Oscars 2026 Winners Predictions: Our Choices for 98th Academy Awards Winners: The 98th Academy Awards are all set to take place this Sunday in Los Angeles, and as has been the case over countless years, there are bound to be snubs and surprises in galore. But that doesn’t stop us from picking out our predictions on who’ll take home the coveted Oscars statuette. Here are SCREEN’s picks of the winners in the top six categories this year.

Nominations:

Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme
Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent

SCREEN pick: Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme

Sure, Timothée has the most buzz going into Oscars for all the wrong reasons. In a recent chat on Variety, the Marty Supreme dissed art forms like ballet and opera, saying that he doesn’t want to participate in them just because they’re dying. That has sparked outrage from not only opera and ballet artists and aficionados, but also Hollywood stars who called out his insensitive remarks.

But that just may be on brand for his nominated performance as Marty Mauser, an aspiring table tennis champion, who doesn’t make his chances better with the foot always in his mouth. But he’s also a smooth talker who woos his way in (or at least tries to), whether it’s ensuring a sponsored Japan trip or even retrieving the stolen dog of his old hotel neighbour.

Timothée has already scored wins at the Golden Globes and the Critics’ Choice Awards, while losing out the BAFTA to Robert Aramayo, who isn’t nominated at the Oscars because his film I Swear wasn’t eligible this year. Timothée has literally grown up on screen ever since his 2014 breakthrough, Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi thriller Interstellar, but he’s never played such a shamelessly flawed character on screen.

Nominations:

Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue
Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value
Emma Stone, Bugonia

SCREEN pick: Jessie Buckley, Hamnet

Jessie Buckley seems to be the clear favourite going into the 98th Oscars. Her equal parts playful and ethereal performance in Chloe Zhao’s period drama Hamnet has led to an undefeated streak across the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs, the SAGs, and the Critics Choice Awards. But The Academy could pull off a snub like it did last year, when it chose Anora’s Mikey Madison over The Substance’s Demi Moore, who had the most promising campaign going in, delivering one memorable speech after another in the runup.

But if it has to be a snub, let it not be Emma Stone, who’s already won two Academy Awards as diverse as Damien Chazelle’s 2016 musical romance La La Land and Yargos Lanthimos’ Poor Things in 2024. Bugonia, her new collaboration with the Greek filmmaker, was no Poor Things. If there’s indeed a snub, let it go to Rose Byrne for Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You or the most deserving underdog of the lot — Renate Reinsve from Joachim Trier’s Norwegian drama Sentimental Value.

Nominations:

Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
Delroy Lindo, Sinners
Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value

SCREEN pick: Sean Penn, One Battle After Another

Yes, there’s the seasoned Stellan Skarsgård as well as the unrecognizable Jacob Elordi in Guillermo Del Toro’s Netflix gothic sci-fi film Frankenstein, but this one must surely go to either of the supporting actors from Paul Thomas Anderson’s action comedy One Battle After Another for it had one of the most stellar ensemble cast in recent memory. My money is on Sean Penn over Benicio Del Toro, only for his tough-as-nails act as Colonel Steven J Lockjaw and the smoothest transition from best lead actor to best supporting actor after his previous Oscar-winning gentle turn in Gus Van Sant’s 2008 queer drama Milk.

Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
Amy Madigan, Weapons
Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another

SCREEN pick: Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another

There are no small parts, only small actors. This quote holds true for a couple of the frontrunners in this year’s Best Supporting Actress category. Amy Madigan was all kinds of creepy and scary in Zach Cregger’s horror film Weapons, but our money would be riding on Teyana Taylor’s electrifying act in One Battle After Another. She was the life of the first half, and we’d dare say, even ate up Leonardo DiCaprio in their scenes together.

Nominations:

Chloé Zhao, Hamnet
Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
Ryan Coogler, Sinners

SCREEN pick: Ryan Coogler, Sinners

After the 2021 Marvel debacle that was The Eternals, Chloe Zhao reclaimed her Nomadland-like voice with Hamnet. Even Josh Safdie proved to be the marginally better Safie Brother director, with Marty Supreme gaining an edge over Benny Safdie’s sports drama The Smashing Machine. Paul Thomas Anderson did what he does best, be an Oscars darling with his third directorial in a row getting nominated in both the Best Picture and Best Director categories, after Phantom Thread (2017) and Licorice Pizza (2021).

Joachim Trier turned out to be the breakout international voice of the year. But no one deserves the Best Director award this year more than Ryan Cooglers. It’s a pity that seminal Marvel titles like Black Panther (2018) aren’t even considered by The Academy, but his high prestige claim with Sinners must be acknowledged for its sheer, seething, and remarkably original directorial voice.

Nominations:

Bugonia
F1
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Train Dreams

SCREEN pick: One Battle After Another

Though Joseph Kosinski’s sports drama F1 was such a fun time at the movies, its chances of winning are low for the same reason that Black Panther was given a short shrift by The Academy. If the magnetic lead performances of Marty Supreme and Hamnet are subtracted, those films also stand little chance. The final fight is thus between two Warner Bros titles — Sinners and One Battle After Another. While the former benefitted a great deal from Coogler’s distinct voice, it didn’t deliver as many dopamine hits as the DiCaprio-starrer. It offered one memorable and thrilling sequence one after another, while also ensuring the underlying sociopolitical commentary doesn’t get weighed down.

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The 98th Academy Awards will stream live in India this Monday on March 16 at 4:30 am on JioHotstar. It’ll also air live on TV channels Star Movies, Star Movies Select, and Colors Infinity at the same time.