With the new year approaching comes many new exciting events, such as award season! The 98th Oscars award is coming upon us with the award show itself coming out March 15th, 2025. While the nominations have not come out, releasing in January of 2026, many magazines and websites like Variety magazine have already made their predictions on who they believe will be nominated. In this article, I will share my own predictions on the 2026 Oscar. The major categories are: Best Picture, Best actor, Best actress, Animated feature, Production design, Costume Design. In this article, I will list my predicted nominations and winners. Then I will explain my choices for each category.
Best Picture
The “Best Picture” category highlights the best of the best films of the years, creating unique stories that have captivated audiences around the world. Nominees include:
“Bugonia”
“Frankenstein”
“It Was Just an Accident”
“Marty Supreme”
“One Battle After Another”
“Sentimental Value”
“Sinners”
“Train Dreams”
“Wicked: For Good”
Winner: “Sinners.” Sinners has blended a unique story of rural western Jim Crow era with vampire horror into a captivating story.
Best Actor
The “Best Actor” category nominates the best male leads of the story, highlighting their overall acting abilities with the movies they star in. Nominees include:
Timothée Chalamet in “Marty Supreme”
Leonardo DiCaprio in “One Battle After Another”
Joel Edgerton in “Train Dreams”
Ethan Hawke in “Blue Moon”
Michael B. Jordan in “Sinners”
Winner: Timothée Chalamet. While Chalamet has had a controversial ruin this award season, Chalamet has had a stiller performance and has been a consistent performance in other roles of the last decade.
Best Actress
The “Best Actress” category nominates the best female leads of the story, highlighting their overall acting abilities with the movies they star in. Nominees Include:
Jessie Buckly in “Hamnet”
Cynthia Ervio in “Wicked: For Good”
Chase Infinitl in “One Battle After Another”
Renate Reinsve in “Sentimental Value”
Emma Stone in “Bugonia”
Winner: Cynthia Ervio. Ervio does a mystical job, taking on the role of Elphba, the wicked witch, taking on her own unique interpretation of the character. She created a vivid and personal experience while watching Wicked.
Animated Feature
The Best “Animated Feature” category nominates animated feature films that use the art of animation in order to tell stories. The nominees of this category include:
“Arco”
“Elio”
“KPop Demon Hunters”
“Little Amelie or the Character of Rain”
Zootopia 2”
Winner: KPop Demon Hunters. KPop Demon Hunters has captivated millions, with its non-stop action packed musical that blends both rich authentic culture with fantasy.
Production design
Films nominated for the “Production Design” category use set decoration and building in order to transport not just the characters, but the audience into vastly different worlds or time periods. These films excel in these having a clear understanding of the visual world the characters exist in. Nominees include:
“Frankenstin”
“Hamnet”
“Marty Supreme”
“Sinners”
“Wicked: For Good”
Winner: Frankenstein. Frankenstein does a masterful job at creating its gothic world. Using moody and goody set design as means to illustrate Guillermo Del Tiro’s twisted mind.
Costume Design
Films nominated for the “Costume Design” category use costuming to world-build and tell a story through the clothing. This categories nominees consist of:
“Frankenstin”
“Hamnet”
“Hedda”
“Sinners”
“Wicked: For Good”
Winner: “Wicked: For Good,” does a costume design like no other. Paul Tazewell’s, costume designer of both the equal and Wicked (2024), craft and love for costume design comes through in every micro detail on the characters outfits in the film.
While these are my own opinions, all of these movies are amazing and well deserving of winning awards in the categories they are nominated. No matter the results this award season, we are blessed as viewers to have the ability to view such high quality cinema.
