Opinion Oscar nominations 2026: An awards race that transcends borders, both of geography and genre
An impressive mix of spectacles, intimate narratives and risky projects indicates a growing disinclination to play it safe and a greater recognition of boldness and imagination
The Oscar nominations across acting, writing, music and technical categories underscore what an exceptional year it has been for cinema (Representational image) The recently announced Oscar nominations reflect the dynamism, spectacle and vigour that defined global cinema in 2025. The Academy, evidently, is moving beyond Hollywood, ensuring greater international representation in multiple categories. It embraces a range of genres — the commercially successful Sinners which blends vampire horror with blues music; the poignant narratives of Hamnet and Train Dreams, imbued with loss and grief; the strained father-daughter relationship in Sentimental Value; and the audacious sports drama Marty Supreme centered on a morally ambiguous protagonist.
Notwithstanding some notable snubs, this year’s nominations suggest that the Academy is celebrating crowd-pleasers as well as works of auteurs. The Best Picture lineup is indicative of this shift. When Yorgos Lanthimos continued to push the envelope with Bugonia in which a conspiracy theorist kidnaps a CEO convinced that she is an alien, the Academy responded enthusiastically with four nominations; just last year, it overlooked the filmmaker’s previous collaboration with Emma Stone, Kinds of Kindness (2024). Stone, who shaved her head for this role, was rewarded with her seventh Oscar nomination. This makes her, at 37, the youngest woman to achieve this feat.
There was little doubt that Sinners, written and directed by Ryan Coogler, was going to be a top Oscar contender. Still, it came as a big surprise to many that the film scored a highest-ever nominations at 16 — breaking the record held by All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land which had bagged 14 nominations each. For those closely following the Oscars race, it would be fascinating to watch if Sinners is able to maintain its lead on March 15, when the winners are announced at Dolby Theatre.
Another frontrunner, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, earned 13 nods. Set in a dystopian landscape, the film blends parental anxieties with revolutionary fatigue, delivering a genre-defying work marked by strong performances, compelling writing, an impressive score and sweeping scale. It is expected to mount a formidable challenge, ensuring that the upcoming Oscars will be remembered as a closely fought contest — the kind that adds to Oscar lore.
After leading an aggressive campaign for the Josh Safdie-directed Marty Supreme, with the colour orange used as an attention-grabbing tool, Timothée Chalamet, at age 30, landed his third acting Oscar nomination. However, it will take some more weeks to know whether the actor’s recent wins at the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards will finally help him clinch the golden statuette, beating Michael B Jordan, Leonardo DiCaprio, Wagner Moura and Ethan Hawke.
When the slick sports drama F1 vroomed in to secure a place in the Best Picture category or Guillermo del Toro’s modern reimagining of the classic tale, Frankenstein, bagged nine after the lukewarm response it received initially, it showed that the voters fell for certain grandeur and scale. Even as these Hollywood titles enjoy strong industry and audience backing, there is obviously a growing recognition for international films such as Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent (Brazil) and Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value (Norway).
It’s incredible that Sentimental Value‘s four prominent actors — Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning — have received Oscar nominations. Filho has already collected Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes while The Secret Agent’s lead actor Wagner Moura won Best Actor in a Motion Picture-Drama. This might have strengthened their case, especially after Moura was lauded for giving a speech about passing on “values” to the next generation. Although the Neon-backed It Was Just An Accident, directed by Jafar Panahi, has been nominated for Best Foreign Language and Best Original Screenplay awards, its exclusion from the Best Director and Best Picture categories has caused some disappointment.
In spite of such misses, this year’s nominations show the Oscars are no longer trying to play it safe, pivoting towards a greater recognition of films that have dared to challenge and provoke and which, therefore, resonate with these times.
alaka.sahani@expressindia.com
Share
