The 2026 Academy Award nominations, announced on Tuesday, delivered a series of historic milestones, led by Ryan Coogler’s vampire horror film Sinners, which set a new record for the most Oscar nominations by a single film.
Sinners received 16 nominations, surpassing the previous record of 14 jointly held by Titanic, La La Land, and All About Eve.
The film earned nods in major categories including Best Picture, Best Director (Ryan Coogler), Best Actor (Michael B. Jordan), Best Supporting Actor (Delroy Lindo), Best Supporting Actress (Wunmi Mosaku), and Best Original Screenplay, among others.
Landmark Achievements
The nominations also marked several ground-breaking achievements across craft and performance categories.
Veteran costume designer Ruth E. Carter, already a two-time Oscar winner, received another nomination for Sinners, becoming the most-nominated Black woman in Oscar history.
Meanwhile, Sinners cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman of colour ever nominated for Best Cinematography, and just the fourth woman overall to receive a nomination in the category.
The 2026 nominations also delivered historic firsts for international performers:
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Wagner Moura became the first Brazilian actor nominated for Best Actor, for his role in The Secret Agent.
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Stellan Skarsgård became the first actor nominated for Best Supporting Actor for an International Feature Film, for Sentimental Value.
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Timothée Chalamet set a new record as the youngest male actor to earn three Best Actor nominations, surpassing the previous benchmark held by Marlon Brando.
In addition, the Academy nominated a record four non-English-language performances in acting categories this year—Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Wagner Moura, Renate Reinsve, and Stellan Skarsgård—breaking the previous record of three set in 1976.
Another milestone came in the Best Sound category, where Amanda Villavieja, Laia Casanovas, and Yasmina Praderas became the first all-women sound team ever nominated for a sound award, for their work on Sirāt. The trio covered production sound mixing, supervising sound editing, and re-recording mixing.
