![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773143061_264_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nIf this year\u2019s best picture nominees had a theme, it\u2019s: Back off and let me do my work, whether it\u2019s lady-bossing, creature-building, race-car driving, \u201cHamlet\u201d-writing, ping-pong playing, revolution-stoking, juke-joint opening or logging the timber that built America. I dug moments in every one of them. But my work isn\u2019t done until I pick the nominee I wish would win in each of these categories \u2014 and then shout out to the skipped films that deserved to be in the conversation.<\/p>\n
Best picture <\/p>\n
Joaquin Phoenix, left, and Pedro Pascal in Ari Aster\u2019s \u201cEddington.\u201d<\/p>\n
(A24)<\/p>\n
\u201cBugonia\u201d
\u201cFrankenstein\u201d
\u201cF1\u201d
\u201cHamnet\u201d
\u201cMarty Supreme\u201d
\u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d
\u201cThe Secret Agent\u201d
\u201cSentimental Value\u201d
\u201cSinners\u201d
\u201cTrain Dreams\u201d<\/p>\n
Should win: \u201cSinners.\u201d <\/b>A best picture Oscar for \u201cSinners\u201d is damned near superfluous. Ryan Coogler already made his point that people will show up for original blockbusters. This Jim Crow-era murder musical is the best kind of smart filmmaking<\/a>, a barn-burner about religion and art and race that ditches the speeches for scenes of action and romance. Every character \u2014 from Miles Caton\u2019s rebellious guitarist and Jack O\u2019Connell\u2019s lilting vampire to Wunmi Mosaku\u2019s soulful witch and Michael B. Jordan\u2019s bootlegging twins Smoke and Stack \u2014 has been scarred by life in 1930s Mississippi. What\u2019s at stake for them is the chance to leave their own mark on the world in whatever time they\u2019ve got left (possibly forever). That\u2019s Coogler\u2019s challenge too, and this is his moment to encourage the industry to get back to making ambitious populist hits.<\/p>\n Should\u2019ve been a contender: \u201cEddington.\u201d <\/b>This year, I squabbled more about this mean and grisly pandemic satire than any other movie. But that\u2019s in keeping with \u201cEddington\u2019s\u201d pugnacious spirit. Against some audiences\u2019 will, Ari Aster\u2019s merciless black comedy<\/a> drags us back to May 2020 when tempers, temperatures and misinformation were heating up across America. Dueling civic leaders Sheriff Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) and Mayor Ted (Pedro Pascal) agree that COVID has yet to arrive in their New Mexican hamlet. Yet Aster diagnoses them, and everyone else, with a deadly case of social media brain rot. \u201cEddington\u201d scrutinizes our national psyche so intensely that it makes folks itchy. Give it a decade or two, and this will be the movie people reach for when they want to explain how this moment in history felt. And when they do, the room will sputter, \u201cWait, how did this not get a single Oscar nomination?\u201d<\/p>\n Director Director Paul Thomas Anderson, right, with Leonardo DiCaprio on the set of \u201cOne Battle After Another.\u201d<\/p>\n (Warner Bros. Pictures)<\/p>\n Paul Thomas Anderson, \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d Should win: Anderson. <\/b>More like should have won, won, won \u2014 many times before. Paul Thomas Anderson<\/a> is on everyone\u2019s list as one of our greatest working directors, whether you prefer his shaggy ensemble comedies or his uncompromising epics. \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d blends both together to become the perfect showcase for Anderson\u2019s knack for capturing human idiosyncrasies and spinning them into grand-scale storytelling. First, he hooks us on the interpersonal drama of a revolutionary group called the French 75. Then, he reveals that they\u2019re just one squadron in the never-ending war for liberation. It isn\u2019t my favorite Anderson film, but it\u2019s arguably the most Anderson film. He\u2019s earned this victory lap.<\/p>\n Should\u2019ve been a contender: Nia DaCosta, \u201cHedda.