by Nathaniel R
Elle Fanning made her acting debut opposite Sean Penn in I AM SAM (2001) - both are up for Supporting Oscars in March 2026
When we're looking at Oscar trivia we're often focused on individuals. Once that's done it's fun to widen the view a little and think about the year's twenty nominated thespians as a unit. So here are some connections and percentages of note...
PREVIOUS COLLABS?
It's always interesting to see if there are filmography connections between the twenty nominated actors, aside from the films they're nominated for this time around. This year those previous connections were a little sparser than usual (or is this just our imagination?) with only Chalamet & Penn as real connective tissue...
- Chalamet & DiCaprio... are both in: Don't Look Up (2021)
- Chalamet & Skarsgard... as mortal enemies: Dune Part One (2023) and Dune Part Two (2025)
- Chalamet & Fanning ...as lovers: A Complete Unknown (2024)
- Chalamet & Del Toro ... are both in: The French Dispatch (2021)
- Penn & Del Toro .... have a violent connection in: 21 Grams (2003)
- Penn & Fanning... as father and daughter (cameo): I Am Sam (2001)
- Penn & Madigan ... are both in: Loved (1997)
PERCENTAGE STATS FOR FUN
Teyana Taylor's lead single from "Escape Room" - the video featured fellow Oscar nominee LaKeith Stanfield
10% are Grammy nominees
Teyana Taylor and Timothee Chalamet were both nominated at the Grammys this very season. Teyana was up for R & B Album for "Escape Room" and Chalamet was up for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media for A Complete Unknown. Neither of them won but they MIGHT be able to console themselves with Oscar wins in March.
10% of them are in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
That'd be Wunmi Mosaku ("Hunter B-15" by way of the Loki series) and Stellan Skarsgård ("Erik Selvig" by way of the Thor films). Neither of them are scheduled to return in Avengers: Doomsday (2026).
10% are Tony nominees (and 20% have been on Broadway)
Not as much crossover as we sometimes get between the actors mediums. While four of the nominees have been on Broadway, only Delroy Lindo (Joe Turner's Come and Gone) and Ethan Hawke (Coast of Utopia) have actually been nominated for American theater's top prize. Rose Byrne makes her second Broadway appearance after the Oscars in the play Fallen Angels so she could theoretically be a Tony nominee late this spring. Elle Fanning has also been on Broadway (Appropriate) but wasn't Tony nominated.
20% are previous Oscar winners
Benicio Del Toro (Traffic) and Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant) have both won while Sean Penn (Mystic River and Milk), and Emma Stone (La La Land and Poor Things) have already won twice. None are expected to triumph this year but we won't know for sure until the envelopes are opened.
25% are former Emmy nominees
Six of the twenty have been up for the top TV prize. That'd be Rose Byrne (Damages), Benicio Del Toro (Escape at Dannamora), Elle Fanning (The Great), Michael B Jordan (Fahrenhet 451 - producing), Amy Madigan (Roe vs Wade), and Stellan Skarsgard (Chernobyl) but none of them have won!
25-30% have released an album
It's no secret that creative types like actors are often multi-talented and have additional creative skills. But with the exception of Teyana Taylor who first came to fame as a R&B singer this year's 20 stars are largely actors first. Six of the nominees have recorded albums -- or maybe five since Stellan Skarsgard claims to have recorded one as a teenager but there is only evidence of a single (pictured right here).
If you're curious about the albums from our nominees here they are in chronological order.
- "A True Story" (1977) - Amy Madigan was the lead vocalist of the band "Jelly"
- "The Very Best of the Greatest Hits of Sua Mae" (2010) - Wagner Moura was the lead vocalist / guitarist for the band Sua Mae ('Your Mother')
- "VII" (2014) - Teyana Taylor's debut
- "KTSE" (2018) - Teyana Taylor sophomore effort
- "The Album" (2020) - Teyana Taylor third album which was supposed to be her last since she announced that she was retiring from her solo music career.
- "For All Our Days That Tear the Heart" (2022) - Jessie Buckley's collab album with Suede guitarist Bernard Butler. You can and should also check out her frankly amazing vocals on the soundtrack to "Wild Rose"... which led to this collab album.
