Pod Insights Pop Culture Happy Hour 2026 Oscar Nominations About this episode This year’s Oscars nominations are here, and we’re unpacking record-breaking nominations for Sinners, plus nominations for One Battle After Another and Hamnet. And as always, there’s an eclectic mix of heavy favorites, left-field surprises, and the dreaded snubs. We give a broad sense of this year’s major storylines, while also lamenting a few decisions we found baffling.
By the way, you can check out our episodes on the nominees here:
Bugonia https://lnk.to/Ga3myq
F1 https://lnk.to/6aM0RU
Frankenstein https://lnk.to/RxrXrn
Hamnet https://lnk.to/1O2jS6
Marty Supreme https://lnk.to/5EQ9kX
One Battle After Another https://lnk.to/amFGxn
The Secret Agent https://lnk.to/37wSB1
Sentimental Value https://lnk.to/9iGlht
Sinners https://lnk.to/tra0wG
Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour https://plus.npr.org/happy
See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 This message comes from Capella University. That spark you feel? That's your drive for more. Capella University's FlexPath learning format lets you earn your degree at your pace without putting life on pause. Learn more at capella.edu.
0:19 Stephen Thompson? If you loved Sinners, Marty Supreme, or One Battle After Another, you're probably pleased with how nominations unfolded for this year's Oscars. Sinners alone picked up an all-time record 16 nominations, while One Battle After Another received 13. And as always, there's an eclectic mix of heavy favorites, left-field surprises, and the dreaded snubs. I'm Stephen Thompson, and today we are talking about this year's Oscar nominations on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour. Here with me are my co-hosts Aisha Harris. Hey, Ayesha.
0:53 Aisha Harris? Hello, Stephen.
0:54 Stephen Thompson? And Glen Weldon. Hey, Glenn.
0:56 Speaker 03 Kate Hudson. Hey, Stephen.
0:59 Stephen Thompson? So we are going to run down some of the major categories here. We can't get to every category, and we'll bring you our predictions in an episode that'll run closer to March's ceremony. But we wanted to give a broad sense of this year's major storylines while also lamenting a few decisions we found baffling. I'm going to start us off by running down the nominees for Best Picture. There are 10 in all. Begonia, Yorgos Lanthimos's movie where Emma Stone's high-powered CEO is kidnapped by conspiracy theorists and accused of being an alien. F1, Brad Pitt plays a veteran F1 driver who clashes with a young hotshot. Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro's take on the Mary Shelley classic.
1:42 Stephen Thompson? Jacob Elordi plays the creature, and Oscar Isaac is the scientist. Hamnet, a young English couple meets, falls in love, has children, and suffers an unspeakable tragedy. One of them happens to be William Shakespeare, who goes on to write Hamlet. Marty Supreme, Timothy Chalamet plays a working-class heel aiming to become a table tennis champion in the 1950s. One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson's action thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a washed-up actor. Revolutionary, whose past comes back to haunt him. The Secret Agent, a former researcher is caught up in the political turmoil of the Brazilian military dictatorship in nineteen seventy seven. Sentimental Value, Stellan Skarsgård is a filmmaker attempting to reconnect with his estranged daughters.
2:27 Stephen Thompson? And it proves that at the very least, the tension between art and parenthood is complicated. Sinners, Ryan Coogler's movie finds Michael B. Jordan playing twin brothers who open a nineteen thirties juke joint. An opening night does not go as planned when a bloodthirsty menace appears outside vampires. We're talking about vampires. And finally, Train Dreams, which follows the life of a logger and railroad worker in a rapidly changing America of the early twentieth century. You've got everything from F1 to Train Dreams.
2:58 Speaker 03 Yeah.
2:58 Stephen Thompson? Very fast to not as fast. What do y'all think?
3:02 Speaker 03 Well, let's get our wins in when we can, right? There's no bloated biopics this year that kind of soak up Oscars like a sponge. I mean, Marty Supreme doesn't count, but nobody put Gary Oldman under layers of jowls. So let's let's take that as a win.
