The 98th annual Oscar nominations were revealed Thursday morning in Los Angeles. As always, the lineup came with a few surprises — and a few broken records.
Here are some of the 2026 Oscar nominees’ biggest milestones:
Best Picture
- With 16 nominations, “Sinners” breaks the record for the most-nominated film of all time. And it would have broken the record even without the inclusion of a new Best Casting category. Three movies have gotten 14 nominations before: “All About Eve,” “La La Land” and “Titanic.”
- Steven Spielberg extends his record for the most-nominated producer with a Best Picture nod for “Hamnet.” Spielberg has 14 nominations in the category, while runner-up Scott Rudin trails with nine.
- Both Emma Stone (“Bugonia”) and Timothée Chalamet (“Marty Supreme”) scored Best Picture nominations as producers, in addition to their acting nominations. Only Frances McDormand (“Nomadland”) has won both in the same year.
- Dede Gardner (“F1”) has made history as the most nominated female producer, inching ahead of Kathleen Kennedy. Gardner earned her ninth nomination and won for “12 Years a Slave” and “Moonlight.”
- Josh Safdie received four nominations (Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and Editing), tying the record for most individual nominations for a single film in one year. Others who have accomplished the feat include Sean Baker, Alfonso Cuarón, Chloé Zhao and Warren Beatty.
Acting categories
- Wagner Moura, star of “The Secret Agent,” is the first Brazilian to be nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars. Moura’s nomination comes just a year after Fernanda Torres became the second-ever Brazilian actor to be nominated at the Academy Awards, following in the footsteps of her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, who was nominated for her leading role in “Central Station” in 1999.
- Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas are the first Norwegian performers to be nominated for acting in Norwegian. Norwegian actor Liv Ullmann was twice nominated for Best Actress (“The Emigrants” and “Face to Face”), though both performances were delivered in Swedish.
- Amy Madigan beats the record for longest gap among actresses between first and second nominations at the Oscars. Madigan, nominated Thursday for Best Supporting Actress in “Weapons,” was last nominated 40 years ago for her supporting role in “Twice in a Lifetime.” Helen Hayes held the record for her 39-year gap between first and second noms. (Judd Hirsh holds the record among male actors, with 42 years between his nods for “Ordinary People” and “The Fabelmans.”)
- Stellan Skarsgård is the first performer from an international film (that is, a film financed and produced outside of the U.S. and entirely or predominantly in a language other than English) nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Prior to this year, every other existing category had recognized an international feature.
- Michael B. Jordan‘s nomination marks the third time someone has gotten a Best Actor nomination for playing identical twins. Nicolas Cage (“Adaptation”) and Lee Marvin (“Cat Ballou”), who won in 1966, previously achieved this feat.
Best Cinematography
- “Sinners” DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw is the first woman of color to receive a nomination for Best Cinematography. Rachel Morrison (“Mudbound”) became the first woman to be nominated in the category in 2018 – thus making Best Cinematography the category (apart from gendered acting categories) that went the longest without recognizing a single woman. Two women were nominated between Morrison and Arkapaw (Ari Wegner, “The Power of the Dog,” and Mandy Walker, “Elvis”), but no woman has won the award to date.
Best Animated Feature
- Natalie Portman, a producer of “Arco,” is the first Oscar winning performer ever nominated in this category. Portman won Best Actress for 2008’s “Black Swan.”
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
- The nomination for Norwegian body-horror film “The Ugly Stepsister” marks the first Oscar recognition for the genre distributor Shudder.
Best Sound
- In an historic first, the sound team for “Sirāt” is comprised entirely of women: supervising sound editor Laia Casanovas, re-recording mixer Yasmina Praderas and production sound mixer Amanda Villavieja.
