All The Movies That Could Win An Oscar In 2026

It has been a great year for movies so far. From Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another to Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein, movie halls were packed with great releases one after the other. No doubt then, that the Oscars nomination list would be stacked this year, and many deserving films would not be able to make it to the final nominations.

Such was the case with Neeraj Ghaywan's Homebound, while Ryan Coogler's Sinner made history with the most oscar nominations at a total of sixteen calls. Below, we summed up all the movies that made it to the list, based on the dofferent categories. Read on.

Best Picture

• Bugonia: A sci-fi satire about conspiracy thinking that follows two men convinced they’ve uncovered an alien plot hiding in plain sight.
  

• Frankenstein: Guillermo Del Toro's adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel that centers on creation, responsibility, and the cost of playing God.
  

• F1: A high-speed drama set in the world of Formula One that tracks rivalry, pressure, and the politics of elite racing.
  

• Hamnet: A period drama imagining the life and death of Shakespeare’s son and the grief that shaped his family.
  

• Marty Supreme: A sports comedy about a hustler and table tennis prodigy navigating fame, ego, and personal collapse.
  

• One Battle After Another: Paul Thomas Anderson's politically charged drama following a man caught in cycles of violence and moral reckoning over decades.
  

• The Secret Agent: A political thriller set during Brazil’s military dictatorship, focusing on surveillance, paranoia, and resistance.
  

• Sentimental Value: A family drama about memory, inheritance, and unresolved emotional debts between parents and children.
  

• Sinners: In Jim Crow-era America, two African American brothers opening a juke joint, but on the first night, it is run down by vampires attracted by their music.
  

• Train Dreams: A railroad worker endures the destruction of his home and family in a fire while navigating a rapidly changing, industrializing America.
  

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Bugonia: Adapted from the 2003 South Korean cult classic film Save the Green Planet! written and directed by Jang Joon Hwan.
  

• Frankenstein: Adapted from Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, widely considered the first science fiction novel.
  

• Hamnet: Adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel Hamnet.
  

• One Battle After Another: Loosely adapted from Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 postmodern novel Vineland.
  

• Train Dreams: A film adaptation of Denis Johnson's acclaimed 2011 novella of the same name.
  

Best Original Screenplay

• Blue Moon: A biographical drama about lyricist Lorenz Hart’s alcoholic spiral during the 1943 premiere of Oklahoma!
  

• It Was Just an Accident: A dark Iranian comedy following former prisoners who track down their past torturer after a chance encounter.
  

• Marty Supreme: A fast-paced biopic starring Timothée Chalamet as a narcissistic 1950s table tennis hustler.
  

• Sentimental Value: A Norwegian drama exploring the tense power dynamics between two sisters and their estranged filmmaker father.
  

• Sinners: A Jim Crow-era supernatural thriller about twin brothers facing an ancient evil in their hometown.
  

Best International Feature

• It Was Just an Accident: Iran; directed by Jafar Panahi.
  

• Sentimental Value: Norway; directed by Joachim Trier.
  

• Sirât: Spain/France/Morocco; directed by Oliver Laxe.
  

• The Secret Agent: Brazil; directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho.
  

• The Voice of Hind Rajab: Palestine; directed by Kaouther Ben Hania.
  

Best Animated Feature

• Arco: An animated fantasy following a boy who uses his vivid imagination and "arc of life" to navigate the challenges of growing up.
  

• Elio: A sci-fi adventure where a young boy is mistakenly beamed to a galactic council and must prove he is Earth’s ambassador.
  

• KPop Demon Hunters: An action-comedy about a global girl group that balances their pop stardom with a secret life as supernatural warriors.
  

• Little Amélie or the Character of Rain: An adaptation of Amélie Nothomb's memoir depicting her early childhood in Japan through a unique, imaginative lens.
  

• Zootopia 2: A sequel following Judy and Nick as they track a mysterious reptile through new districts, further exploring the city’s social complexities.
  

Best Documentary Feature

• Come See Me in the Good Light: A filmmaker documents her relationship as it’s tested by cancer, chronic illness, and the quiet negotiations of love and care.
  

• Cutting Through the Rocks: Women quarry workers in rural India navigate brutal labour, economic survival, and collective resistance.
  

• Mr. Nobody Against Putin: A Russian schoolteacher records his growing political awakening and protest against the state, even as repression closes in.
  

• The Alabama Solution: Examines how Alabama’s prison system exploits incarcerated people through forced labour and corporate profiteering.
  

• The Perfect Neighbor: Reconstructs a fatal police shooting through bodycam and surveillance footage to expose how fear escalates into violence.
  

Best Live Action Short

• Friend of Dorothy: A gay man forms an unexpected bond with an older woman as they navigate loneliness, secrecy, and queer kinship.
  

• Butcher’s Stain: A butcher grapples with the psychological fallout of a violent act, as guilt seeps into his daily routine.
  

• Jane Austen’s Period Drama: A meta-comedy that skewers the rigid conventions of Austen adaptations by staging romance as formula and performance.
  

• The Singers: Follows a group of vocal performers whose personal relationships are shaped—and strained—by their shared practice.
  

• Two People Exchanging Saliva: Observes a first kiss between two teenagers, stretching the moment to capture its discomfort, anticipation, and vulnerability.
  

Best Animated Short

• Butterfly: A solitary figure's encounter with a butterfly triggers a reckoning with grief and transformation.
  

• Forevergreen: Told through changing landscapes, the film traces humanity’s impact on nature as growth, decay, and renewal unfold in cycles.
  

• Retirement Plan: An elderly person confronts the loss of routine and identity after retirement, searching for meaning beyond work.
  

• The Girl Who Cried Pearls: A modern fable about a young girl whose tears turn into pearls, forcing her to confront the cost of emotional repression.
  

• The Three Sisters: Centers on three siblings whose separation tests their bond, revealing how distance reshapes family ties.
  

Best Documentary short

• All the Empty Rooms: A woman revisits the abandoned rooms of her family home after a death.
  

• Armed Only with a Camera: A journalist reports from active conflict zones using only his camera and testimony.
  

• Children No More: Displaced children navigate survival after being forced out of their homes.
  

• The Devil Is Busy: A community spirals into fear after a minor incident is framed as a moral threat.
  

• Perfectly a Strangeness: An artist documents how everyday reality fractures under prolonged isolation.