- "Glorious" (2024) Kate Hudson's first studio album. But she has been a lead vocalist on soundtrack albums as well.
- "Escape Room" (2025) - Teyana Taylor. Grammy nomination Best R&B Album. For added movie-related fun, we should share that this album has lots of cameos from fellow actresses: Sarah Paulson, Niecy Nash, Jodie Turner-Smith, Issa Rae, Regina King, Jill Scott, Kerry Washington, and Taraji P Henson are all featured.
If you count being heavily featured on soundtrack albums the number of nominees who have been "recording artists" jumps to 45% and you'd need to add in Elle Fanning (lead vocalist on "Teen Spirit"), Emma Stone (lead vocalist on "La La Land") and Timothee Chalamet (lead vocalist on "Wonka" and "A Complete Unknown")
40% are Fire Signs
This year Fire dominates the astrological charts of our nominees (largely the women!) while Water is the second most dominant element with 35% of the nominees (largely the men!). Earth (15%) and Air (10%) aren't well represented this time around. The most dominate actual Zodiac symbol for the 98th crop of nominated actors is a tie between fiery Leos and watery Scorpios (with 20% of the nominees each from those signs). There are no Taurus or Libra sign-nominees this year for acting but the other ten Zodiac signs are all represented.
55% are first-time Oscar nominees
That must be so exciting for them.
Elle Fanning (with Jamie Bell) in ROSEBUSH PRUNING
55% have already completed filming on new movies
Half of the nominees could be eligible for Oscar nominations next year at this time again -- not that every movie / role puts you into contention! Byrne, DiCaprio, Jordan, Lilleaas, Madigan, Skarsgard, and Stone have no movies (that we know of) that will be ready for release in 2026 but some of them are already filming 2027 movies or are pivoting back to TV at the moment. The other half have movies in post-production that should theoretically arrive in 2026: Benicio Del Toro (All Star Weekend), Delroy Lindo (Godzilla x Kong: Supernova), Elle Fanning (Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping and Rosebush Pruning), Ethan Hawke (The Weight and Tonight at Noon), Jessie Buckley (The Bride!), Jacob Elordi (The Dog Stars), Teyana Taylor (72 Hours), Timothee Chalamet (Dune Part Three), and Wagner Moura (The Last Day). The two nominees that have the most projects in the can already are Wunmi Mosaku (The Life and Death of Wilson Shedd, This is How It Goes, and The Social Reckoning) and Renate Reinsve (who has completed work on four Scandinavian films Fjord, Butterfly, Almost There, X, and two English language efforts The Back Rooms and The Governesses).
Of all those new projects if we were putting any money down we'd wager that Hawke (The Weight) & Reinsve (Fjord) are the most likely -- at least at this writing -- to be "in conversation" next season. Of course the vast majority of their 2026 and some of their 2027 slates were in place before the Oscar nominations so it will be the next project they sign on to that will be most reflective of their freshly boosted status in Hollywood.
Amy Madigan and her best pal... photographed for the New York Times
60% are (confirmed) pet owners
Overwhelming these stars have dogs with Wagner Moura the only confirmed cat owner (though he also has a dog). But the Most Extremely Important Tidbits to emerge this awards season is that Rose Byrne now has a pet bearded dragon named "Oscar" that her husband brought home on the day she won the Golden Globe. I could find no evidence that Delroy, Inga, Jessie, Michael, Renate, Stellan, Teyana, or Wunmi have pets but the rest of the nominated stars have furry (or scaled in Byrne's case) companions.
75% are Parents
While Chalamet, DiCaprio, Elordi, Fanning, and Jordan do not have kids, the rest of the nominees do. Of the 31 children of these nominees, almost 26% of those call Stellan Skarsgard daddy!
100% are Oscar Nominees
Congratulations one last time to Wunmi, Wagner, Timothée, Teyana, Stellan, Sean, Rose, Renate, Michael, Leo, Kate, Jessie, Jacob, Inga, Ethan, Emma, Elle, Delroy, Benicio, and Amy.
See the individual Oscar charts and vote on the polls...
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