Final 2026 Oscar Predictions: Who Will Win Best Picture, Actor and Actress?

This year’s Oscar race has been wild. At the start of the season, I thought a lot of the winners were pretty much locked in. But after several award shows, surprise wins and some genuine shocks along the way, this race has become incredibly unpredictable.

Trying to figure out who’s actually going to win on the night has been stressful, to say the least.

With that said, here are my final predictions for the 2026 Academy Awards.

2026 Oscars Predictions

Category	Nominees	Final Prediction
Actor in a Leading Role	Timothée Chalamet — Marty Supreme Leonardo DiCaprio — One Battle After Another Ethan Hawke — Blue Moon Michael B. Jordan — Sinners Wagner Moura — The Secret Agent	Michael B. Jordan — Sinners
Actor in a Supporting Role	Benicio Del Toro — One Battle After Another Jacob Elordi — Frankenstein Delroy Lindo — Sinners Sean Penn — One Battle After Another Stellan Skarsgård — Sentimental Value	Delroy Lindo — Sinners
Actress in a Leading Role	Jessie Buckley — Hamnet Rose Byrne — If I Had Legs I'd Kick You Kate Hudson — Song Sung Blue Renate Reinsve — Sentimental Value Emma Stone — Bugonia	Jessie Buckley — Hamnet
Actress in a Supporting Role	Elle Fanning — Sentimental Value Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas — Sentimental Value Amy Madigan — Weapons Wunmi Mosaku — Sinners Teyana Taylor — One Battle After Another	Amy Madigan — Weapons
Animated Feature Film	Arco Elio KPop Demon Hunters Little Amélie or the Character of Rain Zootopia 2	KPop Demon Hunters
Animated Short Film	Butterfly Forevergreen The Girl Who Cried Pearls Retirement Plan The Three Sisters	The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Casting	Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another The Secret Agent Sinners	Sinners
Cinematography	Frankenstein Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sinners Train Dreams	Sinners
Costume Design	Avatar: Fire and Ash Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme Sinners	Frankenstein
Directing	Chloé Zhao — Hamnet Josh Safdie — Marty Supreme Paul Thomas Anderson — One Battle After Another Joachim Trier — Sentimental Value Ryan Coogler — Sinners	Paul Thomas Anderson — One Battle After Another
Documentary Feature Film	The Alabama Solution Come See Me in the Good Light Cutting Through Rocks Mr. Nobody Against Putin The Perfect Neighbor	Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Documentary Short Film	All the Empty Rooms Armed Only with a Camera Children No More The Devil Is Busy Perfectly a Strangeness	Perfectly a Strangeness
Film Editing	F1 Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sentimental Value Sinners	One Battle After Another
International Feature Film	Brazil — The Secret Agent France — It Was Just an Accident Norway — Sentimental Value Spain — Sirāt Tunisia — The Voice of Hind Rajab	The Secret Agent (Brazil)
Live Action Short Film	Butcher's Stain A Friend of Dorothy Jane Austen's Period Drama The Singers Two People Exchanging Saliva	Two People Exchanging Saliva
Makeup and Hairstyling	Frankenstein Kokuho Sinners The Smashing Machine The Ugly Stepsister	Frankenstein
Original Score	Bugonia — Jerskin Fendrix Frankenstein — Alexandre Desplat Hamnet — Max Richter One Battle After Another — Jonny Greenwood Sinners — Ludwig Göransson	Sinners — Ludwig Göransson
Original Song	“Dear Me” — Relentless “Golden” — KPop Demon Hunters “I Lied to You” — Sinners “Sweet Dreams of Joy” — Viva Verdi! “Train Dreams” — Train Dreams	“Golden” — KPop Demon Hunters
Best Picture	Bugonia F1 Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another The Secret Agent Sentimental Value Sinners Train Dreams	One Battle After Another
Production Design	Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sinners	Frankenstein
Sound	F1 Frankenstein One Battle After Another Sinners Sirāt	F1
Visual Effects	Avatar: Fire and Ash F1 Jurassic World Rebirth The Lost Bus Sinners	Avatar: Fire and Ash
Adapted Screenplay	Bugonia — Will Tracy Frankenstein — Guillermo del Toro Hamnet — Chloé Zhao & Maggie O'Farrell One Battle After Another — Paul Thomas Anderson Train Dreams — Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar	One Battle After Another
Original Screenplay	Blue Moon — Robert Kaplow It Was Just an Accident — Jafar Panahi Marty Supreme — Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie Sentimental Value — Eskil Vogt & Joachim Trier Sinners — Ryan Coogler	Sinners

I can definitely see Sinners sweeping several categories since it has the most nominations. However, the two winners I feel most confident about are Paul Thomas Anderson winning Best Director for One Battle After Another and Jessie Buckley winning Best Actress for Hamnet.

Those are my final predictions for the 2026 Academy Awards.

Let me know your predictions in the comments, and we’ll see how many of these actually come true on Sunday.

See you next time.