\u201d <\/b>DaCosta\u2019s ferocious adaptation<\/a> of Henrik Ibsen\u2019s \u201cHedda Gabler\u201d stars Tessa Thompson as a calculating wife who goes after \u2014 and gets \u2014 nearly everything she wants, from a gorgeous mansion and an obedient husband to a tryst with her lady lover in the hedge maze. If I had one-tenth of her manipulative skills, I could have gotten more people to watch this movie. (Perhaps I should have opened by firing off an antique pistol for attention.) DaCosta fathoms the deepest notes in Ibsen\u2019s classic as though they were whale song, remixing them into her own ode to a woman who needs healthier hobbies. She will get this nod someday. Like Hedda herself, she\u2019s too brazen, brilliant and entertaining to go ignored.<\/p>\n Lead actress Amanda Seyfried, center, in the movie \u201cThe Testament of Ann Lee.\u201d<\/p>\n (Searchlight Pictures)<\/p>\n Jessie Buckley, \u201cHamnet\u201d Should win: Byrne.<\/b> When did it hit you that Rose Byrne<\/a> can do anything? Who else could follow up the horror hit \u201cInsidious\u201d with \u201cBridesmaids,\u201d all the while earning Emmy nominations for the legal series \u201cDamages\u201d? Even so, her performance in \u201cIf I Had Legs I\u2019d Kick You\u201d<\/a> feels like rediscovering her range all over again. As the harried solo parent of a sick child, Byrne lets the camera zoom in so close to her character\u2019s insecurities that the audience breaks out in a cold sweat. She makes us laugh when she cries, and scream for her as she desperately tries to hold it together. Mary Bronstein\u2019s movie defies genres, straddling domestic drama, thriller and comedy. Just call it a Rose Byrne showcase.<\/p>\n Should\u2019ve been a contender: Amanda Seyfried, \u201cThe Testament of Ann Lee.\u201d<\/b> Skeptics could argue that there\u2019s one sure piece of evidence that God doesn\u2019t exist: Amanda Seyfried getting snubbed for her rapturous turn<\/a> as 18th century Shaker leader Ann Lee. The hair-whipping, chest-thumping church founder uprooted her polarizing sect from Manchester, England, to Manhattan before fleeing farther still into the countryside. It\u2019s a staggering portrait of a woman who can\u2019t escape her detractors or the personal trauma that triggered her vow of celibacy. As a bonus, Seyfried does it in song<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lead actor Benicio Del Toro and Mia Threapleton in the movie \u201cThe Phoenician Scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n (TPS Productions \/ Focus Features)<\/p>\n Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d Should win: Chalamet.<\/b> Marty Mauser wants to be the greatest ping-pong player on Earth. Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet wants to be the greatest actor of his generation. Both have the talent to back up their dreams. Naked ambition gets a bad rap. But ego isn\u2019t just Chalamet\u2019s engine, it\u2019s also his muse, whether he\u2019s swinging a paddle, riding a sandworm or strumming a guitar as Bob Dylan. He knows that \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d<\/a> holds an unflattering mirror up to his own drive and allows that to become its own backhanded compliment to the thrill of watching an actor chase success at all costs.<\/p>\n Should\u2019ve been a contender: Benicio Del Toro, \u201cThe Phoenician Scheme.\u201d <\/b>If \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d made you hungry for more Benicio Del Toro<\/a>, his star turn in Wes Anderson\u2019s \u201cThe Phoenician Scheme\u201d<\/a> is a hearty meal. His fat cat industrialist Zsa-Zsa Korda is no underground rebel. He\u2019s an amoral tycoon who would enslave an entire country to make a buck. But Del Toro gives the role the same irresistible moxie that earned him a supporting actor nomination for \u201cOne Battle.\u201d He\u2019s a master of both Andersonian acting styles: the freewheeling scamp and the scoundrel who speaks with a sniper\u2019s precision. I\u2019ll drink a few small beers to that.<\/p>\n Supporting actress Teyana Taylor in the movie \u201cOne Battle After Another.\u201d <\/p>\n (Warner Bros. Pictures)<\/p>\n Elle Fanning, \u201cSentimental Value\u201d Should win: Taylor.<\/b> Taylor\u2019s great betrayal comes a half-hour into \u201cOne Battle After Another,\u201d<\/a> when she disappears from the movie. The audience isn\u2019t ready to say goodbye to her rabble-rousing activist Perfidia Beverly Hills. Until then, in between explosions \u2014 and with zero apologies \u2014 Taylor reveals a woman struggling to control her own rage. She\u2019s a Molotov cocktail of contradictions, sacrificing her body to the vile Col. Lockjaw to serve the greater cause. But put her in a domestic cage and she\u2019ll blow up her own family to escape. Her fight for freedom leaves everyone scarred.