A record-breaking year for Oscar nominations - five key takeawayspublished at 15:46 GMT 22 January

15:46 GMT 22 January

Steven McIntosh
Entertainment reporter

Image source, Getty Images

1) Some films were weaker than expected

Hamnet missed a predicted nomination for Paul Mescal, while One Battle After Another's breakout star Chase Infiniti was snubbed in the best actress category. But both picked up plenty of nods elsewhere, and are still in a strong position.

2) F1 is a comfort-food nomination

Brad Pitt's racing film scored its predicted technical nominations, but was the biggest surprise nominee in best picture. It shows the old guard of the Academy still appreciates traditional, well-made films that can simply be enjoyed with a bucket of popcorn.

3) The big winner is Sinners

With a record-breaking 16 nominations, the Academy clearly adored Ryan Coogler's vampire horror Sinners. It's done particularly well to maintain its momentum with voters despite being released last spring.

4) Leo is ready for battle

Although One Battle After Another scored fewer nominations than Sinners, it still had a very good day and is widely considered a best picture frontrunner.

5) Timothée Chalamet reigns supreme

The 30-year-old has previously spoken about his desire to eventually be considered "one of the Hollywood greats". He's a big step closer to that today with the likelihood that he will win his first Oscar, as the clear frontrunner in best actor for Marty Supreme.

We're now wrapping up our live coverage of the 2026 Oscar nominations. As a reminder, the Academy Awards ceremony will be held on 15 March. Thank you for joining us - we have more on this story across the BBC:

• Vampire film Sinners breaks Oscar nominations record
• Oscars 2026: Nominees list in full
• How to watch the Oscar-nominated films

Image source, Getty Images

In the build-up to this year's Oscar nominations, it seemed clear this would be a decidedly weaker year for British talent.

But, two British actors did make the cut.

Wunmi Mosaku

As we reported earlier, Wunmi Mosaku is nominated in the best supporting actress category for her role as Hoodoo priestess Annie in Sinners.

We have taken a look back at her journey to becoming an Oscar-nominated actress, after telling her mum and sister: "I don't want to do maths and economics, I think I want to act."

Image source, Getty Images

Delroy Lindo

Mosaku's castmate Lindo, who is from Lewisham in London, played blues musician Delta Slim in the record-breaking film Sinners.

Following a screening of Sinners earlier this month, Lindo's former classmate in the 1970s, Denzel Washington, led a standing ovation for Lindo's performance.

"Delroy Lindo has rewarded us with a brilliant performance, and I want to back up because the stage belongs to him," Washington told the crowd.

Best picture nominee The Secret Agent has been praised by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva following it's Oscar nominations.

"Being among the best in the world is already a victory for our culture, our talent and our capacity to tell stories that cross borders," he posts on Instagram.

On Wagner Moura, who is up for best actor for his role in the film, Lula says he has "plenty of talent" and that after already winning a Golden Globe he can "now win the Oscar".

Image source, Reuters

Regan Morris
Reporting from Los Angeles

As we've been reporting, Vampire horror Sinners has set a new record with 16 Oscar nominations. We've also taken a look at another record, and a first, for the 98th annual Oscars ceremony:

First new Oscar category in decades set to make ceremony even longer

The Oscars are often criticised for being too long – usually lasting somewhere between three and four hours.

And now they’ve added a category – “best Casting”.

It’s the first new Oscar category in decades – but it doesn’t sound like a crowd pleaser for audiences. How many casting directors can you name?

Casting directors are important and deserve to be recognised like everyone else. But this is likely to add even more time to the lengthy broadcast and the Oscars already struggle to keep viewers engaged.

A record four non-English language performances are nominated

Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Wagner Moura, Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgård are all nominated for acting awards.

The previous record of three was set in 1976 (Marie-Christine Barrault, Giancarlo Giannini and Liv Ullmann).

The Secret Agent and Sentimental Value are the 12th and 13th non-English language films to be nominated for both International Feature Film and Best Picture in the same year, according to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Parasite is the only film to win both International Feature Film and Best Picture.

