Best Movies Last Year for Oscar 2026
Hollywood’s Grandest Night: The 2026 Oscar Winners
The 98th Academy Awards concluded with a spectacular celebration of cinema, honoring the finest storytelling, performances, and technical achievements of the past year. The ceremony saw a diverse array of films taking home the industry's most prestigious golden statuettes, with two major features leading the charge.
The Big Winners: "One Battle After Another" and "Sinners"
Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed epic, ***One Battle After Another***, emerged as the biggest victor of the night. The film secured the coveted **Best Picture** award and earned Anderson the Oscar for **Best Director**, alongside a win for **Best Adapted Screenplay**. The sweeping drama also picked up an acting win for Hollywood veteran **Sean Penn**, who took home the trophy for **Best Supporting Actor**.
Sharing the spotlight was Ryan Coogler’s intense feature, ***Sinners***. **Michael B. Jordan** delivered a powerhouse performance that earned him the Oscar for **Best Actor** in a Leading Role. Coogler himself was recognized with the award for **Best Original Screenplay**, highlighting the film's narrative depth and cultural resonance.
Stellar Acting and Category Highlights
In the highly competitive **Best Actress** category, **Jessie Buckley** claimed her first Academy Award for her deeply moving portrayal in the period drama *Hamnet*. Meanwhile, **Amy Madigan** took home the award for **Best Supporting Actress** for her exceptional work in the thriller *Weapons*, rounding out a night of unforgettable performances.
Beyond the major narrative categories, the Academy celebrated outstanding global and animated filmmaking:
* Best Animated Feature: *KPop Demon Hunters* captivated audiences and voters alike to win the top animated prize.
* Best International Feature: Norway’s *Sentimental Value* secured the honor for its brilliant cross-cultural storytelling.
* Best Documentary Feature: Mr. Nobody Against Putin* won for its gripping and timely real-world journalism.
The 2026 Oscars beautifully balanced honoring established industry titans with elevating fresh, innovative voices, making it a historic night that will shape the cinematic landscape for years to come.
Oscar nominations were finally announced after being postponed twice due to the severe fires in Los Angeles. At 5:30 this Thursday at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater, comedians Rachel Sennott and Bowen Young read out the names of the candidates for cinema's most famous statuette, albeit without the presence of the media. The films with the most nominations this year are Emily Perez (13 nominations), Wicked and The Brutalist (10 nominations each, followed by Conclave and Complete Unknown, Dune Part II with eight, six, five and The Substance with four). Jacques Audiard's drug-based musical fell short of the record of 14 films set by Titanic, La La Land and All About Eve, but came pretty close, equaling the record of 14 films set by Oppenheimer last year. This year, Spain and Latin America will once again be represented.
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The most anticipated nomination was Carla SofĆa GascĆ³n's Best Actress award for her role as Emilia PĆ©rez. GascĆ³n, who has an extensive career in Spanish and Mexican soap operas, is the second Spanish actress to be nominated for an Oscar after PenĆ©lope Cruz (both also from Alcobendas), and the fourth actor to be nominated, along with Javier Bardem and Antonio Banderas. She is also the first transgender person to be nominated for an acting award (Elliot Page was still Ellen Page when she was nominated for a Juno). GascĆ³n received the nomination at the airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil, while on her way to Uruguay to promote Emilia PĆ©rez. She could not contain her emotion and tears ran down her face. Brazil also received a lot of attention thanks to the film AquĆ EstĆ” directed by Walter Salles. The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, while Fernanda Torres was nominated for Best Actress, and was also in the Best Film category.
Pedro AlmodĆ³var was not nominated for The Next Room. The Alberto Iglesias Award was expected to receive its fifth nomination, but failed to do so, as did two previously nominated Spanish short fiction films. This year's Oscars seem more open and the pool of nominees is stronger than in previous years. Some films can win many awards with around ten nominations or even disappear with nothing. The reigning category is best film with Anora, The Society of Beasts, The Conclave, Emilia PĆ©rez, Dune: Episode II, The Substance, Completely Unknown, Evil, I'm Still Here and The Nickel Boys in contention.
The controversial Emilia Perez received more than 10 nominations, becoming the most nominated Spanish-language film in history and also the most nominated non-English-language film (2001's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon received 10 nominations and won 4; in 2019, Alfonso Cuaron has a good chance of winning his first American film, and Roma has a good chance of winning his first film in the category. In addition, Emily Perez and “Wicked” were nominated at the same time. This is the second time that two musicals have competed for Best Picture. It is also the first time in more than half a century that this has happened since “Oliver Twist” and “Angel Girl” in 1968.
But this year, there is one award that is particularly trendy and attracting a lot of attention: Best Actress. There, Gascon will meet Demi Moore, who stars in Substance and is a favorite for her first career nomination after winning a Golden Globe for best actress in a musical comedy. She is also up against Midge Madison for Anora, which won at Cannes, Cynthia Erivo is nominated for Wicked (she is the second black woman to receive multiple nominations after Viola Davis) and Torres is nominated for I'm Still Here, which unexpectedly won a Golden Globe for best actress in a drama series.
The Brazilian actress follows in the footsteps of her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, a great woman of Brazilian show business, who was nominated in 1999 for her performance in Brazil's Central Station, since then no one has managed to be nominated as the country's acting president. Nicole Kidman in "Baby Girl," Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas, Pamela Anderson in "The Last Ranger" and Kate Winslet in "Bruce Lee" were not selected. Zoe Saldana seems to lead the Best Supporting Actress category, but Emily Perez is gaining momentum. She's competing with veteran newcomer Isabella Rossellini, who only has seven minutes of screen time as the cunning nun Agnes in "The Conclave," actress and singer Ariana Grande as the witch Glinda in "Wicked," and Monica Barbaro, who made her acting debut as Joan Baez in "A Complete Unknown," "selfless." In this case, Demi Moore's "The Substance" B-band singer Margaret Qualley was left out.
As for the leads, Adrien Brody, nominated for "Beasts" (his second nomination and possibly his second win since 2003's "The Pianist"), and TimothƩe Chalamet, nominated for "Nobody," who plays Bob Dylan in "Nobody," are both superior.
