Oscars 2026 preview: buzz, controversy, wins that will make history

This year’s Oscars might seem like a two-horse race — vampires versus retired revolutionaries — but regardless of whether any of the wins are locks, there’s still plenty to catch up on before Hollywood’s biggest night.

Here’s a rundown of the buzz surrounding the Conan O’Brien-hosted 98th Academy Awards on March 15. The cinematic ceremony will simultaneously air on ABC at 7 p.m. ET as it streams live on Hulu — a first for the crowning event of the annual awards season.

What’s the buzz?

There’s long been an apparent consensus between Oscar pundits and movie lovers alike — as well as many of the precursor awards shows — that Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” and Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” are the films to beat, for both Best Picture and Best Director, as well as several acting awards (both are nominated in all but Best Actress), and the newly minted Best Casting category.

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For reference, every one of the 13 categories in which “One Battle” is competing, “Sinners” is too — and then some — save for Screenplay, where the former is tapped for Best Adapted and the latter for Best Original.

While “One Battle” star Teyana Taylor won Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes — where the film also won Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy — “Sinners” star Wunmi Mosaku won Best Supporting Actress at the BAFTAs.

“Marty Supreme” star Timothée Chalamet was previously considered the Best Actor frontrunner. That speculation has fizzled, not least because of some controversy surrounding the film, as well as the warm reception to Wagner Moura in “The Secret Agent” and Michael B. Jordan in “Sinners,” with the former winning a Golden Globe and the latter an Actor Award.

Landmark wins

Best Picture nominee “Sinners” entered the race already a winner, as its 16 nominations — including Ryan Coogler for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, Michael B. Jordan for Best Actor, and Autumn Durald Arkapaw for Best Cinematography — make it the most-nominated film of all time. “All About Eve,” “Titanic” and “La La Land” previously shared the title for the most nominations with 14.

But “Sinners” isn’t the only film poised to both win big and break records on Oscars night — when there will also be a first-ever Best Casting award. Most categories feature nominees who, if they win a little gold man, will feature firsts and other historic moments.

Several of those potential milestones hail from the Best Director contenders. Coogler would be the first Black filmmaker ever to win the honor. Chloé Zhao, who previously won for directing “Nomadland” and is now nominated for helming “Hamnet,” would be the first woman to ever hold multiple Best Director wins. Danish-Norwegian Joachim Trier, nominated for “Sentimental Value,” would be the first Nordic director to win.

Other potential landmark wins include those of “Sinners” star and Best Supporting Actress nominee Wunmi Mosaku, who would be the first Nigerian to win an Oscar.

Should he win Best Supporting Actor, “Sentimental Value” star Stellan Skarsgård would be the first Swedish or Nordic male to win an acting Oscar.

A win for Best Supporting Actor by Delroy Lindo in “Sinners” would mark a first for a male actor who had not been nominated for the Actor Awards, BAFTAs, Critics’ Choice or Golden Globes precursors.

If Amy Madigan wins Best Supporting Actress for “Weapons,” the 40 years and one month between her first nomination — for 1985’s “Twice in a Lifetime” — and her first win would break the record currently held by Geraldine Page, at 32 years and one month.

Controversies

Scandal has infused less of this awards season than the 2025 one, during which multiple nominees landed in hot water for racism and AI.

The most widely reported of this year’s controversies has been that surrounding the BAFTAs late last month, when Tourette’s advocate John Davidson could be heard spouting multiple slurs, including the N-word, when Jordan and “Sinners” co-star Delroy Lindo were on stage, as well as when Wunmi Mosaku won for Best Supporting Actress. The BBC has since come under fire for not editing all of the epithets out of the broadcast.

Allegations resurfaced in late January that Josh Safdie — up for an Oscar for directing “Marty Supreme” — was well aware that he and brother Benny, his former directing collaborator, had cast a 17-year-old as a sex worker in 2017’s “Good Time.” During the movie’s filming, a nonprofessional actor recently released from prison reportedly exposed himself and “terrified” the girl. Benny only got wise to the alleged situation in 2022, causing him to cut ties with his brother.

Chalamet also earned himself some backlash this week when he declared that “no one cares” about opera or ballet.

The internet has even turned, in part, against “Hamnet” star Jessie Buckley, whose predicted Best Actress win would be a first for Irish actresses, in response to her “F— cats!” remarks and a story she shared about making her now-husband give up his cats in order to continue their romance.

Buckley this week tried to curry favor with the public by dubbing herself “a lover of cats,” which not everyone buys — and might not help if Academy Award voters at all factor in her polarizing new film, “The Bride!”