My Choices for The 2026 Oscars
Here are my personal choices for winners and nominations for this years Oscars
Another Oscar season has come and gone and One Battle After Another was named best picture of the year. I won’t lie to you, I wouldn’t be able to write a full article about my thoughts on this years Oscars because I have no real original takes when it comes to the night. I thought Conan O’Brien was a fantastic host and I agree with most everything that won (or at least was happy with the result). It was a solid year for film and The Oscars awarded the correct people. It was so nice to finally see Paul Thomas Anderson get his flowers.
With that being said, every year I keep up with a list with what I would nominate for the calendar year. I have some differentiations with The Academy on some categories so it’s time to discuss those today. I did this last year in video form, you can watch that here. I’m writing an article this year because, a lot of projects on the horizon. But here’s that video from last year if you were interested ——
Without any further ado, let’s talk about my personal nominations.
Best Original Song
‘As Alive As You Need Me To Be’ - Tron Ares
‘My Baby (Got Nothing At All)’ - The Materialists
‘I Lied To You’ - Sinners
‘Last Time (I Seen the Sun) - Sinners
‘Train Dreams’ - Train Dreams
My winner in this category would be I Lied To You. I thought the performance at The Oscars was absolutely incredible and I was hoping it would win against Golden from Kpop Demon Hunters, a movie and song I particularly don’t care for. However, I am happy for the artists involved and find their story to be impactful, so I’m not too upset by it overall.
Best Score
Bugonia
The Fantastic 4: First Steps
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
My winner in this category is the Marty Supreme score by Daniel Lopatin, which might very well be my favorite score of the decade so far. This being snubbed for even a nomination let alone a win in my opinion is one of the worst Oscar snubs in history. This beautiful etherial score made me feel like I was floating in the theatre. I am glad Sinners won overall, I love that score as well but I do with the Marty Supreme score had gotten more love.
Best Sound
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
The Testament of Ann Lee
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You was the most impressive sound work in a film last year, the sound acted as a character in the film and added so much to the films anxiety inducing nature.
Best Visual Effects
Avatar: Fire and Ash
The Fantastic 4: The First Steps
Frankenstein
How to Train Your Dragon
Sinners
A boring category. The Avatar movies always look amazing and they continue to. I feel bad for other visual effects artists going up against Avatar and Dune films ever year but they are just simply undeniable.
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
28 Years Later
Frankenstein
The Smashing Machine
Superman
Weapons
Jacob Elordi has spent over 400 hours getting makeup on to become Frankenstein’s monster, this obviously deserved to win and I’m glad it did.
Best Costume Design
Eternity
The Fantastic 4: The First Steps
Frankenstein
Sinners
Superman
Another obvious pick and deserved win for Frankenstein.
Best Production Design
Bugonia
Eternity
Frankenstein
The Fantastic 4: The First Steps
Sinners
Okay, time to make my case now, how on earth was Fantastic Four snubbed for so many technicals this year? I think usually Marvel movie visuals are kinda sluggish but this was one of the most technically well crafted looking blockbusters I’ve seen in a long time! The movie overall is pretty good, but there’s no denying the world building and production design was a whole other level.
Best Editing
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners
I’m so happy Sentimental Value got the nomination for editing this year at The Oscars and it would be my personal choice to win. While movies like One Battle After Another and Marty Supreme have flashier editing, the Sentimental Value editing was so inventive in the way it constructed the story overall and it reallt stayed with me.
Best Cinematography
Bugonia
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
Sinners
The Testament of Ann Lee
The cinematography in Sinners was absolutely fantastic. Every shot was so lush and articulately crafted. It’s a worthy winner of the award. This is why I wanted to shout out another movie that should have been nominated in this category, The Testament of Ann Lee. This movie was one of the most gorgeous movies I saw last year and while I didn’t love it wholly as a narrative, the technicals were astounding.
Best Animated Feature
Boys Go To Jupiter
The Day the Earth Blew Up
Dogman
Elio
Zootopia 2
Animated feature for me this year was lackluster. Like I stated before, I wasn’t huge on Kpop Demon Hunters. However, I really did love the micro-budgeted and under discussed film Boys Go To Jupiter, which was charming, poignant and so incredibly quirky. Seek it out!
Best International Film
It Was Just An Accident
No Other Choice
Nouvelle Vague
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
I discussed it briefly in editing, but Sentimental Value is a movie I adore and was one of my absolute favorites of the year so it would be my choice here.