Image source, Getty Images

Hollywood has revealed the nominations for this year's Oscars, which will honour the film industry's finest stars and movies from the past 12 months.

Sinners leads the way with a record 16 nominations, breaking the record for the most Oscar nominations, which was previously held by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997) and La La Land (2016).

One Battle After Another is next with 13 nominations, while Marty Supreme, Frankenstein and Sentimental Value are next with nine, and Hamnet has eight.

• You can catch up on all the nominations in our story

And here's a look at the most-nominated Oscar films in history - a record that Sinners has now broken:

Lauren Hirst
BBC North West

Image source, Warner Bros. Pictures

Wunmi Mosaku is one of the few Brits to receive an Oscar nomination this year.

She is nominated in the best supporting actress category for her role as Hoodoo priestess Annie in Sinners.

As a young child, Mosaku always had her sights set on a career in acting, inspired by her love of the 1980s musical Annie.

"I watched Annie every single day after school," said 39-year-old Mosaku during a recent interview on The Graham Norton Show.

"I said to my mum and sister 'I don't want to do maths and economics, I think I want to act'."

Mosaku decided to Google the cast of her favourite film in search of some much-needed insight into how to break into the acting industry.

One person stood out - Albert Finney, who grew up in Salford, not far away from where Mosaku lived in Manchester with her family.

"He went to Rada [Royal Academy of Dramatic Art]," she said. "That's the first time I ever heard of drama school, so I auditioned for Rada and got in. It changed my whole life. I will love that film forever."

• You can read more on Wunmi Mosaku in our story

Regan Morris
Reporting from Los Angeles

Warner Bros, the storied 102-year-old studio, leads the pack with 30 Oscar nominations.

Neon is in second place with 18 nominations. Netflix – which is on the verge of buying Warner Bros Discovery – is in third place with 16.

Warner Bros Studio co-chairs Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca will be credited with the success at Warner Bros. Many thought the duo would be fired a year ago. Now they’re celebrating 30 nominations for films like Sinners, One Battle After Another and Weapons – all original and eventually critically acclaimed - at a time when sequels and superheroes dominate the box office.

Steven McIntosh
Entertainment reporter

Image source, Getty Images

The first Wicked film received 10 Oscar nominations and went on to win two. So it's an extraordinary fall from grace for its sequel Wicked: For Good to get zero.

This was largely expected, however. The second film was far less well received than its predecessor - something it shares with the original musical.

The second act of the stage show is widely considered weaker than the first, partly because all the big hits appear before the interval.

But it was still thought that Wicked: For Good could get into some categories, such as a best original song nomination for The Girl in the Bubble, a track performed by Ariana Grande that was newly added for the film adaptation.

It's a slightly better picture for another blockbuster, Avatar: Fire and Ash, which at least managed a couple of technical nominations for visual effects and costume design.

Some of the most mainstream films can instead be found in the animated category. That's where we find the $1.7bn-grossing Zootopia 2 and viral streaming hit KPop Demon Hunters.

Steven McIntosh
Entertainment reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Best director was considered one of the most wobbly categories this year, with awards pundits struggling to agree on which five would make the final cut.

Various combinations were debated, but the final five were Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another), Ryan Coogler (Sinners), Chloé Zhao (Hamnet), Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme) and Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value).

One person who couldn't be squeezed in is Yorgos Lanthimos, despite his film Bugonia picking up several other big nominations including best picture and best actress for Emma Stone.

Even more surprisingly, Academy favourite Guillermo del Toro missed out for his new adaptation of Frankenstein. The Academy clearly liked it though, as it has nine other nominations.

Image source, Udo Salters/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

We've just heard from Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who is nominated in the Cinematography category for her work on Sinners.

When asked if she was expecting Sinners to receive a record-breaking number of nominations, she says "we did not, no".

"I'm very excited, I think everyone worked so hard on the film and we believed in it," she says.

She adds: "The people who made it really cared about it."