<\/p>\n Should\u2019ve been a contender: Ariana Grande, \u201cWicked: For Good.\u201d<\/b> I wasn\u2019t that excited to return to Oz. But Ariana Grande\u2019s nimble Glinda<\/a> makes it worth the trip. In the first film, Cynthia Erivo\u2019s not-so-wicked witch Elphaba has the more interesting character arc. Here, the drama is in Glinda\u2019s disillusionment as she realizes she\u2019s become the pretty face of fascism. Her great, big burlesque performance is a striptease that, layer by layer, reveals her narcissism, her na\u00efvet\u00e9 and her broken heart. Of course she can sing too, but I was doubly impressed that she\u2019s a heck of a physical comedian.<\/p>\n Supporting actor Diego Luna, right, and Tonatiuh in the movie \u201cKiss of the Spider Woman.\u201d<\/p>\n (Sundance Institute)<\/p>\n Benicio Del Toro, \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d Should win: Skarsg\u00e5rd.<\/b> Maybe if I buy Skarsg\u00e5rd<\/a> a bottle of Absolut, he\u2019ll reveal to me which old lion (Ingmar Bergman? Philip Kaufman?) inspired his portrayal of \u201cSentimental Value\u2019s\u201d Gustav Borg, a faded filmmaker aching to make one more masterpiece. Years earlier, Borg ditched his Norwegian family to seek out art-house fame abroad. His options have dwindled; his self-regard hasn\u2019t. Skarsg\u00e5rd doesn\u2019t shy away from scenes that expose why his older daughter, Nora (Renate Reinsve<\/a>), rejects his awkward attempts to reconnect, like when he flatters himself that strangers probably assume the two of them are on a date. His dynamic with Elle Fanning\u2019s American starlet is even more engaging: two strivers on opposite ends of their career arcs cheerfully negotiating how much they can help each other.<\/p>\n Should\u2019ve been a contender: Diego Luna, \u201cKiss of the Spider Woman.\u201d <\/b>Both of Luna\u2019s co-stars signed onto \u201cKiss of the Spider Woman\u201d<\/a> with something to prove: Jennifer Lopez, that she remains a dynamic triple threat; and Tonatiuh<\/a>, that he\u2019s a new talent worthy of landing on every casting directors\u2019 list. They succeeded \u2014 this musical is an underrated gem \u2014 but its Luna\u2019s less showy performance that truly winds up stealing your heart. Playing a hard-line political prisoner in 1983 Argentina, his Valentin starts the film rejecting everything it stands for: romance, fantasy, overwhelming emotions. His slow thaw makes you melt, especially when Bill Condon whirls him into a dreamscape and he begins to sing. No wonder the other characters see him as the ideal hero.<\/p>\n Adapted screenplay Josh O\u2019Connor, left, and Daniel Craig in the movie \u201cWake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n (John Wilson \/ Netflix)<\/p>\n \u201cBugonia\u201d Should win: \u201cFrankenstein.\u201d <\/b>Guillermo del Toro chased after remaking his favorite monster movie<\/a> for over a decade. Yet when he finally did, he added a new ghoul: an Industrial Age venture capitalist (Christoph Waltz) who funds Dr. Frankenstein\u2019s laboratory for his own selfish means. Think Peter Thiel with a pocket watch. Del Toro updated his passion project because he seems genuinely scared of where the modern world is headed. If anything, his adaptation proves Mary Shelley\u2019s prescience. She\u2019s been warning us since 1818 that vainglorious innovators will destroy the earth.<\/p>\n Should\u2019ve been a contender: \u201cWake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.\u201d <\/b>It\u2019s a mystery to me why Rian Johnson\u2019s third and best \u201cKnives Out\u201d movie<\/a> didn\u2019t scare up more awards attention. Until now, his detective franchise has been a romp. But \u201cWake Up Dead Man\u201d is a funny gothic whodunit in which the twist is an ending that squeezes out a tear. Narratively, Daniel Craig\u2019s returning lead Benoit Blanc takes a back pew to the conflict between a sensitive priest and a malignant monsignor who has turned away from Jesus\u2019 teachings. Murder is afoot but we\u2019re as invested in witnessing today\u2019s church go to war over its own ideals. It\u2019d make a good double feature with last year\u2019s adapted screenplay winner, \u201cConclave.\u201d<\/p>\n Original screenplay Th\u00e9odore Pellerin in the movie \u201cLurker.