Eight surprise takeaways from the nominations

Awards experts were surprised by the first two words said at the Oscars nominations ceremony on Thursday.

“Elle Fanning, for Sentimental Value,” hosts Danielle Brooks and Lewis Pullman said as they began nominations for the Best Supporting Actress category.

Fanning’s debut got off to a hot start from the earliest possible moment, as she won praise for her performance in the Norwegian family drama, but few expected her to be nominated.

The opening act set the tone for a series of snubs and surprises that started coming thick and fast. Here are eight big takeaways.

Although Hamnet and One Battle After Another performed well, both performed less strongly than expected in the acting categories.

Paul Mescal He missed out on a supporting actor nod for Hamnet — a surprising omission, though we’re sure it won’t have much of an impact on star Jessie Buckley’s standing in the lead for Best Actress.

Meanwhile, four major actors from “Battle After Another” were honored, but they are its shining stars Chase Infiniti She missed out on the Best Actress award despite being a hot contender.

It was an admittedly competitive category. But at 25 years old and with rave reviews for her performance in the film, we’re pretty sure we haven’t heard the latest from her.

Among other actors who had momentum but ended up missing out Jesse Plemons Begonia f Joel Edgerton For the dream train. But both of these films made it into the Best Picture category, so the Academy clearly liked them overall.

The Formula 1 Championship, in which star Brad Pitt played a racing driver who came out of retirement, was the biggest surprise in the Best Picture category.

It wasn’t a completely outlandish film – many critics expected it to receive several nominations below the line for its impressive technical achievements (we recommend seeing the film in a cinema or with surround sound if possible).

But the fact that the film had enough momentum to push it into Best Picture was a real show of strength — especially without the other major nominations in the Best Director or acting categories.

It shows that the old guard of the Academy still values ​​well-made, traditional films that can be enjoyed simply with a bucket of popcorn.

Sinners set a record with 16 nominations, surpassing previous record-holders La La Land, Titanic and All About Eve, who each received 14 nominations.

Director Ryan Coogler’s vampire horror film did particularly well at maintaining its momentum with voters, considering it was released last spring.

But it’s exactly the kind of film the Academy wants to acknowledge. Although vampire movies may not be traditional Oscar bait, Sinners was a true artistic achievement, blending the horror genre with 1930s blues against the backdrop of the Mississippi Delta.

Coogler also made headlines in Hollywood trade publications last year due to the deal he negotiated with Warner Bros., Which will see the rights to the film returned to him After 25 years.

The first Wicked film received 10 Academy Award nominations and won two. So, it’s an extraordinary fall from grace that the film’s sequel gets a zero.

But this was largely expected. Evil: for good It was much less well received than its predecessor – something it has in common with the original musical.

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

But it’s still believed that Wicked: For Good could fall into some categories, with many predicting a nomination for Best Original Song for The Girl in the Bubble, a song performed by Ariana Grande Which was newly added to the movie adaptation.

There was better news for another movie, Avatar: Fire and Asheswhich at least managed two technical nominations for visual effects and costume design.

Some of the most popular films can instead be found in the animation category. This is where we find the total of $1.7 billion Zootopia 2 (known as Zootropolis 2 in the UK) and became a viral hit Demon hunters in kpop.

Not only did Sinners receive the most nominations, it was also the only two Brits nominated in the acting categories.

Wunmi Mosaku and Delroy Lindo It made her Best Actress and Supporting Actor respectively.

While Mosaku’s inclusion was widely expected, Lindo’s inclusion came as an even bigger surprise, and his inclusion is perhaps one of the biggest indicators of the obvious love for Sinners across the academy.

Lindo narrowly missed out on a Best Actor nomination a few years ago for Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods. The 73-year-old’s first Oscar nomination appears to be long overdue.

Three of the actresses nominated Thursday ended up being the only honor their films received.

Rose Byrne The only representation of motherhood drama was If I Had Two Legs I’d Kick You, while Kate Hudson She pulls it off on her own with the poignant musical love story Song Sung Blue.

Meanwhile, Star Arms Amy Madigan She was nominated for her role as an eccentric aunt who appears in an American town before the local school children disappear.

Madigan’s nomination is perhaps the most impressive, considering that horrific horror films are not traditional Oscar fodder.

But the 75-year-old was a passionate choice for many critics and voters, and her fans were fighting hard for recognition for her memorable (and slightly terrifying) performance.

The newly introduced cast category overlapped with several of the overall front-runners, with nominations for Marty Supreme, Battle by Battle, Hamnet, Sinner, and Secret Agent.

However, we can’t help but feel a little bummed, because we’ve missed out on another film in particular.

Sentimental Value failed to score an acting nomination even though its four main stars scored individual nods – Stellan Skarsgård, Elle Fanning, Renate Rensev and Inga Ibsdotter Lilias.

If this quartet were impressive enough to be nominated individually, you might have thought there was a good chance the casting directors who brought them together — Avi Kaufman and Ingvil Kolset Haga — would be recognized.

At last year’s SAG Awards, Timothée Chalamet He spoke of his desire to eventually be considered “one of the greats of Hollywood.”

He’s a big step away from that with the possibility of winning his first Oscar this year, as the front-runner for Best Actor in the ping-pong drama Marty Supreme.

Although he has only been nominated twice before, Chalamet is very popular at the Academy, having starred in eight of the best picture-nominated films.

He is also the youngest actor since Marlon Brando to receive three nominations for Best Leading Actor. Brando was 30, the same age as Chalamet, when he finished third in 1954.

Timothy came close to winning last year when he played Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, but we’re confident 2026 will be his time to reign supreme.