Steven McIntosh
Entertainment reporter

Image source, Getty Images

F1, which stars Brad Pitt as a racing driver who comes out of retirement, is perhaps the biggest surprise in best picture.

It certainly wasn't an outsider - many awards pundits expected it to pick up several below-the-line nominations for its incredible technical achievements (we highly recommend watching the film in a cinema or with surround sound if you can).

But the fact that it had enough momentum to propel it into best picture is quite something - especially without other major nominations in best director or the acting categories.

The remaining best picture nominees are much more as expected - Hamnet, Frankenstein, Sinners, Bugonia, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value and Train Dreams.

Perhaps the biggest miss is It Was Just An Accident, which won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival last year.

The last film to do that, Anora, went on to win best picture, but the Academy clearly weren't able to find room for Jafar Panahi's film to follow in its footsteps. It did get into the international category, however.

Katie Razzall
Culture editor

Full disclosure: I hate horror films. But I completely adored Sinners, which has now been recognised with a record-breaking 16 Oscar nominations.

It was the $100m-movie many predicted would be a disaster. Instead it became one of the highest-grossing original films in recent years.

It is to my mind the perfect blend of revenge thriller and sexy, decadent, musical journey through America's race issues, good against evil, the power of music - and redemption.

Who knew that combining vampires, KKK racists, ex-gangster twins (both played by Michael B Jordan), Mississippi delta folklore and blues history would pay off so spectacularly?

Clearly director Ryan Coogler (of Black Panther fame) did. Now he and his film are leading the pack.

Sinners has set a new Oscars record with 16 nominations out of the 24 categories, here they are:

• Actress in a supporting role
• Makeup and hairstyling
• Original score
• Original screenplay
• Actor in a supporting role
• Casting
• Costume design
• Original song
• Production design
• Film editing
• Sound
• Visual effects
• Cinematography
• Actor in a leading role
• Directing
• Best picture

One of Hamnet's executive producers Laurie Borg is giving his live reaction after the film just received eight nominations - so how's he feeling?

"Delighted," he says.

"I think when we made this little film we never thought we'd get what we've got today.

"It's rather been a marvellous five minutes."

He says he thinks Paul Mescal was fantastic in the film, and that it's a "shame" he wasn't nominated in the best supporting actor role.

Steven McIntosh
Entertainment reporter

Image source, Getty Images

All the nominees who have made it into best actress were considered strong contenders - but there is one big miss.

Jessie Buckley (Hamnet), Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I'd Kick You), Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value) and Emma Stone (Bugonia) have all made it in.

However, Chase Infiniti, the break-out star of One Battle After Another, has missed out despite being considered a red hot contender.

It's not as if the Academy didn't like it - four of her co-stars have been nominated in their respective acting categories.

Best actress was clearly just slightly too competitive for Chase. But at 25 years old and with rave reviews for her performance in One Battle, we're pretty sure we haven't heard the last of her.

Here are the films that made the cut:

• Bugonia
• F1
• Frankenstein
• Hamnet
• Marty Supreme
• One Battle After Another
• The Secret Agent
• Sentimental Value
• Sinners
• Train Dreams

The nominees are:

• Chloe Zhao, Hamnet
• Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
• Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
• Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
• Ryan Coogler, Sinners

Here are the nominees for actress in a leading role:

• Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
• Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
• Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue
• Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value
• Emma Stone, Bugonia

The nominations have now finished being announced. Stick with us as we bring you details of the last of the nominees for the top categories.

It's closely followed by One Battle After Another, with 13 nominations.

Marty Supreme, Frankenstein, Sentimental Value and Hamnet also pick up several nominations across the board.

Steven McIntosh
Entertainment reporter

Image source, Getty Images

The best actor category is heavy on big names this year, and went down more or less as expected.

Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme), Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another), Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon), Michael B Jordan (Sinners) and Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent) all made it in.

Those who had a good chance but missed out include Jesse Plemons for Bugonia and Joel Edgerton for Train Dreams.

But both of those films made it into best picture - so the Academy clearly liked the movies overall.