The red carpet is ready and the tension is in the air. The 98th Oscar Awards have been reduced to a duel of titans: on the one hand, the supernatural ambition of Sinners and, on the other, the political explosiveness of One Battle After Another.
Although the list of nominees is a luxury, the industry consensus is that the golden statuette has only two possible destinations.
These are the favorites for Best Picture at the 2026 Oscars
These are the nominees for Best Picture at the 2026 Oscars:
-> F1
-> One Battle After Another
-> The Secret Agent
-> Hamnet
-> Sinners
-> Marty Supreme
-> Sentimental Value
-> Bugonia
-> Frankenstein
-> Dream Of TrainsWho wins The Oscar 👀#Oscars2026 pic.twitter.com/sDIDWA5DXx
– Lugar Cinema🎬 (@LugarCinema) January 22, 2026
The Oscar race for Best Picture comes down to a duel between the ambition of Sinners and the explosiveness of One Battle After Another, two clashing male visions that transform social conflicts into a titanic duel for the top prize.
The head-to-head between the two projects is shaping up to be the most indecisive of a gala that still presents many unknowns in most of the categories, with the Academy divided between technical innovation and traditional storytelling.
Although the honor roll is completed by titles such as Hamnet, Marty Supreme, Train Dreams, Bugonia, Frankenstein, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value and F1, the course of the season has ended up tightening the circle on the two great giants of the year.
Why Sinners?
Sinners is rooted in identity. For Wunmi Mosaku, stepping into Annie’s world meant reconnecting with her own heritage – honoring culture, ancestry, and truth in every moment on screen. Watch as she embodies this character and honors the legacy. pic.twitter.com/9cpptMM8bv
– SinnersMovie (@SinnersMovie) February 27, 2026
Ryan Coogler’s proposal reaches a historic dimension by setting a new absolute record with its 16 nominations, a figure hitherto unheard of in the Academy’s records.
While this rundown of mentions does not guarantee that ‘Sinners’ should reign supreme in the top category, the magnitude of its presence portends a symptom of consensus among Hollywood Academy voters.
And the film has been gaining muscle in this year’s awards season, with Golden Globes that praised the soundtrack, composed by Ludwig Göransson, and considered it the greatest cinematic achievement at the box office.
It failed to win the award for best drama film, but far from looking like a stumble, Coogler’s film won the favor of the Hollywood Critics and America’s largest actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA.
In fact, the victory in the Actor Awards, as the SAG-AFTRA awards have become known, has sown confusion in the betting pools, by displacing the hegemony that her main competitor in the contest had held up to that moment.
Supported by Michael B. Jordan’s double performance, the film uses the codes of supernatural suspense to make an X-ray about guilt and survival that transcends genre cinema.
Why One Battle After Another?
The New Yorker says Paul Thomas Anderson’s “‘One Battle After Another’ doesn’t simply meet the moment…it forges a moment all its own, and insists that better ones could still lie ahead.” Nominated for 13 Academy Awards and 14 BAFTA Awards including Best Picture. Now playing in… pic.twitter.com/79RKM9cHkQ
– One Battle After Another (@onebattlemovie) January 30, 2026
For its part, the film by the acclaimed Paul Thomas Anderson boasts of having won the medals of the biggest awards.
It won the Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture Comedy/Musical and the BAFTAs, two of the most reliable thermometers in the Oscar race.
Its success is not only due to the talent of its actors, major players on the Hollywood chessboard: from Leonardo DiCaprio to Sean Penn and Puerto Rican Benicio del Toro.
Also for dealing with a highly charged narrative such as the immigration conflict in the United States and white supremacism.
Through a frenetically paced choral structure, the film dissects the dynamics of power and the humanitarian crisis on the border to articulate a story that connects with the contemporary debate on identity and presents itself as an impactful social testimony.
Hamnet and The Secret Agent waiting for a surprise
A film that will leave you speechless.
Nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, #Hamnet is streaming now on Peacock. pic.twitter.com/5DlBGnlvlJ
– Peacock (@peacock) March 6, 2026
In a gala where anything can happen, titles such as Hamnet, Marty Supreme or the Brazilian The Secret Agent emerge as the great alternatives to the duel of the titans, although it is unlikely that they will prevail.
Chloé Zhao’s emotional work based on Maggie O’Farrell’s play is positioned as a strong contender for its technical quality.
It also snatched the Golden Globe from Sinners in the Best Motion Picture in a Drama category.
Brazil’s bets seem to be focused on the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, but Kleber Mendonça Filho’s project starring Wagner Moura has become the international film of the season and has consolidated its prestige in Latin American cinema.
Timothée Chalamet’s Marty Supreme Mastery has also earned its place among the most lauded films for its originality, although its victory in the main category would depend on extraordinary factors of greater weight, such as the fragmentation of the vote among giants.
Filed under: Favorites Oscar 2026 Best Picture
With information from EFE
