamic performance as a hard-drinking harmonica player who helps fend off bloodthirsty White vampires in 1930s Mississippi, he hasn’t appeared in most precursor races. This well-deserved nomination is a pleasant surprise, especially arriving a handful of years after Lindo was widely considered to be snubbed for his acclaimed performance in the 2020 Spike Lee joint “Da 5 Bloods.” — S. R.
SNUB
No love for Park Chan-wook
What does a raging genius of a Korean film director need to do to be nominated around here? In “No Other Choice,” Park made a searing black comedy about unemployment — the laid-off protagonist, played by Lee Byung-hun, realizes that the only way he’ll get a job is to “eliminate” his competition — with universal relatability. He’s never been nominated despite being idolized by del Toro, Quentin Tarantino and Lee (who remade his movie “Oldboy”).
Fans of the movie had high hopes he might squeeze into best director, but the Academy passed Park over even for international feature, just as they did in 2022 with the Hitchcock-inspired “Decision to Leave” and 2016 for his lush period drama “The Handmaiden.” Is he too gleeful about violence? Too perverse? Park’s snub means that his distributor, Neon, won’t have a historic clean sweep of the five international slots.
In good news, Neon’s film “Sirat,” from French-Spanish director Oliver Laxe, about EDM ravers in the Moroccan desert at what may be the end of the world, seems to have strong support. (It also got nominated for best sound.)
And the one spoiler to Neon’s reign is “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” which uses real voice recordings of a 6-year-old Gazan child’s distress to an emergency center after Israeli forces killed her family members by furiously firing at their car — a film that’s perhaps too powerful to ignore. — J.Y.
SURPRISE
Tons of love for ‘F1’
A blind spot among Oscar pundits seems to have been the populist appeal of an exhilarating movie about the global phenomenon of Formula 1 car racing, starring Brad Pitt and readily available for streaming on Apple TV — which put its entire tech-infused marketing budget behind its only horse in this race. “F1” came away with four nominations, including best picture, which is something of a coup given that it was mainly seen as a contender for the below-the-line categories it easily qualified for: film editing, sound and visual effects.
Getting into the best-picture lineup seems to have come at the expense of Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident,” the director’s incredible Palme d’Or winner based on his time as a jailed political dissident in Iran’s infamous Evin Prison. Panahi’s film had been dismayingly losing steam with the industry, and he also missed out on best director, but the film’s nominations for original screenplay and international feature allowed its fans to take a small breath of relief. — J.Y.
SNUB
‘Sorry, Baby’ misses its moment
When Golden Globes presenter Julia Roberts received a standing ovation simply for being Julia Roberts, she used the moment to highlight a lesser-known filmmaker: Eva Victor, the writer-director and star of “Sorry, Baby.” Victor has earned a considerable amount of buzz for their comedic drama about recovering from trauma (which was inspired by their own sexual assault), including awards from the National Board of Review and nominations for the upcoming Film Independent Spirit Awards.
While the film was always a long shot in major categories, many hoped it would appear in the original screenplay category, which has traditionally been a place for indie screenwriters to shine. Alas, it did not. Onward. — S.R.
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