\u201d<\/p>\n (Mubi)<\/p>\n \u201cBlue Moon\u201d Should win: \u201cSinners.\u201d <\/b>Ryan Coogler\u2019s screenplay keeps every one of its promises. Even lines that feel casually tossed off at the start of the film \u2014 say, when one character threatens to shoot another where he stands \u2014 eventually come true. Call it Chekhov\u2019s Tommy gun. Despite \u201cSinners\u2019\u201d oiled mechanics, what\u2019s truly marvelous about the script is the space it gives the characters to breathe and the room it leaves the audience to decide whether they agree with the vampires that death is preferable to a life of subjugation. I\u2019ve seen it three times now and I\u2019m still amazed at Coogler\u2019s ability to reveal his cards and still have them feel like a surprise.<\/p>\n Should\u2019ve been a contender: \u201cLurker\u201d <\/b>At the risk of sounding like a creep, I\u2019m a big admirer of Alex Russell\u2019s psychodrama<\/a> about a rising L.A. musician and the fanboy stalker who weasels into his inner circle. \u201cLurker\u201d is one part cringe comedy, one part inquiry into the limits of online celebrity \u2014 an ideal recipe for Russell, a former writer and producer on \u201cThe Bear\u201d and \u201cBeef.\u201d A hilarious entourage attempts to fend off Th\u00e9odore Pellerin\u2019s awkward social climber with the year\u2019s most perilous, pitfall-laden dialogue. But there\u2019s real depth in how the screenplay also shows Archie Madekwe\u2019s charismatic aspiring singer running face-first into the contradictions of building his brand on being an internet goofball. <\/p>\n Animated feature A scene from the animated movie \u201cKPop Demon Hunters.\u201d<\/p>\n (Netflix)<\/p>\n \u201cArco\u201d Should win: \u201cKPop Demon Hunters.\u201d<\/b> No contest, \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d<\/a> slays. Like the idol supergroups it celebrates, this Netflix hit has been engineered to entertain. Directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans clearly dote on every frame of this crowdpleaser, from its style and speed to the earwormy songs. Several films seized the zeitgeist this year but only this one kept returning to theaters for an encore. What a testament to the theatrical experience that it topped the box office when fans could have continued streaming it at home.<\/p>\n Should\u2019ve been a contender: \u201cPredator: Killer of Killers.\u201d <\/b>The setup of this animated film sounds like a gag: A Viking, a ninja and a World War II pilot are thrown into a Predator movie that plays like a grisly triptych. Each faces a fight to the death that\u2019s so spine-rippingly gruesome you can\u2019t imagine how it could be filmed in live-action. I resisted for a while and then fully succumbed to its warrior spirit. Dan Trachtenberg (who also directed \u201cPrey\u201d and \u201cPredator: Badlands\u201d<\/a>) is going to extremes to prove that franchise sequels can feel unique. You can\u2019t argue with his conviction \u2014 and you won\u2019t want to once you see him inventively kill an animated character every minute. Hulu may have wagered that \u201cKiller of Killers\u201d was too brutal for academy voters, but I kinda wish it had followed \u201cKPop\u2019s\u201d lead and soldiered ahead with giving this streaming-only film a for-consideration theatrical release.<\/p>\n Documentary feature Ksenia Mironova in the documentary \u201cMy Undesirable Friends: Part I \u2014 Last Air in Moscow.\u201d<\/p>\n (Julia Loktev)<\/p>\n \u201cCome See Me in the Good Light\u201d Should win: \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor.\u201d<\/b> This wrenching documentary<\/a> takes place on a Florida cul-de-sac where kids play outside from dawn till dusk. Sounds idyllic, except one neighbor keeps summoning the cops \u2014 and eventually someone gets shot. Documentarian Geeta Gandbhir retraces this slow-moving tragedy through the body camera footage of the exasperated officers who know that the caller, not the children, is the problem. Nevertheless, it persists. These citizens become a 21st century Greek chorus and, compellingly, Gandbhir keeps checking in on them after the murder so that we feel the victim\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n Should\u2019ve been a contender: \u201cMy Undesirable Friends: Part I \u2014 Last Air in Moscow.