Oscars 2026 Predictions In All 24 Categories: Nominees & Winners

Welcome to ScreenRant‘s hub for the Oscars 2026 and predictions in all the categories. While we’ve got individual prediction pieces for some of the biggest categories, there are 24 different awards that will be handed out at the 98th Academy Awards when they happen on March 15, 2026.

All the usual categories are back, but there is also a new one: Best Casting, which recognizes the casting director of the nominated film. While the Academy has confirmed that a Best Stunt category is coming, it won’t take effect until the 100th ceremony. This gives us 24 categories to sort through and predict this award season.

Key Oscars 2026 Dates:

• Oscars shortlists announcement: December 16, 2025
• Oscars nominations voting period: January 12-16, 2026
• Oscars nominations announcement: January 22, 2026
• Final voting period: February 26–March 5, 2026
• 98th Academy Awards: March 15, 2026

Leading up to the official Oscar nominations, here are my predictions for what movies will be nominated in each category, and what will be the victor. Keep checking back, as I will be updating this as the Oscars season continues to unfold.

Best Picture

The 10 nominees for Best Picture are still very much in flux, but a few titles are firmly positioned as contenders. Hamnet, One Battle After Another, Sinners, and Sentimental Value feel like the top four, with Marty Supreme rounding out the top five after the rave reaction from its New York Film Festival premiere.

Currently, Hamnet is my predicted winner in this category. One Battle After Another is neck and neck with Chloé Zhao’s movie, it seems, but there’s a lot of room for Sentimental Value, Marty Supreme, and others to make a run at winning depending on how various precursors play out.

ScreenRant‘s full analysis for the Best Picture category: Oscars 2026 Best Picture Predictions: Nominees & Winner

Best Director

Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

Best Director is another tight and highly competitive race early on. Paul Thomas Anderson, Chloé Zhao, and Ryan Coogler have been tipped as contenders for a while, and it would be a real surprise if any of them missed out on a nomination this year.

My prediction at the moment is for PTA to win the Best Director Oscar, which would be the first of his career. Whether he can hold onto that spot for the rest of the season or lose ground to a current predicted nominee, or even someone like Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme) remains to be seen.

ScreenRant‘s full analysis for the Best Director category: Oscars 2026 Best Director Predictions: Nominees & Winner

Best Actress

Competition is fierce for Best Actress, with two-time winner Emma Stone looming as a major contender. There’s a strong sense she’ll be nominated, even if Jessie Buckley appears to be the frontrunner to win at the moment.

Renate Reinsve could emerge as a bigger threat to win once more people see Sentimental Value, while Chase Infiniti and Kate Hudson campaigning in this category could also shake up the race in the months ahead.

ScreenRant‘s full analysis for the Best Actress category: Oscars 2026 Best Actress Predictions: Nominees & Winner

Best Actor

Best Actor looks to be a stacked category, featuring former winners, Hollywood rising stars, and more. Leonardo DiCaprio is viewed as a major contender to win his second Academy Award, while Dwayne Johnson hopes his dramatic breakthrough leads to awards recognition too.

Yet, Timothée Chalamet is the predicted winner currently. He’s earned career-best praise from Marty Surpeme‘s first reactions. After challenging Adrien Brody for the win last year with his A Complete Unknown performance, this could be the movie that makes him an Academy Award winner.

ScreenRant‘s full analysis for the Best Actor category: Oscars 2026 Best Actor Predictions: Nominees & Winner

Best Supporting Actress

Ariana Grande was a popular pick last year in the category after dazzling viewers with her performance as Glinda. Even though she lost to Zoe Saldaña, Grande is positioned as the frontrunner for a win in 2026 thanks to Wicked: For Good.

The question for her is whether she can stay in this spot or if Teyana Taylor or Regina Hall could jump ahead as One Battle After Another‘s position takes shape. There are other contenders who could also rise as the rest of the year plays out.

