Awards Season

CultureMap critic's guide to the 2026 Oscar Best Picture nominees

Michael B. Jordan and Miles Caton in Sinners

Sinners leads all films at the 2026 Academy Awards with a stunning 16 nominations.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

The nominations for the 2026 Academy Awards have been announced, with 10 films vying for Best Picture. Leading the way is Sinners with an astonishing 16 nominations, the most in Oscars history.

The other top films include One Battle After Another, which earned 13 nominations, and Marty Supreme, Frankenstein, and Sentimental Value, which each got 9 nominations.

As a refresher, below are links to the full reviews for each of the nominees covered by CultureMap in the past year, as well as brief thoughts on the films and their various nominations.

Movie fans will have plenty of time to catch up with each of the nominees, as this year's Oscars ceremony will not take place until Sunday, March 15.

Here's the list of Best Picture nominees, in alphabetical order:

Bugonia
Yet another off-the-wall film from director Yorgos Lanthimos features two great performances by Emma Stone (nominated for Best Actress) and Jesse Plemons at its center. Written by Will Tracy (nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay), the conspiracy theory film is alternately brutal and funny as the characters played by Stone and Plemons use their form of power to try to manipulate the other. With a fair amount of intrigue and two great actors going head-to-head for much of its running time, it gives even more Oscar pedigree to its filmmakers and stars.

F1
The biggest surprise among the Best Picture nominees has to be the racing movie F1. It was a technical marvel, to be sure, as its nominations in Film Editing, Sound, and Visual Affects attest. But the fact that it has no other nominations in any of the above the fold categories indicates that its other qualities are lacking. As a showcase (aka advertisement) for the sport it depicts, the film works relatively well. As a complete movie, though, there’s not much to recommend, to the point that it almost negates any of the positives that come from the racing scenes.

Frankenstein (not reviewed)
Writer/director Guillermo del Toro (nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay) loves himself a monster movie, and he takes on one of the classics with his new version of Frankenstein (now streaming on Netflix). Oscar Isaac plays Victor Frankenstein, who brings to life The Creature, played by Jacob Elordi (nominated for Best Supporting Actor). With a slew of nominations in technical categories, there's a chance this film goes home with a lot of awards at this year's ceremony.

Hamnet (not reviewed)
Writer/director Chloé Zhao (nominated for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay alongside co-writer Maggie O'Farrell) gets back to her Oscar-worthy skills for the first time since 2020's Nomadland (after the unfortunate detour into the MCU with Eternals). A story about love, loss, and grief involving William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, the film is most notable for the performances of its two leads, Jessie Buckley (nominated for Best Actress) and Paul Mescal.

Marty Supreme
There was no other movie this year, or maybe even this century, like Marty Supreme. Directed and co-written by Josh Safdie (nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay alongside co-writer Ronald Bronstein), the film is an almost continuous blast of pure energy for 2 ½ hours. So many different things happen over the course of the film that the story defies conventional narratives. At its center is the fast-talking, powerhouse performance by star Timothée Chalamet (nominated for Best Actor), who cements his status as his generation’s movie star one year after playing the polar opposite role of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. Look for the film to be a strong contender in the inaugural Best Casting category, as Safdie fills the film with non-actors who are crucial to the film's success.

One Battle After Another
Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson (nominated for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay) has an acclaimed career going back 30 years, but has yet to actually win an Oscar. That will change this year, as One Battle After Another is one of the favorites to win Best Picture thanks to Anderson's stellar filmmaking, as well as multiple great performances that earned the film four acting nominations (Leonardo DiCaprio for Best Actor, Teyana Taylor for Best Supporting Actress, and Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn for Best Supporting Actor). Add in a story with a very timely political critique (that's getting more relevant by the day) and you have the recipe for a big winner on Oscar night.

The Secret Agent (not reviewed)
No foreign country has quite the influence on the Oscars as Brazil, which for the second straight year has gotten one of its films nominated for both Best International Feature Film and Best Picture. Written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, the film is anchored by the performance of Wagner Moura (nominated for Best Actor) as a technology expert in the late 1970s who flees from a mysterious past to try to find peace in his hometown.

Sentimental Value (not reviewed)
For the third year in a row, two international films made the cut in the Best Picture race (but whither It Was Just an Accident?). Directed and co-written by Joachim Trier (nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay alongside co-writer Eskil Vogt), the film is tied for the most acting nominations this year, earning nods for Renate Reinsve for Best Actress, Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas for Best Supporting Actress, and Stellan Skarsgård for Best Supporting Actor.

Sinners
It takes a special kind of filmmaker to make movies that are both popular and Oscar-worthy, and writer/director Ryan Coogler (nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay) has done it again, seven years after helming the Oscar-winning Black Panther. Both a tribute to Black music history and a gnarly vampire movie, the film is led by Michael B. Jordan (nominated for Best Actor) in dual roles as twins Smoke and Stack. With a story infused with all manner of subtext and a bunch of great supporting performances, including Best Supporting Actress nominee Wunmi Mosaku, the film demonstrates Coogler's great filmmaking abilities that should keep him in demand for years to come. Amazingly, there was only one category for which it was eligible in which it did not receive a nomination.

Train Dreams (not reviewed)
The second Netflix movie this year to be nominated, Train Dreams is a contemplative film about a logger (played by Joel Edgerton) in early 20th century America who tries to adapt to a rapidly-changing world. Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for the script by director Clint Bentley and co-writer Greg Kwedar, the film is most notable for the work done by Adolpho Veloso (nominated for Best Cinematography), who showcases the Pacific Northwest in all its glory.

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R.I.P.

Texas actor James Van Der Beek, beloved for Dawson's Creek, dies at 48

James Van Der Beek/Instagram

James Van Der Beek announced he was being treated for colorectal cancer in 2024.