3:14 Stephen Thompson? That is a win.
3:15 Speaker 03 And ever since the Oscars expanded the number of nominations for Best Picture, you've tended to see more genre fare, kind of elbowing its way into the mix. So this year you've got horror, you know, Sinners and Frankenstein. You got science fiction for begonia. F1 is a sports movie. And The Secret Agent is kind of a thriller. There's genre fair, genre adjacent. They're not melodrama. They're not biopic. They don't read as, you know, traditional Oscar bait. I think that's a hopeful sign.
3:39 Aisha Harris? Yeah. I mean, look, am I annoyed that I have to watch F1 now?
3:44 Speaker 03 Yes, yes.
3:45 Aisha Harris? Yes.
3:45 Speaker 03 I hear you.
3:47 Aisha Harris? But I'm also very pleased that I don't have to watch Avatar. So
3:53 Aisha Harris? you take your wins when you can get them, where you can get them, right? Yeah. I mean, I think what's interesting about this is that, you know, that widening of the Oscars umbrella now, which has been, you know, existed for a while. It's nice to see something like The Secret Agent, which is a Brazilian film in there. I would have loved to see No Other Choice.
4:11 Speaker 03 Sure.
4:12 Aisha Harris? The Park Chan Oog film, which I thought was fantastic. The Korean film that's really, really amazing, and I hope more people seek it out. But overall. Like Glenn said, nothing too surprising here, other than F1.
4:23 Speaker 03 Yeah, there were several international films in the mix for Best Picture this year. The ones that got in were Sentimental Value, which we'll talk about a lot more, and The Secret Agent. The ones that didn't make it into the major category, to the Best Picture category, were Serat and It Was Just an Accident. Both of those got international feature nods. So that's okay. But yeah, I agree. No other choice got shut out of both categories. That sucks.
4:41 Stephen Thompson? Yeah, and not a great year for your prestige franchise movies. Not only was Avatar almost entirely shut out, it kind of eked into technical stuff. Wicked for Good shut out completely. We'll get to Supporting Actress, but also not nominated for Best Original Song.
4:58 Aisha Harris? They were too greedy. They should have just made it one movie.
5:03 Aisha Harris? I will stand by that. I will die on that hill. They got too greedy.
5:07 Stephen Thompson? All right. Well, let's run through the nominees for Actress in a Leading Role, starting with Jessie Buckley for Hamnet. She plays a witchy young free spirit named Anas, who falls in love with William Shakespeare. Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You. Byrne plays a therapist shouldering all the responsibility of caring for her ill daughter while her emotionally absent husband is away for work. Kate Hudson for Song Sung Blue. Hudson plays a down-on-her-luck musician who teams up with Hugh Jackman to form a Neil Diamond tribute band. Renata Reinzwe for Sentimental Value. She plays a stage actress who reunites with her estranged father when he offers her the lead role in his next film.
5:48 Stephen Thompson? And Emma Stone for Begonia. Stone plays a high-powered CEO who is kidnapped by conspiracy theorists who think she's an alien. What do y'all think of this field?
5:57 Aisha Harris? I mean, Glenn already mentioned Kate Hudson. Look, I had seen her name starting to creep up in predictions, so I guess I wasn't totally blindsided by this. At the same time, her? And look, I'm gonna be fully honest, I have not watched this movie yet. So this is coming from a place of my own expectations or thoughts and whatever about what this movie is about and Kate Hudson herself. It was a long shot, but it felt like a missed opportunity for Tessa Thompson to get in here for Hada, Nia de Causse's Hada. It's one of my favorite movies of last year, and Look, I know it's really historically hard for a black woman not named Viola Davis to get nominated in this category. And as history has proven, it's even more hard, difficult for one to actually win because
6:42 Aisha Harris? Halle Berry means the only black woman to win this category. But I just, Kate Hudson, again, haven't seen it, but there are like four other names, including Tessa Thompson's, that I would have cycled in here before I would put her here. Glenn?
6:56 Speaker 03 Yeah, I mean Buckley and Byrne, certainly, and to a lesser extent Stone, were considered locks. I mean, Reinsper was more an outlier, but she made it in. Hudson, whatever. One of those folks nudged Chase Infinity, and Chase Infinity was in the mix in a big way.
7:12 Stephen Thompson? For one battle after another.
7:13 Speaker 03 For one battle after another. So she was knocked out of this category, but she's young, she's a star, she'll be back.
7:19 Aisha Harris? Yeah.
7:20 Stephen Thompson? Yeah, it's still unusual. I mean, one battle after another received 13 nominations, so it was a little bit of a surprise to see her nudged out here. There was also some discussion of Amanda Seyfried for The Testament of Ann Lee.
7:31 Aisha Harris? Right.
7:32 Stephen Thompson? She didn't get nominated either, and I think as we catch up with Song Sung Blue, maybe we'll be like, look, Kate Hudson, a revelation. I like Kate Hudson, she's fun and glass onion. But, you know, maybe we'll change our tune, but that felt surprising.
7:46 Aisha Harris? The other thing I will add is that I do think we've kind of hit a point now where Emma Stone can get nominated for basically doing anything. And this is not to take away from her performance in Begonha, which-
7:56 Speaker 03 Yeah, not fair, not fair.
7:58 Stephen Thompson? She's very good in this movie.
7:59 Aisha Harris? She's very, very good, but then, I mean, we'll talk about this category later, but like then Jesse Plemons, I think, is also equally very good, if not more dynamic, I think. He has more to do, at least, I think, than Emma Stone does in Begonha. So, I don't know, like, again, no shade to her, but I also think her name is just always a lock now, whether or not there are other performances that I think might have been better. And, you know, I think that's kind of the stage we're at now with someone like Emma Stone, so. That's all I'll say about that.
8:29 Stephen Thompson? All right, let's do actor in a leading role. I'm going to run down the nominees. Timothy Chalamet for Marty Supreme. He plays Marty Mauser, a scoundrel, a hustler, and an aspiring world champion in table tennis. Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another. DiCaprio plays a washed up ex-revolutionary whose past catches up with him. Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon. Hawke plays songwriter Lorenz Hart on the worst night of his life, the opening of Oklahoma on Broadway. Michael B. Jordan for Sinners. He plays the twins Smoke and Stack, who face off against vampires when they open a juke joint. And Wagner Mora for The Secret Agent. Mora plays a researcher who goes into hiding during
9:11 Stephen Thompson? Brazil's military dictatorship. How about this field?
9:15 Speaker 03 Well, at some point today, Chalamet is going to give an interview where he says, "Yeah, my agent called and woke me up and I was really..." Don't believe it. Don't believe it.
9:22 Stephen Thompson? He's probably already given that interview.
9:23 Speaker 03 Timmy was up. He had six empty Red Bulls on the coffee table in front of him. He was waiting for this. He and DiCaprio were the locks. Jordan, too. Jordan especially because he's playing two different roles and you forget it's the same actor. So the pleasant surprises for me were Wagner Mora, incredibly soulful performance that really brings that film together, and Ethan Hawke. I'm so glad that the voters saw Blue Moon and saw what we saw in it. We saw a tremendous performance by Ethan Hawke.
9:48 Aisha Harris? Yeah, I was so pleased to see Ethan Hawke here. That was one of my favorite performances of last year. And if you go back and re-watch the announcement of this category, the fan fare that explodes when Michael B. Jordan's name is called.
10:01 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah.
10:01 Aisha Harris? That was me on the inside, sitting by myself on my couch, watching it. I was like, yes.
10:06 Speaker 03 Sinners was a favorite in the room. Sinners was a big favorite.
10:09 Aisha Harris? It was obviously a favorite because, you know, it did have the most nominations. It broke the record for nominations. I am just very happy to see the kid who went from The Wire and Friday Night Lights to becoming the muse of Ryan Coogler. I am just so pleased to see that here. And Wagner Mora, too. Like, it's a nice mix, unsurprising mix, but also nice to see overall.
10:30 Stephen Thompson? Yeah. And when you look at the performances that weren't nominated, Joel Edgerton for Train Dreams is a very lauded performance. Jesse Plemons for Begonia. Aisha, you already mentioned. There were more kind of Oscar-level performances this year than there were slots.
10:44 Aisha Harris? I agree.
10:45 Speaker 03 Yep.
10:45 Stephen Thompson? Okay, we're going to talk about the supporting performances as well as best director, but first, let's take a quick break.
10:52 Speaker 04 Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors. Support for NPR and the following message come from Washington Wise. Washington Wise, from Charles Schwab, takes a nonpartisan look at policy developments and how they may affect the market and investing. Listen at schwab.com/WashingtonWise.
11:12 Speaker 00 This message comes from Capella University. That spark you feel? That's your drive for more. Capella University's FlexPath learning format lets you earn your degree at your pace without putting life on pause. Learn more at capella.edu.
11:27 Speaker 00 This message comes from AT&T. Right now at AT&T, you can get the new iPhone 18 Pro for $0 with eligible trade-in. It has the ultimate pro camera system and a big leap in battery life, so you can turn this deal into a long-lasting connection. Connecting changes everything. Requires trade-in of $230 or more and eligible plan. Terms and restrictions apply. Subject to change. Visit an AT&T store for details.
11:52 Stephen Thompson? Welcome back. Next up, we've got the category Actress in a Supporting Role. I'm going to run down the nominations. Elle Fanning for Sentimental Value. Fanning plays an American actress who is cast as the star of a Norwegian filmmaker's passion project. Inga Ibsdottir-Lilos for Sentimental Value. Lilos plays the estranged daughter of a Norwegian filmmaker. Amy Madigan for Weapons. Madigan plays Aunt Gladys, who plays a role in the disappearance of 17 children. Bunmi Musaku for Sinners. Musaku plays a hoodoo conjurer and healer who has a deep relationship with Michael B. Jordan's character, Smoke. And Tiana Taylor for One Battle After Another.
12:32 Stephen Thompson? Taylor plays an ex-revolutionary named Perfidia Beverly Hills, who goes into hiding. What do y'all think?
12:38 Aisha Harris? I mean, Tiana Taylor has had the Smoke, the Heat, all of that from...
12:45 Aisha Harris? Day one, more or less, I've said what I've said about what I think about that character. I don't think it's the performance, though. I think she's bringing as much as she can to a very underwritten character. So not at all surprised to see her here. And similarly, Wuni Misaku has had the same sort of heat. So I'm not surprised to see them here. I think, for me, the pleasant surprise was Elle Fanning. I know she was in the mix here, but I thought she was kind of a revelation for me in that movie. She's been very good in a lot of things, and this, for me, felt like a coming out for her in a big way. And so I was really happy to see Elle Fanning here.
13:20 Speaker 03 Yeah, I mean, Madigan, I love. I love that nomination. I love that performance. Misaku and Taylor, they were the ones that we considered locks. Taylor, I kind of disagree with you, Aisha. I mean, she's not on screen for long, but her performance colors every frame of that film, which is what it needs to do.
13:34 Aisha Harris? Absolutely, yeah.
13:35 Speaker 03 That needs to happen for the film to work. So I was perfectly okay with that. As for Lelos and Fanning, especially Fanning, I mean, they love sentimental value, the movie. And it's strange to see an international film kind of leeching its way into so many categories, except, you know, for this year. It happened four times this year. That's a record. That's unusual.
13:52 Stephen Thompson? Yes.
