Oscar 2026 nominations: Timothee Chalamet and Leonardo DiCaprio to battle it out for biggest honor in film as full Academy Awards list is revealed

Timothee Chalamet and Leonardo DiCaprio will face off in coveted Best Actor category as the full list of nominations for the 2026 Oscars were announced on Thursday while Sinners earned the most Academy Awards nominations in history.

Chalamet, 30, received a nod for Marty Supreme while 51-year-old Dicaprio earned it for One Battle Another as the A-listers will face off against Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon, Michael B. Jordan, and Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent.

It was a record-breaking morning as Ryan Coogler’s Sinners made history as it earned most Academy Awards nominations ever with 16 including biggest prize of the night Best Picture. It had broken the record previously shared by 1950’s All About Eve, 1997’s Titanic and 2016’s La La Land.

The horror flick is one of the ten films up for the honor as the field is rounded out by: Bugonia, F1, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, and Train Dreams. 

Jessie Buckley will no doubt be the favorite in the Actress in a Leading Role category for her work in Hamnet as she will face a star-studded field including Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I would Kick You, Kate Hudson – Song Sung Blue, Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value, and Emma Stone – Bugonia. 

There was massive fan backlash as Ariana Grande was a massive snub in the Actress in a Supporting Role category for Wicked: For Good as she had been nominated the previous year for her work in the first Wicked film.

Perhaps even more shocking was Wicked: For Good was completely shut out of nominations including one for Grande’s co-star Cynthia Erivo, Best Picture, and nods for Best Original Song despite new songs written for the film including No Place Like Home sung by Erivo and The Girl In The Bubble sung by Grande.

Meanwhile, the nominees for Actress in a Supporting role included: Elle Fanning – Sentimental Value, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Amy Madigan – Weapons, Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners, and Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another.

In addition to Grande’s shock snub, Gwyneth Paltrow was also left off the list in the category for her work in Marty Supreme. 

When it came to Actor in a Supporting Role, the star-studded field includes: Benecio Del Toro – One Battle After Another, Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein, Delroy Lindo – Sinners, Sean Penn – One Battle After Another, and Stellan Skarsgard – Sentimental Value.

Paul Mescal for Hamnet, Adam Sandler for Jay Kelly, and Jesse Plemons for Bugonia are considered to be major snubs in this category.

The Best Director category is filled with some of the greatest filmmakers of the modern era as Chloé Zhao – Hamnet, Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme, Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another, Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value, and Ryan Coogler – Sinners, all were recognized.

There was a new award announced this year for Best Casting as the inaugural field includes: Nina Gold – Hamnet, Jennifer Venditti – Marty Supreme, Cassandra Kulukundis – One Battle After Another, Gabriel Domingues – The Secret Agent, and Francine Maisler – Sinners.

Best Animated Feature Film nods went to Arco, Elio, KPop Demon Hunters, Little Amelie Or the Character Of Rain, and Zootopia 2. 

Danielle Brooks and Lewis Pullman announced the nominees in all 24 categories, including the new casting award, as it could be viewed in a livestream from the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. 

The 98th annual Academy Awards will take place just under two months from now at its home The Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on March 15.

There are just over 11,000 members of the Academy with individuals split into 19 branches. 

Those branches are split between directors, writers, costume designers, hair and make-up teams, publicists, and the biggest one of all: actors.

Of those 11,000 members, just under 10,000 end up voting for the Academy Awards as members who don’t vote have emeritus status.

The Academy has massively increased its membership over the past 14 years as a Los Angeles Times report published in 2012 revealed the Academy had about 5,800 members at that time.

Nominees were chosen through a ranked-choice ballot, AKA a preferential ballot,  as each voter listed their nominees in order of preference. 

Then when the ballots are counted, nominees were selected based on the number of votes over a particular threshold as well as the number of overall nominees in that category. 

However, for those contenders that didn’t hit the required threshold, the ranked-choice balloting takes effect. 

At the biggest night in film, 24 categories will be awarded as each category features five nominees, except for Best Picture, which has ten. 

Best Picture nominations are determined by eligible members from all 19 Academy branches. 

All rounds of Oscars voting are conducted by secret online ballot, tabulated by the independent accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers 

Oscar viewers will be seeing a familiar face as Conan O’Brien will be returning to host a year after he helped last year’s ceremony draw the biggest audience in five years. 

The 98th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 15, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide.