5 Biggest Snubs And Surprises Of The 2026 Oscar Nominations

The nominations for the 98th Academy Awards, honoring the best films of 2025 at the 2026 ceremony, are here, and while a lot of them were easy to predict, the Oscars always throw in some curveballs. A lot of the biggest surprises were in matters of degrees: anyone following the best movies of 2025 could go into the morning expecting certain films to do well and others to do less well, but just how good and how bad they'd do went to some extremes that very few could have expected. You might have expected certain films to show up somewhere at the awards, but in which categories — or which actors in those categories — also delivered some shockers.

In all, this is a strong collection of nominations that doesn't give us too much to complain about ... though complaints will still be made, because that's just how it is during the awards season. This article will analyze the biggest snubs and surprises among the nominations, and how the voters might have reached these results. Be sure to watch the awards on Sunday, March 15, 2026 to find out who wins.

Everyone could guess "Wicked: For Good" wasn't going to do as well at the Oscars as its better-received predecessor, but it still made more Oscar shortlists than any other film this season, so, nobody thought the sequel would get zero nominations. Come that special morning, any predictions involving "Wicked: For Good" were ... no good. 

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande going missing in highly competitive acting fields is one thing, but it's hard to believe that "Wicked: For Good" got snubbed in categories like costume design — they apparently preferred the CG alien outfits of "Avatar: Fire and Ash" — or makeup and hairstyling. At least international nominees "Kokuho" and "The Ugly Stepsister" are cool surprises. We know the film's two new songs were no "Defying Gravity," but looking at what got nominated in their stead, has anyone even heard of "Sweet Dreams of Joy" from "Viva Verdi!"?

"The Testament of Ann Lee" getting shut out was sadly easier to predict, given it missed all of the shortlists, but there was still some small hope that lead actress Amanda Seyfried could have scored a nomination, as she did at the Gothams and Critics Choice Awards. She did not, and like Mother Ann, the film's admirers will hunger and thirst after true righteousness. Searchlight — a distributor that's gotten at least one film into best picture for the past eight ceremonies before this one — failing to get a single nomination for such an artistically accomplished feature (from the same creative team as last year's awards juggernaut "The Brutalist," no less) is an immense failure of campaigning.

Most of the best picture nominees were easy to predict. "Sinners," "One Battle After Another," "Marty Supreme," "Hamnet," "Frankenstein," and "Sentimental Value" have shown up everywhere in the precursor awards. "The Secret Agent" was likely to follow in the footsteps of last year's Brazilian nominee "I'm Still Here" after similar success at the Golden Globes, "Train Dreams" was this year's little Sundance movie that could, and "Bugonia" was among Yorgos Lanthimos' more Academy-accessible films. 

That final slot, however, was a toss-up. It arguably should have been "It Was Just an Accident," the Palme D'or winner from the brave Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi (who was nominated for original screenplay, but snubbed in director). If they wanted a blockbuster, it could have been "Weapons," the horror hit that might win Amy Madigan a best supporting actress trophy.

That voters ultimately nominated "F1" for best picture isn't completely out of nowhere, given its nomination for the Producers Guild of America Awards, and as for the probable alternates, nominating three international films or three horror films might have been too much for the Academy's taste. A decade ago, there likely wouldn't even be two nominees from such categories. 

But it's still a weird nomination. Reviews were fine but unexceptional compared to all the other nominees; it made money but wasn't a zeitgeist-defining hit like Joseph Kosinski's previous film, "Top Gun: Maverick." Still, never discount a Dad Movie with strong technical skills: "F1" is also nominated for editing, effects, and sound.

In an unprecedented showing for a single distributor, Neon owns the US distribution rights to four out of the five nominees for best international feature: Norway's "Sentimental Value," Brazil's "The Secret Agent," the French-Iranian co-production "It Was Just an Accident," and Spain's "Sirāt." The lone non-Neon nominee, Tunisia's "The Voice of Hind Rajab," was self-distributed by production company WILLA after major studios passed on the heartbreaking Gaza conflict docudrama. 

Given Neon's strategy of gobbling up almost every award winner at 2025's international festivals, their Oscars success isn't a shocker — but what is shocking is how Neon's most popular international film completely missed.

South Korea's Oscar entry, Park Chan-wook's dark comedy "No Other Choice," has reviews comparable to the other nominees and, as of this publication, has made more money than all of them. It won the International People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it had some pundits speculating about best picture, director, and adapted screenplay nominations. 

But alas, the Academy really seems to not vibe with Park's work — his 2022 neo-noir "Decision to Leave" also got snubbed at the 2023 Oscars. The controversy around Park's expulsion from the Writers Guild of America (for editing dialogue on "The Sympathizer," an HBO miniseries he wrote and directed, in a complicated cross-guild issue) likely did not help his chances.

Jessie Buckley is still the favorite to win best actress for her heart-wrenching performance as Agnes Shakespeare in "Hamnet," which received eight nominations in total. However, her co-star Paul Mescal is perhaps the most surprising snub in the acting categories, failing to get an expected supporting actor nomination for playing William Shakespeare. You could argue the campaign placement of his performance as "supporting" might have led to confusion over whether he deserved to be nominated in supporting or lead, but even bigger category placement concerns over Stellan Skarsgård in "Sentimental Value" and Jacob Elordi in "Frankenstein" didn't stop their supporting nominations.

Mescal had been nominated at most precursors but notably got snubbed by the Screen Actors Guild, which instead nominated Miles Caton as blues prodigy Sammie in "Sinners." At the Oscars, a "Sinners" actor once again made it in over Mescal, but instead of Caton, this nom went to Delroy Lindo as the aging musician Delta Slim. No surprise that both Caton and Lindo ranked on Looper's best performances of the year list. 

This wouldn't be the first time early awards favored a younger actor while the Oscars preferred established veterans from the same movie: think of Judi Dench getting in over Caitríona Balfe for "Belfast" or Judd Hirsch over Paul Dano for "The Fabelmans." Lindo's surprise nom could also be seen as a way to make up for his big snub for 2020's "Da 5 Bloods."

Even if the Oscars hadn't added a new best casting category this year, "Sinners" still would have broken the record for the most nominations of any film in Oscar history. Its 16 noms surpass the record of 14 previously held by "All About Eve," "Titanic," and "La La Land." Ryan Coogler's genre-bending vampire drama is nominated in literally every category it is eligible for, even in ones where the work is relatively subtle or subdued compared to contenders that missed out. For example, the effects used to double up Michael B. Jordan are cool, but it's surprising they got a nomination over the showier CGI in, say, "Superman." The only way it could have gotten more nominations would have been if it got a second showstopper song, or multiple supporting actors or actresses onto those lists.

"One Battle After Another," the presumed favorite to win best picture, comes close with 13 nominations. Paul Thomas Anderson's political action-comedy only missed out on four eligible categories, three of which are unsurprising: the costumes branch rarely goes for contemporary casual fashions, the one big prosthetic makeup effect on Sean Penn appears too briefly compared to the work in the makeup nominees, and the film doesn't really have any notable visual effects. 

But there is one miss for "OBAA" that comes as a surprise: Chase Infiniti as teenage revolutionary-in-the-making Willa Ferguson has shown up at almost every major precursor, but got snubbed at the Oscars. She's presumably in sixth place, behind Kate Hudson in "Song Sung Blue."