It’s been a competitive—and occasionally surprising—awards season, but the 2026 Academy Awards are, at last, nearly upon us. This morning, the Academy announced the nominees for this year’s ceremony, which will take place on Sunday, March 15, at the iconic Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Ryan Coogler’s beloved Sinners broke the record for the most-nominated film in history, with nods across 16 categories. Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another was close on its heels, snagging 13 nominations overall. And while a number of the names read aloud by presenters Danielle Brooks and Lewis Pullman came as no surprise—as expected, Timothée Chalamet claimed another Best Actor nomination, his third since 2017’s Call Me By Your Name—there were still a handful of surprises (and frustrating snubs) tucked amongst the picks. Let’s break them down.

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Surprise: Both Elle Fanning & Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas Earned Best Supporting Actress Nominations For Sentimental Value

It’s certainly not unheard of for the Academy to honour multiple supporting actors or actresses from the same film. But this year’s dual nominations for Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas’s roles in Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value did come as something of a shock: Several predictions analysts had pointed to Elle or Inga edging the other out of the competition. Both gave worthy performances in the gorgeous Norwegian family drama, but Elle’s character arc is of arguably less importance in Joachim and collaborator Eskil Vogt’s screenplay. Still, it’s a pleasure to see Elle honored—she’s a remarkable actress—even if it means another contender, such as Marty Supreme’s Odessa A’zion, missed out on the category.

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Snub: Chase Infiniti Loses Out On A Best Actress Nomination

This one really did have me reeling. Newcomer Chase Infiniti’s Hollywood rise in the wake of her celebrated performance in One Battle After Another has been one of this awards season’s most-beloved narratives. So it’s a major surprise to see her would-be slot in the Best Actress race filled by Song Sung Blue’s Kate Hudson instead. Your time will come, Chase!

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Surprise: Delroy Lindo Earns A Much-deserved Best Supporting Actor Nomination For Sinners

In the lead-up to this morning’s announcements, there was fretting amongst many a cinephile that Delroy Lindo’s fantastic turn as Delta Slim in Sinners might be overlooked in favor of another contender (Frankenstein’s Jacob Elordi, perhaps). As it turns out, we needn’t have worried: The Academy gave Delroy the recognition he deserves along with Jacob, while Hamnet’s Paul Mescal was edged out.

Snub: The Academy Fails To Recognize Paul Mescal’s Supporting Role In Hamnet

As much as I love Paul Mescal—and as much as I also relished his performance as William Shakespeare in Chloé Zhao’s heart-wrenching Hamnet—I think this snub was ultimately the right call. If the battle for the last slot in the Best Supporting Actor race did indeed come down to him or Lindo, I think the honour rightfully went to Lindo. Still, it’s disappointing to see Paul unrecognised, as it was no small feat for the actor to take a figure like the Bard and make him so intimately human.

Surprise: Kate Hudson Snags A Nomination For Best Actress

The Academy loves a biopic—especially when there’s music involved. Thus, perhaps, it shouldn’t come as any shock that voters showed out for Kate Hudson’s strong performance in the (crowd-pleasing, though generally less buzzed-about) Song Sung Blue. But the fact that Kate’s nomination came at the expense of Chase's…that’s a tough pill for One Battle fans to swallow.

Snub: Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande—And Wicked: For Good itself—Are Erased From The Competition

At last year’s event, Wicked was an Oscars success story, earning ten nominations across the board—including a coveted Best Picture slot. The same can’t be said for its less-acclaimed sequel, Wicked: For Good, which was shut out of the Oscars entirely. For Good did not earn a single nomination, not even for Best Original Song. (Stephen Schwartz’s newly penned songs “The Girl in the Bubble” and “No Place Like Home” were both eligible for the category.) That’s a heavy blow for the Jon M. Chu film.

Surprise: F1 Snags A Best Picture Slot

Good for Formula 1, I suppose, but seeing the Brad Pitt-led picture F1 in Best Picture contention this year, while less-glossy but more-prestigious projects like The Testament of Ann Lee, Nouvelle Vague, and the Spanish film Sirāt lost out on a shot at Oscar gold was a surprise. At the same time, Brad is no stranger to Academy applause; voters might have felt inclined to support a flick with his name front and center.

Overall, I walked away from the morning’s announcements pretty pleased with the list—and particularly thrilled to see Ryan’s Sinners shatter records as expected. Hollywood needs more bold, original, and unexpected films like Sinners, and if it takes the Academy showering movies like it with statuettes for studio executives to pay attention, then bring on the awards.

The article was first seen on ELLE US.