\u201d<\/b> Buckle in. Nothing about Julia Loktev\u2019s monumental project<\/a> is a comfortable watch. First, there\u2019s the five-and-a-half-hour running time. And second, there\u2019s the audience\u2019s uncomfortable tingle of recognition watching Vladimir Putin\u2019s tightening stranglehold on the Russian press. (For one, he refuses to let journalists call the war in Ukraine a \u201cwar.\u201d) The friends of the title host a young and punkish TV station that the government claims is full of so-called \u201cforeign agents\u201d \u2014 as in, people who say things Putin doesn\u2019t like. They drink wine, they joke about the hidden spy bugs in their apartments and they wonder openly how they\u2019ll know when it\u2019s time to flee their beloved homeland before they wind up in prison. Loketv already has a sequel in the works: \u201cMy Undesirable Friends: Part II \u2014 Exile.\u201d<\/p>\n International feature An image from the movie \u201cSir\u0101t,\u201d directed by Oliver Laxe.<\/p>\n (Festival de Cannes)<\/p>\n \u201cIt Was Just an Accident\u201d Should win: \u201cSir<\/b>\u0101t.\u201d <\/b>Oliver Laxe<\/a>\u2019s road movie about a father and son who caravan across Morocco with a pack of tattooed strangers is set in a vast desert where you still somehow never see the plot\u2019s curveballs coming. The first time I saw this apocalyptic adventure, it felt like a prank. On a second watch, \u201cSir\u0101t\u201d became a philosophical provocation<\/a> \u2014 a movie that questions everything we believe about family and security and community and faith. Like the techno-thumping soundtrack that powers the action and sets our nerves on end, it leaves you with the best kind of headache.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773143063_948_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Ryan Coogler, \u201cSinners\u201d
Josh Safdie, \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d
Joachim Trier, \u201cSentimental Value\u201d
Chlo\u00e9 Zhao, \u201cHamnet\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773143063_546_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Rose Byrne, \u201cIf I Had Legs I\u2019d Kick You\u201d
Kate Hudson, \u201cSong Sung Blue\u201d
Renate Reinsve, \u201cSentimental Value\u201d
Emma Stone, \u201cBugonia\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773143065_639_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Leonardo DiCaprio, \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d
Ethan Hawke, \u201cBlue Moon\u201d
Michael B. Jordan, \u201cSinners\u201d
Wagner Moura, \u201cThe Secret Agent\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773143066_410_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, \u201cSentimental Value\u201d
Amy Madigan, \u201cWeapons\u201d
Wunmi Mosaku, \u201cSinners\u201d
Teyana Taylor, \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773143067_588_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Jacob Elordi, \u201cFrankenstein\u201d
Delroy Lindo, \u201cSinners\u201d
Sean Penn, \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d
Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd, \u201cSentimental Value\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773143068_948_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cFrankenstein\u201d
\u201cHamnet\u201d
\u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d
\u201cTrain Dreams\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773143068_906_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt Was Just an Accident\u201d
\u201cMarty Supreme\u201d
\u201cSentimental Value\u201d
\u201cSinners\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773143069_160_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cElio\u201d
\u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d
\u201cLittle Am\u00e9lie or the Character of Rain\u201d
\u201cZootopia 2\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773143070_221_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cCutting Through the Rocks\u201d
\u201cMr. Nobody Against Putin\u201d
\u201cThe Alabama Solution\u201d
\u201cThe Perfect Neighbor\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Several](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773143071_456_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cSentimental Value\u201d
\u201cSir\u0101t\u201d
\u201cThe Secret Agent\u201d
\u201cThe Voice of Hind Rajab\u201d<\/p>\n