The 2026 Oscar Nominations Confirm An Academy Awards Trend, And It's Been A Long Time Coming

The 2026 Oscar nominations have the film community celebrating and disappointed, simultaneously, as is the case with the awards ceremony every year. Being the glamorous end to awards season, it is always the most anticipated event, and its nominations regularly spark heated discussions among passionate fans rooting for their favorite movies, actors, and filmmakers.

The biggest snubs and surprises among the 2026 Oscar nominations have been met with strong opinions from film buffs who disagree strongly with the unconventional decisions made by the Academy. Some of the most beloved films have been snubbed this year, including Sorry, Baby; Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc; and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.

However, one of the biggest surprises broke a long-held Academy Awards record. Meeting the prediction made by many fans, horror movies featured heavily among the 2026 Oscar nominees, breaking a consistent Oscars trend. Horror is the most ignored genre in the Academy's history, and as a fan, this moment feels long overdue.

Sinners Has Become The Most Nominated Movie In Oscars History

Ryan Coogler's Sinners has been the talk of Tinseltown ever since it opened in theaters nearly nine months ago. However, the awards season drew even more eyes to the film, and it's being celebrated as a generational Hollywood success story. A horror movie rarely receives serious attention from the Academy, but this one has fully broken the mold.

Sinners is hardly the first movie to overcome the Oscars' well-documented disdain for horror; just last year, The Substance was nominated for Oscars in five categories, including Best Picture. But with 16 nominations, Sinners has become the most-nominated film in the history of the Academy Awards in any genre.

Sinners' all-time Oscar nominations record comes as a result of being nominated in every category it was eligible in. This is also an incredibly rare feat, and Sinners is the only feature to have ever achieved it. So, if you care about awards shows, there has never been a better time to be a fan of horror movies.

Frankenstein Is Netflix's Big Movie At The Oscars In 2026

Every year since the 2020s, Netflix becomes a bigger presence at the Academy Awards. Its rise in popularity as a serious contender for the Oscars can be traced back to 2019, when Alfonso Cuarón's Roma won 3 Oscars, including Best International Feature. However, it's mostly from 2020 that multiple Netflix movies have been major contenders at the Academy Awards.

While Netflix has been campaigning for multiple films over the past years, it intently focuses on one of its bigger movies. This year, the choice was Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of the novel. While Netflix's Frankenstein is a symptom of Hollywood's remake problem, it's heartening to see a major studio push for a horror movie and earn nine nominations.

Amy Madigan Is Nominated For Best Supporting Actress For Weapons

Horror is a genre that is heavily reliant on the strength of performances. Without committed acting from the cast that reflects the utmost belief in the movie's concepts, horror won't trigger fear in its viewers. Yet, the performances in horror films were, until very recently, regularly dismissed as being too theatrical to have artistic merit, resulting in repeated Oscar snubs.

Get Out is a modern movie that reshaped the industry by making elevated horror popular and earning an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Unfortunately, as a consequence, entertaining, mainstream horror was further ignored. This year, this has finally changed, as Amy Madigan's Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination is for Weapons, a fun horror movie not concerned with being highbrow.

The Ugly Stepsister Is A Surprise Nomination At This Year's Oscars

From the beginning of the medium, the most effective scares in horror movies have relied on practical and visual effects. The hard work of makeup and costume design departments has given us iconic horror movie characters like Ghostface, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface, and Michael Myers. However, much like their colleagues, the people responsible for these are also rarely given accolades.

Even that's been changing, though. The Academy has nominated The Ugly Stepsister for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. Horror was by far the best movie genre of 2025, and this nomination recognizes how big horror cinema was even outside of Hollywood. As a darker revision of Cinderella, the film's costumes played a big role in storytelling, and the nomination is deserved.

The 28 Years Later Snub Is Disappointing But Unsurprising

It is entirely possible that there isn't as big a change in the Oscars' perception of horror as Sinners' record-breaking nominations would suggest. Danny Boyle's well-reviewed 28 Years Later was one of 2025's best horror movies, and everyone who loves the film will tell you how stunning it looks, from sprawling landscapes to terrifying shadows.

A Best Director nod is difficult to justify because of the intense competition in that category this year, with some of the biggest names in the industry competing for a spot among the nominees. However, it's disappointing that the Academy didn't nominate 28 Years Later for Best Cinematography. Perhaps there are corners of the horror genre that will still have to fight to get the attention they deserve.