13:53 Speaker 03 But I mean, when it comes to sentimental value, it is a film about filmmaking. It's not about Hollywood, but it's a film about filmmaking.
14:00 Stephen Thompson? It's about art. It's about making art and the balance of art and life.
14:04 Speaker 03 Exactly. And the voters are artists. The voters are filmmakers. Even if they had to read it subtitled, it got through. So if any international film is gonna have the presence in these major categories we're talking about, it would be that one.
14:14 Aisha Harris? Yeah.
14:14 Stephen Thompson? I would have been so disappointed, particularly if Ingo Ibsdottor Lelos had not been nominated. I would have been so bummed. I thought that performance was a revelation. I loved her in this movie. The big, probably, you know, some will call it a snub, would be Ariana Grande in Wicked for Good. She had made a lot of predictions list, kind of expecting to be nominated. She was nominated last year. She is left out.
14:38 Aisha Harris? Yeah. I mean, the other big one, and I'm not gonna call any of these things a snubs, but like, the other big thing was, when I saw A24 post Odessa Azayan's audition tape on their Instagram page for Marty Supreme, I was like, oh, they are going for it. They are gunning for it. And, you know, I think she was definitely in the mix, too. And I kind of thought she might edge her way in here over someone like Amy Madigan. But, you know, that Amy Madigan performance is bonkers. So it's kind of fun to see that kind of role and character get nominated here.
15:10 Stephen Thompson? All right, let's run down actor in a supporting role. Benicio del Toro, for one battle after another, he plays a karate instructor who aids Leonardo DiCaprio's ex-revolutionary. Jacob Elordi for Frankenstein, he plays the creature in this adaptation of the Mary Shelley classic. Delroy Lindo for Sinners, Lindo plays a harmonica player at a juke joint whose opening night doesn't go as planned. Sean Penn for One Battle After Another, Penn plays Colonel Lockjaw, who is seeking revenge against a group of ex-revolutionaries. And Stellan Skarsgård for Sentimental Value, Skarsgård plays a filmmaker who is working on his next film while trying to reconnect with his daughters.
15:51 Stephen Thompson? I would imagine, based on my knowledge of y'all's opinions of several of these movies, that you feel all sorts of ways about this field of nominations.
16:01 Speaker 03 Well, look, the Del Toro thing, that is a small role. The only reason anybody's talking about it, the only reason it registers is because of that performance, so let's give him props. Lindo, how great is it to see Delroy Lindo?
16:13 Stephen Thompson? Oh my gosh, his first ever Oscar nomination. Ah. He's been so good for so long.
16:19 Speaker 03 Yep.
16:19 Aisha Harris? After The Five Bloods, what I was like, hoping, hoping, yes, finally.
16:23 Speaker 03 He has been out here putting in the work for so long, and it's great to see him recognized. Speaking of putting in the work, Stellan Skarsgård, that is a really terrific layered performance. He's got to play a jerk and an egotist, but somebody that you feel and the daughter feels, like you can still find the humanity in the guy. He has never won an Oscar, he's not gonna win this year, but this is a heartwarming category. I'm good with this.
16:47 Aisha Harris? Can I say, though, granted, I've only seen this film once and maybe I need to re-watch it, but I feel like this is a little bit of category fraud. Like, Stellan Skarsgård, to me, was more of a lead actor than a supporting.
16:58 Stephen Thompson? Closer to a lead.
16:59 Aisha Harris? So, I mean, I know what the impulse is to put him here because he has a better shot, but still, as you said, Glenn, this is a very stacked year. And even in this category, I don't think he's gonna be able to pull out the edge. Like, it feels like it's between Del Toro and Lindo, but who knows?
17:14 Stephen Thompson? And let's throw in a few kudos for Jacob Elordi.
17:16 Aisha Harris? Oh, he's so good.
17:18 Speaker 03 Yeah.
17:18 Stephen Thompson? This could have so easily been a nothing performance from an actor I think has been underrated for a while now. I'm delighted to see this performance rewarded.
