Happy Oscars day! It feels like awards season has stretched on for an eternity this year, given the mid-March date of the ceremony, but today we will finally crown our winners.
This year’s ten films delivered on so many levels. After a lacklustre crop in 2025, the 2026 line-up was a much-needed salve.
Here are my thoughts on all ten films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Affeksjonsverdi (Sentimental Value) dir. Joachim Trier
At the centre of Affeksjonsverdi is the family house. The film opens with a monologue about the house, something which is often lost amongst the (well-deserved) discussion of the great performances in this film. The monologue so perfectly sets up the film; it would not be nearly as good without it. It allows the house to occupy an almost gothic sense as a character in the film.
Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgård make for an excellent father-daughter duo. It is their stories which carry the heart of the film. Through their characters, the film does a good job of avoiding some of the narcissistic pitfalls which other films suffer when talking about themselves. While this is a movie about making movies, it has enough else going on for it all to remain interesting.
In a crowded category, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas delivers what is probably my favourite Best Supporting Actress performance of the year as Agnes. The scene at the library where she is struggling to hold back messy tears in the quiet environment was the highlight of her performance.
Similarly, Elle Fanning is given a hefty challenge in her performance as American actress Rachel Kemp, brought in to star in Gustav’s movie after Nora turns him down. Fanning manages to traverse the thin line of making it clear that Kemp is a good actress not without merit, but that doesn’t make her right for the part.
Bugonia dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
Bugonia marks Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos’ third film nominated for Best Picture (following The Favourite and Poor Things) and overall the fourth that I have watched. Given the eccentricity and bizarre nature of Lanthimos’ work, it comes with little surprise that his newest film involves aliens and that is its major problem. Having experienced much of Lanthimos’ shock value before, his films have completely lost their novelty to me.
Bugonia is markedly different as it is not entirely a Lanthimos creation. Instead, it is an English-language remake of the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet! written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan.
Bugonia is not without its moments. Similar to The Favourite, Lanthimos actually does shine with ordinary moments. The strained conversations between unhappy cousins Teddy (Jesse Plemens) and Don (Aidan Delbis) are well-constructed. Their small town life feels grandiose enough to be the story’s setting. Jerskin Fendrix’s score is nervy and unsettling and Robbie Ryan’s cinematography is stellar.
F1 dir. Joseph Kosinski
What is Brad Pitt doing here? No, really. F1 sets up a wonderful new Lewis Hamilton-inspired story starring Damson Idris as up-and-coming driver Joshua Pearce and yet we’re forced to deal with the washed up nonsense of former legend Sonny Hayes instead. The film’s best moments centre around Pearce, and yet by the end of the film it’s clear that this has actually been Hayes’ story all along.
Some of Kosinski’s brilliance from Top Gun: Maverick remains present in the beauty of the race sequences (particularly the most dramatic one, which is the clear highlight of the film). However, the film oscillates wildly between moments of genuine enjoyment and feeling like one of those dressed up in-flight safety videos that an airline is begging you to watch.
The character of Sonny Hayes is yet another entry in the rude and misunderstood genius canon (and I have no patience for them given there are arguably four on the line-up this year). Even Kerry Condon’s female technical director Kate cannot make him interesting.
F1 is an outlier on this year’s nomination list. Even though I didn’t love every single film on this list, at least I can say that the others took swings. I cannot say that F1 took any swings or did anything new for filmmaking.
Frankenstein dir. Guillermo del Toro
I am far from an adaptation purist but it’s fitting that del Toro’s Frankenstein ends not with a quote from the author Mary Shelley, but instead from the poet Lord Byron, given that it strays so far from the source material. Where Shelley’s story was rich with philosophical meaning and nuance, del Toro’s beats you over the head with its purpose countless times. Instead of a tortured tussle between creator and creature, del Toro makes it clear that the creator is the villain in the strongest sense long before his creation has even come to life.
Once I realised that this was not going to be the good Frankenstein adaptation that I had hoped for, I cast Shelley’s story aside and tried to evaluate the film on its own merits. I was still left with very little. Oscar Isaac gives a concerningly average performance as Victor, explaining his absence from the Best Actor conversation. While the design elements of this film have been well-lauded and it expects to win several Oscars in this department, I thought the film was dripping in ugly CGI and could not connect the decision to dress the film in a sense of extravagant luxury with its themes. It felt like a major misfire.
Australia’s own Jacob Elordi does stand out amongst the mess, delivering a solid performance as the Creature. Elordi’s tall stature and strangeness gives the Creature a decent otherworldliness.
Hamnet dir. Chloé Zhao
When I heard that Nomadland director Chloé Zhao was at the helm of Hamnet, I admit that initially I was confused. How could the masterful storyteller behind the quirky Nomadland be the best fit for a Shakespeare piece? Zhao quelled my anxieties in the opening few minutes: Hamnet is very much the story of Agnes, not Will, and she is first and foremost a lover of the forest. Zhao’s gift for shooting nature, and its importance to this film, shone through immediately. The Academy’s second (and still only one of two) female Best Director winner had done it again.
I am a sucker for a story about grief and I am a sucker for a story with any connection to Shakespeare. So this film did have an unnatural advantage over the others. But I still believe that Hamnet delivers outside of appealing to my personal interests through its true magnificence of storytelling and filmmaking craft.
Hamnet is not a subtle film. Hamnet is a film which builds and builds, like a symphony orchestra warming up. It overflows by its conclusion. Jessie Buckley delivers a truly masterful performance as Agnes. The hype for her is absolutely real and deserved.
Much also has been made of Max Richter’s hauntingly beautiful score, particularly the decision to reuse his famous ‘On the Nature of Daylight’ at the film’s end. Having spent a lot of time relistening to the score as a whole since and thinking it over, I love the decision. To me, at the heart of the film is the fact that grief is wholly unoriginal. Sometimes it is even boring. It is not new. It was not new when Shakespeare wrote about it. It was not new when Zhao made this film, or when Richter wrote any of his music. I think the song fits perfectly.
Hamnet is one of five films nominated for the newly-added Best Casting award for Nina Gold’s efforts, presumably due to her stroke of genius in casting brothers Jacobi and Noah Jupe to play Agnes’ son Hamnet and onstage Hamlet respectively. Much praise has been given to Jacobi for his spectacular turn as the titular Hamnet, but Noah must be applauded as well. Despite being Shakespeare’s most famous leading man, I have seen mediocre Hamlets before. Noah Jupe was certainly not one of them. Through a cinema screen, he made me feel the emotions of the theatrical role tenfold.
I’m willing to call it: getting out to see Hamnet in a cinema is one of the best decisions I’ll make this year. The absolute brilliance of the ending—water is present throughout the film, and the end felt like a dam bursting—meant that nobody in my cinema was ready to leave when the credits rolled. I cannot remember the last non-Marvel movie where that happened. By the time the credits had finished, the cinema was still half-full. I went to see Hamnet by myself; it didn’t feel like that at all.
Marty Supreme dir. Josh Safdie
Do not be fooled: despite the prevalence of the orange ping pong ball, this is not a movie about table tennis. It is a movie about a grifter.
Timothée Chalamet definitely demonstrated his star power by drawing out such a big crowd with his high-powered press tour for an A24 movie about a table tennis player that nobody really knew. Chalamet is a good actor, but he has certainly reshaped last year’s Bob Dylan into another annoying male protagonist.
I enjoyed the larger-than-life feeling of Marty Supreme. Josh Safdie did a good job of establishing all the different locations throughout the film, including 1950s New York (which probably explains the alleged $70 million budget). While this sounds like an obvious thing to accomplish, the success of it stood out in stark contrast to last year’s similarly jet-setting Emilia Pérez.
Overall though, Marty Supreme fell flat for me. I couldn’t seem to be that interested in seeing Chalamet’s controversial figure of Marty succeed or fail. I knew that he would do either equally spectacularly, but I never quite bought into the idea of ‘dreaming big’.
O Agente Secreto (The Secret Agent) dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
Given that this marks the second Brazilian film nominated for Best Picture in the space of two years, it meant that I watched O Agente Secreto shortly after Ainda Estou Aqui creating an unintentional Brazilian military dictatorship historical film double feature.
I do have to say it took me a lot longer to get invested in O Agente Secreto given that its mystery unfurls slowly. But it was certainly worth sticking around, as the third act was its finest and it came to an immensely satisfying conclusion.
I held high expectations for Wagner Moura, given that he is nominated alongside Chalamet, DiCaprio, Hawke and Jordan for Best Actor, and he absolutely lived up to them. Similar to the film itself, I had my doubts early, but he absolutely won me over in the end. His place among the American giants of the category is well-deserved.
Tânia Maria as Dona Sebastiana is the textbook definition of a scene stealer, her charisma oozing out of each appearance. She would be a real contender for a Best Supporting Actress nomination in a more normal and less crowded year.
I can see why the Jaws references helped this film appeal to an American audience. They certainly help establish the identity of coastal Recife.
One Battle After Another dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
As a certified Licorice Pizza hater, I am ready to apologise to Paul Thomas Anderson. He knows how to make a movie. One Battle After Another is a great drama which expertly traverses many other genres at the same time with its comedic and thrilling moments.
Take your pick from the excellent performers: Leonardo DiCaprio continues to thrive in his loser era. Bob Ferguson is for all the people who missed his performance in Killers of the Flower Moon. Chase Infiniti shines as his daughter Willa completely on her own merit, let alone for a debut film performance. Sean Penn is a terrifying and idiotic villain. Benicio del Toro, Teyana Taylor and Regina Hall are complete scene stealers whenever they are present.
One Battle After Another also stood out to me as a film on this list at its peak form. Michael Bauman’s magnificent cinematography revealed many exciting visual moments which were made for the screen. It wasn’t a story which could exist anywhere; it was made for film.
I go to the movies to feel something and I felt stressed for at least a solid hour of this movie. I give at least half the credit to Jonny Greenwood’s wonderful score for creating such a gnawing sense of dread.
Sinners dir. Ryan Coogler
Regular readers of this series will be deeply surprised to learn that I managed to watch Sinners. So am I! As a shameful self-professed coward, horror is certainly my least favourite of all film genres. But I had heard so many good things about Sinners, and I cannot resist a film which boasts original music, so I left all my lights on and dove in.
In an era of endless reboots and biopics (this year’s Best Original Screenplay nominees contain two films based on figures who existed in real life), I love that Sinners feels brand new. Certainly, it pays homage to what came before it (which is evident by the number of consultants listed in the credits) but does so in both a novel and interesting way.
Again, this is another film with a whole host of great performances: Michael B. Jordan seeing double as protagonist twins Smoke and Stack, Hailee Steinfeld as the alluring but lost Mary, Jack O’Connell in a terrifying turn as vampire leader Remmick and Wunmi Mosaku as the witchy Annie. A wonderful surprise on nominations morning was the news that 73-year-old Delroy Lindo has earned his first Oscar nominated for his performance as Delta Slim.
Autumn Durald Arkapaw also made history on nomination morning, as the fourth woman nominated for Best Cinematography. She will be the first woman to win if her name is read out this morning.
The music lived up to its great reports, both Oscar veteran Ludwig Göransson’s wonderful score and Miles Caton’s great debut performance as blues musician Sammie. Perhaps underrated was Jayme Lawson’s dazzling performance as married singer Pearline.
Train Dreams dir. Clint Bentley
It felt like I was committing a horrible crime to watch a film as visually beautiful as this one at home on Netflix. By far my favourite part of Train Dreams was Adolpho Veloso’s cinematography and I was extremely pleased to see him land a nomination for his work. I loved the style of the film overall, well held together by its unusual voiceover narration by Will Patton as an unnamed narrator.
Train Dreams is a small-scale story and I liked that it knew that about itself. It never dared to venture much further than protagonist Robert’s life and it didn’t need to.
Despite less screen time, Kerry Condon is given much better material here in her role as Claire. Her scenes are some of the best in the film. And following her performance last year in The Brutalist, Felicity Jones once again did an excellent job as someone’s wife. The women do really shine in this film.
Ranking
This was a particularly tough year for ranking the films and reminded me why I hate it. In any year, I could happily see any of Hamnet, One Battle After Another and Sinners as the winner. Affeksjonsverdi (Sentimental Value) does not feel that far behind them either.
My ranking for 2026:
Hamnet dir. Chloé Zhao
One Battle After Another dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
Sinners dir. Ryan Coogler
Affeksjonsverdi (Sentimental Value) dir. Joachim Trier
Train Dreams dir. Clint Bentley
O Secrete Agente (The Secret Agent) dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
Bugonia dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
Marty Supreme dir. Josh Safdie
F1 dir. Joseph Kosinski
Frankenstein dir. Guillermo del Toro
Here’s to an exciting ceremony for 2026!
The 98th Academy Awards ceremony will air on Channel 7 from 10am on 16 March 2026.