Oscar Nominations 2026: Sinners Dominates With a Record-Breaking 16 Nods and Hollywood Loses Its Mind

Hollywood woke up to chaos, celebration, and more than a few group chats exploding as the full Oscar nominations for 2026 dropped and one film immediately separated itself from the pack. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners didn’t just lead the nominations; it obliterated the competition with a record-breaking 16 nods, becoming the most-nominated film of the year and the clear main character of awards season.

With Conan O’Brien set to return as host on March 15, airing at 7 p.m. ET on ABC, the Academy has officially locked in a year defined by big swings, serious cinema, and one movie voters could not stop checking off their ballots for. Love it, side-eye it, or quietly Google the runtime, Sinners is everywhere.

Sinners Takes Over the Oscars Conversation

Landing nominations in nearly every major category, Sinners secured Best Picture, Best Director for Ryan Coogler, Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan, and multiple supporting, writing, and technical nominations. That kind of dominance doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when a film hits emotionally, visually, and thematically across the Academy’s many (many) voting branches.

The movie’s presence in acting, screenplay, and technical categories makes it the rare contender that appeals equally to performance lovers and craft obsessives. Whether it walks away with Best Picture or not, Sinners is positioned to rack up wins all night long, the kind of film that keeps returning to the stage while other nominees politely clap through gritted teeth.

Best Picture Lineup: Prestige, Pain, and Zero Chill

The Best Picture slate leans hard into weighty storytelling, with nominees including Hamnet, Frankenstein, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, and Train Dreams. It’s a lineup built for serious film conversations and dramatic acceptance speeches, not exactly a “throw it on while folding laundry” vibe.

Still, Sinners stands out for managing to be both technically impressive and emotionally combustible, a combination the Academy historically finds irresistible.

Acting and Directing Races Bring the Fire

Michael B. Jordan’s nomination feels less like a surprise and more like a correction, while Delroy Lindo and Wunmi Mosaku further cement Sinners as a full-ensemble flex. The directing category is stacked with auteurs, Chloé Zhao, Paul Thomas Anderson, Joachim Trier but Coogler’s inclusion underscores how deeply the film resonated.

This is one of those Oscar years where there are no easy wins, only passionate arguments.

Full Oscar Nominations 2026 (Complete List)

Below is a reader-friendly table breaking down every major nomination, so you can quickly see who’s competing and how often Sinners shows up (spoiler: a lot).

🏆 Full Oscar Nominations 2026

Category	Nominees
Best Picture	Bugonia; F1; Frankenstein; Hamnet; Marty Supreme; One Battle after Another; The Secret Agent; Sentimental Value; Sinners; Train Dreams
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)
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)
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)
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)
Directing	Chloé Zhao (Hamnet); Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme); Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle after Another); Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value); Ryan Coogler (Sinners)
Writing – Original Screenplay	Blue Moon (Robert Kaplow); It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi & collaborators); Marty Supreme (Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie); Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier & Eskil Vogt); Sinners (Ryan Coogler)
Writing – 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)
Cinematography	Frankenstein (Dan Laustsen); Marty Supreme (Darius Khondji); One Battle after Another (Michael Bauman); Sinners (Autumn Durald Arkapaw); Train Dreams (Adolpho Veloso)
Film Editing	F1 (Stephen Mirrione); Marty Supreme (Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie); One Battle after Another (Andy Jurgensen); Sentimental Value (Olivier Bugge Coutté); Sinners (Michael P. Shawver)
Production Design	Frankenstein (Tamara Deverell / Shane Vieau); Hamnet (Fiona Crombie / Alice Felton); Marty Supreme (Jack Fisk / Adam Willis); One Battle after Another (Florencia Martin / Anthony Carlino); Sinners (Hannah Beachler / Monique Champagne)
Costume Design	Avatar: Fire and Ash (Deborah L. Scott); Frankenstein (Kate Hawley); Hamnet (Malgosia Turzanska); Marty Supreme (Miyako Bellizzi); Sinners (Ruth E. Carter)
Makeup and Hairstyling	Frankenstein (Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel & Cliona Furey); Kokuho (Kyoko Toyokawa, Naomi Hibino & Tadashi Nishimatsu); Sinners (Ken Diaz, Mike Fontaine & Shunika Terry); The Smashing Machine (Kazu Hiro, Glen Griffin & Bjoern Rehbein); The Ugly Stepsister (Thomas Foldberg & Anne Cathrine Sauerberg)
Original Score	Bugonia (Jerskin Fendrix); Frankenstein (Alexandre Desplat); Hamnet (Max Richter); One Battle after Another (Jonny Greenwood); Sinners (Ludwig Goransson)
Original Song	“Dear Me” (Diane Warren: Relentless); “Golden” (KPop Demon Hunters); “I Lied To You” (Sinners); “Sweet Dreams of Joy” (Viva Verdi!); “Train Dreams” (Train Dreams)
Casting	Hamnet (Nina Gold); Marty Supreme (Jennifer Venditti); One Battle after Another (Cassandra Kulukundis); The Secret Agent (Gabriel Domingues); Sinners (Francine Maisler)
Sound	F1; Frankenstein; One Battle after Another; Sinners; Sirāt; Train Dreams
Visual Effects	Avatar: Fire and Ash; F1; Jurassic World Rebirth; The Lost Bus; Sinners
Animated Feature	Arco; Elio; KPop Demon Hunters; Little Amélie or the Character of Rain; Zootopia 2
Animated Short	Butterfly; Forevergreen; The Girl Who Cried Pearls; Retirement Plan; The Three Sisters
Live-Action Short	Butcher’s Stain; A Friend of Dorothy; Jane Austen’s Period Drama; The Singers; Two People Exchanging Saliva
Documentary Feature	The Alabama Solution; Come See Me in the Good Light; Cutting Through Rocks; Mr. Nobody Against Putin; The Perfect Neighbor
Documentary Short	All the Empty Rooms; Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud; Children No More: “Were and Are Gone”; The Devil Is Busy; Perfectly a Strangeness
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 2026 Oscar nominations highlight an Academy leaning into ambitious filmmaking while still rewarding emotional accessibility. Sinners didn’t just sneak into the conversation, it redefined it, proving that a bold, uncompromising film can dominate across categories without watering itself down.

As the ceremony approaches, the biggest mystery isn’t whether Sinners will win something. It’s how many acceptance speeches the cast and crew are already mentally rehearsing.

Awards season is officially on and Sinners is daring the rest of Hollywood to keep up.