17:28 Aisha Harris? Here, here.
17:29 Speaker 03 Yep.
17:29 Stephen Thompson? As far as performances that didn't make the cut that people thought might have, Paul Meskell for Hamnet did not get a nod here. Compared to Jessie Buckley, like it is definitely not as much of a powerhouse performance as much as I have liked Paul Meskell in other things. Adam Sandler did not get nominated for J. Kelly as some, you know, suspected he might have, but mostly this played out as expected.
17:52 Aisha Harris? I guess there's only room for one movie a year about a man, an artist, trying to connect with his daughters. And all that love went to sentimental value.
18:02 Stephen Thompson? Yeah, I feel like the makers of J. Kelly cursed at the screen as sentimental value rolled by.
18:07 Aisha Harris? I loved J. Kelly.
18:08 Stephen Thompson? It's the volcano in Dante's Peak all over again. All right, we got one more category we're going to talk about in directing. The nominees are Paul Thomas Anderson for One Battle After Another, Ryan Coogler for Sinners, Josh Safdie for Marty Supreme, Jo Kim Trier for Sentimental Value, and Chloe Zhao for Hamnet. What do y'all think?
18:30 Aisha Harris? Pretty predictable, right? I mean, whether or not we agree with this mixture, like this felt like what everyone was predicting, it felt like where all of the heat was coming from, especially Chloe Zhao has been out there talking about this movie in various platforms and really, you know, bringing it home, and she has won before. She won Best Director and Best Picture for Nomadland, so all of these people are kind of in the mix of being sort of Academy beloved, and so I'm not surprised at all. And again, just really happy for Ryan Coogler.
19:04 Stephen Thompson? Yeah, so happy.
19:05 Speaker 03 Right. Trier is a legit surprise, I think, because again, it makes sense that this film would find its way to Oscar voters the way it did.
19:11 Stephen Thompson? But it's not necessarily a flashy directorial.
19:14 Speaker 03 No, that's the thing.
19:15 Stephen Thompson? Experience, the way something like Frankenstein with Guillermo del Toro, who is also an Oscars favorite, that was where I was a little surprised.
19:22 Speaker 03 Yeah, and if you like family drama, if you like uncomfortable Thanksgiving dinners, Josh Safdie getting this nod, and then when his brother's film, A Smashing Machine, just notched a makeup hairstyling nomination, so.
19:34 Aisha Harris? That was the star of the movie.
19:36 Speaker 03 That'll be fun.
19:40 Stephen Thompson? All right, well, we want to know what you think about the 2026 Oscar nominations. Find us at facebook.com/PCHH. One last thing, we do have a big announcement. Yeah, we do. We've been burying the lead this whole time. We are pulling back the curtain and letting people sit in virtually on a taping of a Pop Culture Happy Hour episode. This is a special thing we are doing for our Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus supporters. They'll get to see how the show is made and experience this episode before everyone else. And we'll be talking about something Oscars-related, which is one of our favorite topics. It's all happening over Zoom on Friday, February 13 at 3 PM Eastern Time, noon Pacific.
20:25 Stephen Thompson? If you are not a Plus supporter yet, go to plus.npr.org/happy. Again, that's plus.npr.org/happy. If you are already a Plus supporter, thank you so much. Check your feed today for more information on how to register for the virtual taping. That brings us to the end of our show. Glen Weldon, Aisha Harris, thanks so much for being here. Thank you.
20:48 Aisha Harris? Thank you.
20:49 Stephen Thompson? This episode was produced by Carly Rubin, Mike Katzif, and Liz Metzger, and edited by Jessica Reedy. Hello, Cummin provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Stephen Thompson, and we will see you all tomorrow.
21:07 Speaker 00 Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors.
Previous Watch This: It Was Just An Accident Next One Battle After Another and What’s Making Us Happy Page updated October 31, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated