The 2026 Oscar nominations are unique for several reasons.
Ryan Coogler’s horror masterpiece “Sinners” broke the record for most nominations for a single movie. It was the first year with the brand new Best Casting category.
It also had some of the least category fraud in the last several years.
Category fraud is most often observed in the supporting actor and supporting actress categories. Studios will submit performances with substantial screen time to supporting categories, rather than face the tougher competition of lead performances.
The 2025 Oscars were particularly egregious. Zoe Saldaña won Best Supporting Actress for “Emilia Perez” despite having the most screen time, while Kieran Culkin won Best Supporting Actor for “A Real Pain” while being on screen for nearly 65 percent of the movie.
The 2026 nominations, however, returned to the standard of rewarding actual supporting performances.
Despite Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor’s co-lead performances in “Hamnet” and “Wake Up Dead Man,” respectively, being submitted for supporting performances, neither were nominated. The only true offender is Jacob Elordi in “Frankenstein,” who is on screen for nearly an hour.
Nominations for people like Benicio Del Toro in “One Battle After Another” and Delroy Lindo in “Sinners” mark a return to form for rewarding true character actor performances at the Academy Awards.
The acting nominations this year, while debated, have not been marred by the controversy of obvious snubs and fraud like previous years, which is good, because supporting performances are some of the most underappreciated aspects of movies.
You need a strong central performance to anchor a movie, but the actors who surround the main characters make the world feel lived-in. Often, if you can’t identify the actor beneath the supporting character, they’re doing an excellent job.
Even the smallest roles can have the biggest impact. Take John Carroll Lynch in David Fincher’s “Zodiac.” Despite appearing on screen for just six minutes, his performance is one of the film’s most enduring aspects. His performance as one of the key suspects in the Zodiac Killer case adds a menace and ambiguity to the movie as you constantly question every choice he makes.
These are the kinds of roles that should be rewarded at the Oscars. For these actors, being named Academy Award nominees could open countless doors for the rest of their careers. If category fraud persists, we’ll be stuck with the same rotating cast of performers every year.
Finding new, exciting performers is one of the biggest joys of awards season. Hopefully, the 2026 nominations are a sign of things to come.
If not, not only will the awards ceremonies stagnate, so will the medium of film itself.
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The 2026 Oscar nominations are unique for several reasons.
Ryan Coogler’s horror masterpiece “Sinners” broke the record for most nominations for a single movie. It was the first year with the brand new Best Casting category.
It also had some of the least category fraud in the last several years.
Category fraud is most often observed in the supporting actor and supporting actress categories. Studios will submit performances with substantial screen time to supporting categories, rather than face the tougher competition of lead performances.
The 2025 Oscars were particularly egregious. Zoe Saldaña won Best Supporting Actress for “Emilia Perez” despite having the most screen time, while Kieran Culkin won Best Supporting Actor for “A Real Pain” while being on screen for nearly 65 percent of the movie.
The 2026 nominations, however, returned to the standard of rewarding actual supporting performances.
Despite Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor’s co-lead performances in “Hamnet” and “Wake Up Dead Man,” respectively, being submitted for supporting performances, neither were nominated. The only true offender is Jacob Elordi in “Frankenstein,” who is on screen for nearly an hour.
Nominations for people like Benicio Del Toro in “One Battle After Another” and Delroy Lindo in “Sinners” mark a return to form for rewarding true character actor performances at the Academy Awards.
The acting nominations this year, while debated, have not been marred by the controversy of obvious snubs and fraud like previous years, which is good, because supporting performances are some of the most underappreciated aspects of movies.
You need a strong central performance to anchor a movie, but the actors who surround the main characters make the world feel lived-in. Often, if you can’t identify the actor beneath the supporting character, they’re doing an excellent job.
Even the smallest roles can have the biggest impact. Take John Carroll Lynch in David Fincher’s “Zodiac.” Despite appearing on screen for just six minutes, his performance is one of the film’s most enduring aspects. His performance as one of the key suspects in the Zodiac Killer case adds a menace and ambiguity to the movie as you constantly question every choice he makes.
These are the kinds of roles that should be rewarded at the Oscars. For these actors, being named Academy Award nominees could open countless doors for the rest of their careers. If category fraud persists, we’ll be stuck with the same rotating cast of performers every year.
Finding new, exciting performers is one of the biggest joys of awards season. Hopefully, the 2026 nominations are a sign of things to come.
If not, not only will the awards ceremonies stagnate, so will the medium of film itself.