Hollywood’s award season is coming to a close within a week of this article’s publication. The Academy Awards will air Sunday, March 15, 2026, commemorating a particularly prolific year in cinematography. Ryan Coolger’s Sinners leads the pack with 16 nominations, the most in Oscar history. Close behind is Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a father and former revolutionary searching for his lost daughter, Willa. The film earned 13 nominations.
In preparation for this year’s Oscars, here’s a breakdown of what features deserve a watch before celebrating with fellow movie-lovers.
First, and rather unsurprisingly, is Sinners. Though suggesting that audiences watch the most-nominated film of the season may not be a very original take, it’s nevertheless a reliable one. Sinners amalgamates both horror and action in a chronicle of two twin brothers’ migration from Chicago to Mississippi. Set in the milieu of the 1930s Jim Crow era, Sinners employs vampirical allegories, which haunt the brothers’ exodus, as a means of expressing the torments of racism, systematic oppression, and exploitation. Among the film’s many nominations are Best Picture and Original Song. Michael B. Jordan is nominated for his leading role as Smoke, and Delroy Lindo and Wunmi Mosaku are nominated for their respective supporting performances as Delta Slim and Annie.
Second on the watchlist is Marty Supreme. The movie and the film’s titular character, Timothée Chalamet, are nominated for Best Picture and Best Actor respectively. The feature follows hustler and table tennis legend Marty Mauser, who is loosely based on the real-life showman Marty Reisman.
“I saw Marty Supreme during my Jan Plan at Colby, and I didn’t really know what to expect,” one student said. “But I don’t think anyone can really prepare themselves for Marty Supreme. It was nothing like what I’d imagined; which, in certain ways, may be why some people I know were perturbed by the movie. But I loved it. Definitely a must watch.”
To this point, describing Marty Supreme in any more detail than the aforementioned is rather difficult. Even alluding to another aspect of the film risks spoilers. Every component is interconnected, every dialogue and interaction somehow critical later on.
As a final suggestion, one student proposes watching Hamnet. The drama explores the death of William Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, which served as the catalyst for the playwright’s renowned work Hamlet.
“I didn’t really know a lot of the backstory of [Hamnet], so the music was the first thing that drew me in,” Sailor Perry `29 says. “The casting was spot on. The costume design was great. It was one of the best movies I’ve watched.”
A non-exhaustive list of the film’s nominations include Best Picture, Original Score, Casting, and Production Design. Jessie Buckley is also nominated for her leading role as Agnes, Shakespeare’s wife.
The features nominated for the 2026 Academy Awards reflect the vibrant, meaningful, and creative modes in which the arts contribute to society. This year’s nominations appeal to audiences in the ways all good movies should: by revealing the inequalities of our history, serving as markers of cultural moments, and simply providing a source of escape and entertainment.
~ Maya Corrie `29
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