ScreenRant‘s full analysis for the Best Supporting Actress category: Oscars 2026 Best Supporting Actress Predictions: Nominees & Winner

Best Supporting Actor

Best Supporting Actor could be a wildly tight race that only really takes shape as precursors start. Previous winners and nominees are contending in this category, while performers like Adam Sandler hope to earn a career-first nomination.

Stellan Skarsgård also fits into that latter category, and he’s my pick to win right now. He turned heads with his performance in Sentimental Value, vaulting him into the award conversation. So long as the movie’s general reception is strong and he can hold off challengers like Sean Penn and Paul Mescal, he can win.

ScreenRant‘s full analysis for the Best Supporting Actor category: Oscars 2026 Best Supporting Actor Predictions: Nominees & Winner

Best Casting

In the debut of the Best Casting category, there are plenty of movies and their casting directors deserving to be among the first group of nominees. This is especially true of large ensemble films that nailed casting across the board.

I’m choosing Francine Maisler to win the category for Sinners. There’s not a bad selection in the ensemble cast. And while this award goes to the casting director, a win would be a great way to recognize the movie’s talented cast as a whole.

Best Original Screenplay

Original Screenplay has plenty of contenders, but Ryan Coogler’s script for Sinners appears to be in pole position. The brilliant writing, characterizations, and sharp dialogue have stuck with viewers, making this one way that the movie could became an Oscar winner.

Lurking in this race are the screenplays for Sentimental Value and Marty Supreme. Joachim Trier is a prior nominee for The Worst Person in the World, while Josh Safdie has earned acclaim elsewhere for prior works. Meanwhile, Baumbach has three screenplay nominations across both categories, making him a threat here once more.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Winning one of the screenplay categories is often a means to support a Best Picture win, as it’s happened 62 times previously. Adapted Screenplay accounts for 40 of those instances, and it could happen again this year with Hamnet and One Battle After Another vying to win.

If Hamnet is going to win Best Picture, an Adapted Screenplay win would be a crucial piece of support. You have to go back over 20 years to The Artist to find a movie that won Best Director and either screenplay category but lost Picture to a movie that didn’t win the other screenplay category.

Best Animated Feature

Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

This is one of the easiest categories to predict right now. The worldwide phenomenon of Netflix’s most-watched movie ever has vaulted KPop Demon Hunters to Oscar contender, even beyond the Best Animated Feature category.

This is certainly KPop Demon Hunters‘ category to lose. Disney will make a run to try and end its cold streak in a category it used to dominate with Zootopia 2, while international animated movies in Little Amélie or the Character of Rain and Arco hope to follow in Flow‘s footsteps.

Best International Feature Film

Best International Feature Film still has some time to take shape, but there are already several major contenders from various countries. At the top of the list is Norway’s submission, Sentimental Value, which is arguably the international film with the best chance to be in the Best Picture race.

Historically, an international movie also getting a Best Picture nomination leads to a win here. Emilia Pérez became the first international Best Picture nominee ever not to win Best International Feature, as fellow Picture nominee I’m Still Here won. While I’m predicting a Picture nominee for The Secret Agent too, Sentimental Value is in a better position.

Best Original Song

In the midst of Wicked‘s success last year, it seemed inevitable that Wicked: For Good would win Best Original Song at the Oscars 2026 thanks to its new ballads for Elphaba (“No Place Like Home”) and Glinda (“The Girl In The Bubble”). But now, that’s a lot less certain.

It’s hard not to pick “Golden” as the winner of this category right now. This could all change in a month once Wicked: For Good comes out and its original songs catch fire. But, KPop Demon Hunters has one of the songs of the year. While the franchise’s future could allow more chances in the future, there’s no guarantee anything else will hit as big as “Golden.”

Best Original Score

Composers have brought their A-game once again this year, positioning the Original Score category as a highly competitive one. One Battle After Another‘s piano-heavy score by Johnny Greenwood has caught on, while Ludwig Göransson’s work on Sinners remains memorable.

Göransson is already a multi-time Oscar winner in this category thanks to Black Panther and Oppenheimer, so he’s looking to win his third in as many nominations. That would further cement him as one of Hollywood’s greatest modern composers.