Actor James David Van Der Beek has died, according to an announcement on his social media. He was 48 years old.

"Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning," the post reads. "He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace. There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity, and the sacredness of time. Those days will come. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend.

Van Der Beek shared in 2020 that he and his family were moving to the Austin area, and they settled in Spicewood. He announced his colorectal cancer diagnosis in 2024.

In late 2025, Van Der Beek auctioned some of his TV memorabilia from his time on Dawson's Creek to pay for his treatment.

The actor originally starred in coming-of-age dramas at the dawn of the new millennium, shooting to fame playing the titular character in Dawson’s Creek and in later years parodied his own hunky persona.

Forever tied to ‘Dawson’s Creek'
A one-time theater kid, Van Der Beek would star in the movie Varsity Blues and on TV in CSI: Cyber as FBI Special Agent Elijah Mundo, but was forever connected to Dawson’s Creek, which ran from 1998 to 2003 on The WB.

The series followed a group of high school friends as they learned about falling in love, creating real friendships and finding their footing in life. Van Der Beek, then 20, played 15-year-old Dawson Leery, who aspired to be a director of Steven Spielberg quality.

With Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want To Wait,” as its moody theme song, Dawson's Creek helped define The WB as a haven for teens and young adults who related to its hyper-articulate dialogue and frank talk about sexuality. And it made household names of Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, and Joshua Jackson.

“While James' legacy will always live on, this is a huge loss to not just your family but the world,” Sarah Michelle Gellar wrote to his widow on Instagram. Katharine McPhee Foster added: “This is just beyond devastating news.” Others posting messages of mourning were Jenna Dewan and Olivia Munn.

The show caused a stir when one of the teens embarked on a racy affair with a teacher 20 years his senior and when Holmes' character climbed through Dawson's bedroom window and they curled up together. Racier shows like Euphoria and Sex Education owe a debt to Dawson's Creek.

Van Der Beek sometimes struggled to get out from under the shadow of the show but eventually leaned into lampooning himself, like on Funny Or Die videos and on Kesha's “Blow” music video, which included his laser gun battle with the pop star in a nightclub and dead unicorns.

“It’s tough to compete with something that was the cultural phenomenon that Dawson’s Creek was,” he told Vulture in 2013. “It ran for so long. That’s a lot of hours playing one character in front of people. So it’s natural that they associate you with that.”

A popular GIF and Varsity Blues
More than a decade after the show went off the air, a scene at the end of the show’s third season became a GIF. Dawson was watching as his soul mate embarks on a love affair with his best friend and burst into tears.

“It wasn’t scripted that I was supposed to cry; it was just one of those things where it’s a magical moment and it just happens in the scene,” Van Der Beek told Vanity Fair. He seemed exasperated when he told the Los Angeles Times: “All of a sudden, six years of work was boiled down to one seven-second clip on loop.” (Van Der Beek himself recreated the GIF in 2011 for Funny or Die and gave it a second life.)

While still on Dawson’s Creek, Van Der Beek hosted Saturday Night Live — the musical guest was Everlast — and landed a plumb role in Varsity Blues, playing a second-string high school quarterback who leaps into the breach when the star suffers an injury.

Van Der Beek’s character, Mox, turns out to not be a football fanatic, preferring to read Kurt Vonnegut and yearning for the college education that will allow him to escape the jock mentality of his Texas town.

“I don’t want your life,” he screams at one point. Critic Roger Ebert called him “convincing and likable.

After Dawson’s Creek
Some of his projects after Dawson’s Creek included co-creating and playing Wesley “Diplo” Pentz, a dull but likable music producer in the mockumentary satire on Viceland, What Would Diplo Do? In 2019, he made it to the semifinals of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and played a balding, out-of-shape ex-boyfriend on How I Met Your Mother.

“The more you make fun of yourself and don’t try to go for any kind of respect, the more people seem to respect you,” he told Vanity Fair in 2011. “I’ve always been a clown trapped in a leading man’s body.”

Between 2003 and 2013, he made appearances in shows like Criminal Minds, One Tree Hill, and How I Met Your Mother. He played himself with a crackpot intensity in the Krysten Ritter-led ABC drama Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23, and the short-lived CSI spinoff CSI: Cyber and CBS’ Friends With Better Lives.

He’s also appeared in movies such as Kevin Smith’s 2001 comedy Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and its 2019 sequel, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. He was in the Bret Easton Ellis adaptation of The Rules of Attraction in 2002 opposite Jessica Biel and Kate Bosworth.

In 2025, he was unmasked as Griffin on The Masked Singer, after singing a cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone and Morgan Wallen.

Early life as a theater kid
Van Der Beek, who was raised in Cheshire, Connecticut, started acting at 13 after suffering a concussion playing football that prevented him from playing for a year. He landed the role of Danny Zuko in his school production of Grease.

He stuck with theater, landing at 16 in 1994 an off-Broadway role in Finding the Sun by Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Albee and one of the sons in a revival of Shenandoah at the prestigious Goodspeed Opera House in his home state.

He earned a scholarship to New Jersey’s Drew University but left school early when he was cast in Dawson’s Creek. In 2024, he returned to campus to accept an honorary degree for his “selfless service and exemplary commitment to the mission of Drew,” the university said.

Drew University President Hilary Link welcomed Van Der Beek with a popular quote from his Dawson’s Creek character: “Edge is fleeting,” she said, “but heart lasts forever. So on this morning, we pay tribute to that heart.”

He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, and six children, Olivia, Joshua, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn and Jeremiah. A GoFundMe fundraiser has been established for the family.

___

AP Music Writer Maria Sherman and CultureMap Austin editor Brianna Caleri contributed to this report.

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