Best Casting
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Superman
Marty Supreme had some of the most inspired casting choices of last year and it played on the meta nature of a lot of the talent very well (unfortunately that includes the insufferable Kevin O’Leary). Shoutout to Superman for having my favorite iteration of the character to date.
Adapted Screenplay
Bugonia
No Other Choice
One Battle After Another
Superman
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
I absolutely adore the screenplay to One Battle After Another and I am so glad Paul Thomas Anderson finally won his Oscar, it is a worthy win. Since both screenplays are so close in my head, I will give my personal prize to the one that wasn’t even nominated (in any category this year) No Other Choice. This film has one of the tightest scripts I’ve seen in a while that consistently kept me guessing and enthralled through the whole film.
Original Screenplay
Eddington
Marty Supreme
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Weapons
I have to go with Marty Supreme as my original screenplay winner, this movie was enthralling and consistently kept my attention for the whole runtime. It’s the fastest two and a half hour film I’ve ever seen and one that actually made me gasp multiple times when I watched it for the first time and that’s a rare thing for me to do with film these days.
Supporting Actor
Jacob Eldori - Frankenstein
Jacobi Jupe - Hamnet
Miles Caton - Sinners
Sean Penn - One Battle After Another
Stellan Skarsgard - Sentimental Value
As much as I love Stellan Skarsgard in Sentimental Value, I think overall my choice would have to be Jacob Eldordi for being able to portray an iconic character and bring new layers of humanity to it. The dedication that performance took proves that Elordi is on his way to becoming one of the best actors of his generation.
Supporting Actress
Amy Madigan - Weapons
Elle Fanning - Sentimental Value
Igna Ibsdotter Lilleaas - Sentimental Value
Odessa A’zion - Marty Supreme
Rachel Brosnahan - Superman
Igna Ibsdotter Lilleaas is one of the best supporting performances of the whole decade and while I love that Amy Madigan won for her chilling and iconic performance in Weapons, I do wish that Igna could have gotten more love this award season. I love that she was nominated for her quiet and emotionally devastating performance.
Best Actor
David Corenswet - Superman
Jesse Plemons - Bugonia
Lee Byung-hun - No Other Choice
Michael B. Jordan - Sinners
Timothee Chalamet - Marty Supreme
Look, I know the whole controversy around Timothee Chalamet and his marketing campaign for Marty Supreme, but I also won’t sit back and say that Marty Supreme isn’t his best performance of his career and the best leading male performance of the year. I think things were overblown about his controversy and one day we will look back and understand that he probably should have won for this. That doesn’t take away the fact that Michael B. Jordan is deserving of the win as well, playing the two main characters of quite possibly the biggest success story for film of 2025, Sinners, and I’m really happy that he won the award.
Best Actress
Chase Infiniti - One Battle After Another
Jennifer Lawrence - Die My Love
Jessie Buckley - Hamnet
Renate Reinsve - Sentimental Value
Rose Byrne - If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
This is probably the best best actress line up we have had in years. So many all timer performances here and Jessie Buckley was absolutely electric in Hamnet and was a worthy winner. However, Rose Byrne in my opinion gave one of the best performances I’ve ever seen if I Had Legs I’d Kick You, perfectly illustrating what it feels like to be in an anxiety spiral, it’s a performance that will never leave me.
Best Director
Joachim Trier - Sentimental Value
Josh Safide - Marty Supreme
Park Chan-wook - No Other Choice
Paul Thomas Anderson - One Battle After Another
Ryan Coogler - Sinners
All great filmmakers who did terrific work but overall I have to give my pick to Paul Thomas Anderson, he knocked it out of the park with One Battle After Another like he does with the rest of his films and he finally won his much deserved Oscar.
Best Picture
I did make a post of my favorite films of 2025 you can read here —
I did put in another movie in my number ten slot I believe was deserving, but the rest of the picks remain the same.
Bugonia
Eddington
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Superman
Sinners
Weapons
Yes, it’s the same choice I had in my article and I’ve given it praise throughout this post but I love Marty Supreme, it was a film that gave me everything I needed and reached out to me in a time I needed it to. It’s a profound statement on following your dreams but not letting them corrupt you. I wish it could have won at least one Oscar, but loosing everything it’s nominated for is very on brand for the film itself.
What are some of your picks? Comment down below!