Oscar Night Is Set
The Nominees, the Shortlists, the Buzz
As Oscar night approaches, the season’s two-part journey—from December’s shortlists to January’s nominations—reveals a race shaped by both spectacle and intimacy, industry momentum and quiet discovery. With casting recognized as an official category for the first time, record-setting contenders like Sinners, and a Best Picture lineup that spans auteur-driven dramas and large-scale studio productions, this year’s Academy Awards underscore how many paths lead to gold before the final envelopes are opened.
The red carpet will roll out at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood On Sunday, March 15th, and the 98th Academy Awards will do what they do best: turn a year of moviegoing into a single, glittering verdict.
But the Oscars rarely arrive all at once. They come in stages, like a story told in chapters, and this season’s plot has been written in two distinct acts: the Academy’s shortlists, released in December, and the nominations, announced Jan. 22. Together, they reveal not just what could win, but what nearly did not make it this far.
The Academy’s shortlists, announced in December, narrowed the field in 12 categories before final nominations were set. In practical terms, it was the industry’s first official signal that the race had moved from chatter to checklists, from “consider” to “contend.” And in at least one place, it doubled as a preview of the night’s most meaningful subplot: the arrival of casting as a newly honored craft.
Casting made its debut in the nominations as an official category, recognizing the people whose choices shape every performance we praise later. On the nominee list, “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme,” “One Battle after Another,” “The Secret Agent” and “Sinners” emerged as the first set of films whose ensembles were formally singled out by name. The December casting shortlist offered an even wider snapshot of the conversation, with heavyweight titles in the mix, including “Wicked: For Good” among those that advanced at that stage.
By nominations morning, the Best Picture lineup had locked into a slate of 10: “Bugonia,” “F1,” “Frankenstein,” “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme,” “One Battle after Another,” “The Secret Agent,” “Sentimental Value,” “Sinners” and “Train Dreams.” It is the kind of field that suggests a season split between spectacle and intimacy, studio muscle and auteur signatures, English language awards magnets and international titles that forced their way into the center of the frame.
If there is a single title that best captures the year’s momentum, it may be Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” which set a nominations record with 16 nods, according to Business Insider. The film landed in the top-tier race (including Best Picture) and across key crafts, positioning it as the rare contender that can win big even if it does not win everything.
Close behind, “One Battle after Another” arrived with the kind of broad support that can turn into a late-breaking surge: nominations included Best Picture, directing recognition for Paul Thomas Anderson, and an acting slot for Leonardo DiCaprio, among others. In a season where ballots can splinter, a film that performs well across branches often has the advantage of being everybody’s second favorite, which is another way of saying it can be everybody’s winner.
The acting races, meanwhile, read like a map of where the Academy’s attention settled. Timothée Chalamet (“Marty Supreme”), Michael B. Jordan (“Sinners”) and Wagner Moura (“The Secret Agent”) are among the Best Actor nominees, with Jessie Buckley (“Hamnet”) and Emma Stone (“Bugonia”) in the Best Actress mix.
If the Oscars are a referendum on what lingered longest after the credits, these categories suggest the lingering happened in both large-scale productions and quieter character studies.
The shortlists offer another kind of story: the one about the films that stayed alive deep into the process, even if their nominations ultimately landed elsewhere. In the December shortlist announcement, the Academy emphasized that preliminary voting determines a narrowed selection before nominees are chosen, with branch members leading in some categories and broader membership participating in others. It is one reason Oscar seasons can feel both democratic and mysterious: thousands of voters, different rules by category, and a viewing culture that can reward late discovery as much as early buzz.
This year’s awards calendar also comes with a clear reminder from the Academy: finals voting runs late February through early March. In other words, between now and Oscar night, campaigns will tighten, screenings will stack up, and narratives will sharpen into final arguments.
The show itself will be hosted by Conan O’Brien, and will be televised live on ABC and streamed live on Hulu, according to Oscars.com. And when the envelopes open, the winners will be presented as inevitable, even though the season’s paper trail says otherwise.
Because the real truth of the Oscars is not just who wins. It is how many different versions of “could have” existed first: the shortlists, the near-misses, the performances that hovered at the edge of the frame. By the time the lights hit the Dolby Theatre on March 15, the story will look clean. The road to get there never is.
Look out for these six movies to win gold this March: Hamnet, One battle after another, Marty supreme, Sentimental Value, Sinners, and The secret agent.
For more information, please visit: www.oscars.org
ABOUT THE TOP TEN NOMINATED MOVIES
Sinners — Studio: Proximity Media, released by Warner Bros. Pictures; Director: Ryan Coogler; Key actors: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Delroy Lindo; Synopsis: Set in 1932 Mississippi, twin brothers return home hoping for a fresh start and find a supernatural evil waiting for them; Runtime: 138 minutes.
One Battle After Another — Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures and Ghoulardi Film Company; Director: Paul Thomas Anderson; Key actors: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti; Synopsis: An ex-revolutionary is pulled back into conflict when a corrupt military figure resurfaces and puts him and his daughter in danger; Runtime: 162 minutes.
Marty Supreme — Studio: Central Pictures, distributed by A24; Director: Josh Safdie; Key actors: Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’zion, Fran Drescher; Synopsis: In a stylized 1950s sports saga, a driven young table tennis phenom chases greatness against the odds; Runtime: 150 minutes.
Sentimental Value — Studio: Mer Film and Eye Eye Pictures among an international producing slate; Director: Joachim Trier; Key actors: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Elle Fanning, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas; Synopsis: Two sisters reconnect with their estranged filmmaker father when a proposed comeback project reopens old wounds and reshapes their family balance; Runtime: 133 minutes.
Hamnet — Studio: Hera Pictures, Neal Street Productions and Amblin Entertainment among the producing companies, distributed by Focus Features in the United States; Director: Chloé Zhao; Key actors: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn; Synopsis: Shakespeare and his wife Agnes confront devastating loss after the death of their son, a grief that becomes the spark for enduring art; Runtime: 126 minutes.
The Secret Agent — Studio: CinemaScópio and MK Productions among the production companies; Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho; Key actors: Wagner Moura, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Gabriel Leone, Udo Kier; Synopsis: In Brazil, 1977, a man on the run returns to Recife during Carnival hoping to reunite with his son, only to find the city more dangerous than he imagined; Runtime: 161 minutes.
Bugonia — Studio: Element Pictures and Square Peg among the producing companies, distributed by Focus Features; Director: Yorgos Lanthimos; Key actors: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Alicia Silverstone; Synopsis: Two conspiracy fixated men abduct a powerful executive they believe is not human, turning paranoia into a darkly comic crisis; Runtime: 118 minutes.
F1 — Studio: Apple Studios, Plan B Entertainment and Jerry Bruckheimer Films among the producing companies; Director: Joseph Kosinski; Key actors: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem; Synopsis: A veteran driver comes out of retirement to help save an underdog Formula One team and mentor its rising talent; Runtime: 155 minutes.
Train Dreams — Studio: Black Bear and Kamala Films, distributed by Netflix; Director: Clint Bentley; Key actors: Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, William H. Macy, Kerry Condon; Synopsis: A quiet life unfolds across decades as a logger and railroad worker navigates love, loss and sweeping change in early 20th century America; Runtime: 102 minutes.
Frankenstein — Studio: Double Dare You, Demilo Films and Bluegrass 7, distributed by Netflix; Director: Guillermo del Toro; Key actors: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz; Synopsis: Victor Frankenstein’s ambition to create life births a tragic creature and sets creator and creation on a collision course; Runtime: 150 minutes.