Best Sound

Great sound can really elevate a movie, as the sound design and mixing (which used to be two separate categories at the Oscars) shape how audiences experience what they’re hearing. There are terrific examples of this at work in 2025’s best movies, with One Battle After Another a premium example.

While I’m going with this movie to win, blockbusters like Wicked: For Good have a strong history in the category. The same is true for music biopics like Springsteen and racing movies like F1, with each having won in the last decade.

Best Visual Effects

If there’s a new Avatar movie out in theaters, odds are it will be an Oscar contender, especially in Best Visual Effects. James Cameron’s last two movies won the category with relative ease, and there shouldn’t be much that really challenges Avatar: Fire and Ash.

With the threequel adding new locations and characters, upping the scale, and doing more with fire, there are plenty of opportunities for Fire and Ash to impress visually. That makes this pick a confident one, even before anyone sees the movie.

Best Film Editing

Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

Film editing could come down to two of the year’s longest movies, as their pacing makes them fly by. This is certainly the case with One Battle After Another, which breezes through its 2-hour and 50-minute runtime. Reactions to Marty Supreme‘s two-and-a-half-hour story also praised how quickly it goes by, in a good way.

Other contenders in this category could come from various Best Picture nominees. The majority of Best Picture winners are nominated in this category, which is why Hamnet slides into this prediction. If it becomes a bigger powerhouse, then a win could come here too.

Best Cinematography

There are plenty of beautiful-looking films that have already come out, and many more are still to come based on reviews and trailers. Continuing its strong performance in below-the-line categories, Sinners is the presumed favorite here for now.

Autumn Durald Arkapaw winning this category would be a notable outcome. She’d become the fifth female cinematographer to get a nomination, but she’d be the first to win. Arkapaw has major competition to hold off if she’s going to make history.

Best Production Design

Wicked took home the win in Production Design last year, putting the sequel in a good spot to repeat. While many familiar locations are returning in Wicked: For Good, there are also new sets built and designed. These new elements, added to the great work done previously, should give it an edge.

If voters feel some fatigue with the world of Oz, Hamnet‘s 16th-century setting and Frankenstein‘s gothic horror appearance could emerge as bigger challengers. But, I’ll stick with Wicked: For Good as the winner for now.

Best Costume Design

Similarly, Wicked‘s win in Costume Design could carry over to more success for Wicked: For Good. Elphaba, Glinda, Fiyero, and others have new costumes, with the appearance of Dorothy, Scarecrow, and Tin Man also presenting new opportunities for the costume department to shine.

The fantastical, Ozian costumes of Wicked: For Good are unique among this year’s race. Any number of period-set films could emerge throughout award season, with Marty Supreme and Hedda among the other titles hoping for a nomination.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is a popular pick to win this category thanks to the work done to transform Jacob Elordi into the Monster. But, I’m going to continue the Wicked: For Good love here as well in this round of predictions.

The original Wicked was nominated for this award but lost to The Substance. With all the work done to turn Cynthia Erivo green and transform all the other cast members into their Ozian characters, the conclusion to this story could give this film the edge.

Best Documentary Feature

Best Documentary still has a lot to sort through, with the shortlist announcement in December providing a much clearer picture of this race. As of today, Geeta Gandbhir’s The Perfect Neighbor appears to be at the front of the pack after a Sundance premiere and acquisition by Netflix, where its already streaming.

Elsewhere, 2000 Meters to Andriivka lurks as a big contender. It comes from director Mstyslav Chernov, who previously won the category two years ago for 20 Days in Mariupol. Those are the two nominees I feel most confident in, as the rest could change dramatically in the months ahead.

Best Documentary Short Subject

Coming in December

Best Animated Short Film

Custom image by Debanjana Chowdhury

Coming in December

Best Live-Action Short Film

Custom image by Debanjana Chowdhury

Coming in December

8/10

Location

Los Angeles, CA

Dates

March 15, 2026

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