Coogler vs. Anderson: Oscars 2026 is here
The 98th Academy Awards are tonight, and the competition is as high as it gets
One Battle After Another, Sinners, and Marty Supreme are among the notable films nominated at this year's Academy Awards. (Warner Bros./A24/Suneet Gill)
Every year, the Academy Awards ceremony becomes the centre of everyone’s attention. While prestigious as an accolade, winning an Oscar is also a great booster to one’s popularity — and it’s the cacophony of talks, scandals, and criticism that makes the whole night so anticipated.
Casual viewers and professional cinema critics alike come up with various analyses and predictions. Not to make an exception, I’m hopping into the ongoing dispute and offering my own list of the possible winners for tonight’s 98th Academy Awards.
It’s impossible not to start this discussion with the picture that earned the most nominations in Oscars history: Sinners.
Directed by Ryan Coogler, this film produced enormous buzz at the time of its release. The story of two twin brothers who return home to the Jim Crow South, and fight off singing vampires in their recently established juke joint, acquired instant public appreciation. The film explores Black culture and freedom set up with some sweet blues tunes.
The blend of musical, horror, and action genres, coupled with an extraordinary performance from Michael B. Jordan — who played both protagonists with distinct temperaments and mannerisms — racked up a shocking 16 nominations.
While the chances of Coogler’s magnum opus winning the “Big Five” look very promising, they are very slim when it comes to the rest of the nominations. Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor are the most probable picks. Any other year, there would be no doubts about Sinners sweeping the competition, but this time it will be extremely tough to accomplish.
One of the movies that matched, and perhaps even excelled, the buzz created by Sinners is Paul Thomas Anderson’s black-comedy thriller One Battle After Another. Anderson, who boasts 11 career Oscar nominations and whose legacy includes such epochal projects like There Will Be Blood and Boogie Nights, poses the main threat to Coogler’s triumph.
His satirical, jaw-dropping film about an aged ex-revolutionary who jumps back into action to retrieve his daughter, abducted by a corrupted military officer, acquired 13 nominations. A resonant story presented in Anderson’s unmistakable style — with impressive long-shot scenes, ambiguous characters, and a mind-boggling score — has already earned the maestro BAFTAs and Golden Globes.
Now, there is only one piece missing from the puzzle, and in all likelihood, Anderson will get it as well.
Surely, both Sinners and One Battle After Another are the undisputed favourites this awards season, but there’s a dark horse silently trotting behind them that can break through at any moment. It is Josh Safdie’s sports drama Marty Supreme.
Of course, saying that it didn’t create any noise would not just be an understatement but a straight lie. In fact, Marty Supreme became the topic of heated discussions among movie-goers long before its release. A huge reason for such attention was Timothée Chalamet’s brilliant promotional campaign. Chalamet completely changed his style and stuck to the image of an eccentric young ping-pong hustler beyond the screen.
Having recently won his first Golden Globe, Chalamet seems to exude indefatigable confidence in every media appearance — and reasonably so. At only 30 years old, he’s already competing with the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Ethan Hawke. Even if he does not claim the Oscar this time, Chalamet has a bright career ahead of him, with many more nominations to come.
Before I end, I must mention the other contestants in the Best Picture category, such as Frankenstein, Sentimental Value, Bugonia, The Secret Agent, and Train Dreams. It would take an entire separate article to cover each of these movies — and even that wouldn’t do justice to the talented and dedicated artists who created them.
These films aren’t talked about as much and perhaps have the least chances to win at the Academy Awards this year. However, that doesn’t really matter. After all, cinema is not about wins and trophies. It is about art, and regardless of the outcome, we are privileged to enjoy it.
