Eight surprising takeaways from the nominations

The first two words spoken during Thursday’s Oscar nominations surprised awards experts.

“Elle Fanning, ‘Sentimental Value,'” hosts Danielle Brooks and Lewis Pullman said as the nominations for Best Supporting Actress kicked off.

Fanning’s appearance got things off to a spicy start right from the start – she was praised for her performance in the Norwegian family drama, but few predicted a nomination.

That first category set the tone for a string of snubs and surprises that started coming thick and fast. Here are eight key takeaways.

While “Hamnet” and “Scene after Game” performed well, both performed slightly weaker than expected in the acting categories.

Paul Mescal Hamnet missed out on a Supporting Actor nomination — a surprising omission, although we’re sure it won’t have much of an impact on his co-star Jessie Buckley’s status as the Best Actress frontrunner.

Meanwhile, Four Big Actors Are Recognized in “Play After Show,” But Its Breakout Star Chase Infiniti Despite being a hot contender, she missed out on Best Actress.

This is a recognized competitive category. But she’s already 25 years old, and her performance in the movie has received rave reviews, and we’re pretty sure we haven’t heard the last of her.

Other actors who had momentum but ultimately disappeared include Jesse Plemons For Bugonia and Joel Edgerton For the train dream. But both films were nominated for Best Picture — so the Academy clearly liked them overall.

Brad Pitt’s performance as a comeback racing driver in “F1” was the biggest surprise in the best picture category.

It’s not an outlier – many awards pundits expect it to receive multiple offline nominations for its impressive technical achievements (we recommend seeing the film in a theater, or with surround sound if you can).

But the fact that it had enough momentum to push it into Best Picture is a real show of strength — especially without other major nominations in the Best Director or Acting categories.

It shows that the academy’s old guard still appreciates traditional, well-made films that can be enjoyed with just a bucket of popcorn.

“The Sinner” received a record-breaking 16 nominations, far more than the previous record holders “La La Land,” “Titanic” and “Come on Earth,” which each received 14 nominations.

Ryan Coogler’s vampire horror film has maintained momentum among voters since its release last spring.

But this is exactly the type of film the Academy wants to recognize. While a vampire movie may not be traditional Oscar bait, The Sinner is a true artistic achievement, blending genre horror with the blues of the 1930s, set in the Mississippi Delta.

Coogler also made headlines in Hollywood business publications last year for the deal he negotiated with Warner Bros. This would return ownership of the film to him 25 years later.

The first Wicked movie was nominated for 10 Oscars and ended up winning two. As such, its sequel received a zero rating, an extraordinary fall from grace.

However, this is largely expected. evil: doing good It was far less popular than its predecessor – a trait shared with the original musical.

The second act of the stage show is generally considered to be weaker than the first, partly because all the hits come before intermission.

But people still think “Wicked: For Good” might make it into some categories, with many predicting “Girl in the Bubble,” a song by ariana grande This was newly added for the film adaptation.

Another bombshell comes with better news, Avatar: Fire and Asheswhich received at least multiple technical nominations for visual effects and costume design.

Some of the most mainstream movies can be found in the animation category. This is where we find $1.7 billion in total revenue Zootopia 2 (known as Zootropolis 2 in the UK) and went viral K-Pop Demon Hunter.

The Sinner not only received the most nominations, but also created the only two Britons to be nominated in an acting category.

Fumi Mosaku and Delroy Lindo Won the Best Supporting Actress and Actor awards respectively.

While Mosaku’s performance was widely expected, Lindor’s performance was more of a surprise, and his addition is perhaps one of the biggest indicators of how much love there is for the Sinners across the academy.

A few years ago, Lindo narrowly missed out on a best actor nomination for Spike Lee’s Da 500 . The 73-year-old seems long overdue for an Oscar nomination.

The three actresses nominated Thursday ended up being the only recognition their films received.

Rose Byrne is the only representative of the motherhood drama “If I Had Legs I Would Kick You,” and Kate Hudson She rose to independent fame with the touching musical love story “Song Sung Blue.”

Meanwhile, the weapons star Amy Madigan Nominated for her role as an eccentric aunt who appears in small town America on the eve of the disappearance of local schoolchildren.

Madigan’s nomination is perhaps the most impressive, given that horror movies aren’t traditional Academy Award fodder.

But the 75-year-old is the enthusiastic choice of many experts and voters, and her fans have been fighting to get recognition for her memorable (and slightly terrifying) performance.

The newly introduced casting category overlaps with many of the regular front-runners, with nominees such as “Marty the Supremes,” “The Fight,” “Hamnet,” “The Sinner” and “The Secret Service.”

However, we can’t help but feel a little baffled that one other movie in particular missed out.

Although all four leads received individual nominations, “Sentimental Value” failed to receive a casting nomination – Stellan Skarsgård, Elle Fanning, Renate Reinsf and Inga Ibsdot Lillias.

If this quartet is impressive enough to be nominated individually, you’d think the casting directors who put them together – Avy Kaufman and Yngvill Kolset Haga – would have a good chance of getting the nod.

At last year’s Screen Actors Guild Awards, Timothée Chalamet of his desire to eventually be recognized as “one of the greats of Hollywood.”

He’s one step closer to that goal, and could win his first Oscar this year, becoming the clear front-runner for best actor in the table-tennis drama “Marty Supreme.”

Although Chalamet had only been nominated twice before, he was popular with the academy, starring in as many as eight films that were nominated for Best Picture.

He is also the youngest actor since Marlon Brando to receive three Best Actor nominations. In 1954, when Brando finished third for the third time, he was already 30 years old, the same age as Chalamet.

Timothy nearly won last year for his performance as Bob Dylan in Total Unknown, but we believe 2026 will be his time to dominate.