Alexandria, VA – The 98th Academy Awards will take place March 15, honoring the year’s best films and setting the stage for a competitive Best Picture race. Hosted by Conan O’Brien, who stars with Best Actress nominee Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, the Oscars’ ten 2026 Best Picture-nominated films present a divergent representation of filmmaking.
Following last year’s Oscar sweep by Sean Baker’s indie Anora, another wild ride currently dominates the awards roller coaster. With 13 Oscar nominations, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is driving hard and fast, much like Brad Pitt in Best Picture-nominated F-1, already winning over 35 top critics and guild awards.
Not to be knocked out, Sinners, produced, written, and directed by Ryan Coogler (of the Black Panther franchise), comes to the battle for Oscar with 16 nominations, breaking the all-time record held by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2017). The horror film with a bleeding heart has got a chance.
So far Sinners has won the Golden Globe Award for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement and the Award for Best Original Score by Ludwig Göransson. With sumptuous cinematography, the fantastical flick is a bold departure from the horror genre – a feast for the eyes and ears, as well as for scores of hangry vampires. Having already earned high praise by winning six critics’ awards, and named an AFI Movie of the Year, this blend of post-World War I period racial inequality set in the Jim Crow South by way of soul-seeking and -sucking blues-loving vampires has grossed over $369 worldwide…