Tuesday, March 10, 2026 at 5:00PM by Nathaniel R
Chalamet may have talked himself out of an Oscar but if he wins for "Marty Supreme", he won't be undeserving
It's finally time -- well, long past time -- to post my own ballots for Best Actress and Best Actor. As with the Supporting categories, I had to first narrow it down to a top twelve which you can see after the jump...
Saturday, March 7, 2026 at 10:00AM The Oscar Volleys continue. Today, LYNN LEE and NICK TAYLOR discuss the surprisingly stable Oscar race for Best Actress.
Jessie Buckley in HAMNET | © Focus Features
LYNN: At the risk of stating the obvious, Nick, Best Actress has been the most predictable stable of the four acting races by far. Is there a world in which Jessie Buckley doesn’t take this? And are we basically fine with that?
NICK: I mean, where else is there to start? Buckley’s the surest winner of the acting categories, and among a handful of artists (PTA, Ludwig Göransson) who have to know they’re winning the Oscar. I’m not complaining. Buckley’s been delivering ambitious, awards-worthy turns since she debuted with Beast in 2017, and her turn as Agnes is such an ideal use of her screen persona. The practical intelligence, the precise-yet-walloping emotions, the way her characters are so irreducibly themselves that their odd edges and peculiar beliefs doom them to black sheep status even when things are looking their way. She’s incredible, and just because the grieving mother is an easy type for awards groups to notice shouldn’t diminish how powerful her work is in Hamnet...
Wednesday, February 11, 2026 at 10:00PM 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...
Monday, January 26, 2026 at 4:33PM by Nathaniel R
Leonardo DiCaprio's debut film "CRITTERS 3"
A spot of guessing game fun today. Some Oscar nominees are movie stars from the jump but most actors have to build their careers up slowly increasing the size and quality of their roles over the years until their awards breakthrough. 5 of our current 20 nominees across Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Supporting Actor kicked off their feature film career with a leading role. Can you guess who they were? Even more difficult can you pair each nominated actor with the name of their first credited feature film character? The answers to this quiz are after the jump but first jot down your guesses and see how many you can get right before looking...
| In Their Feature Film Debut They Played a Character Named... | The Current Oscar Nominees |
| 1) Alex Dwyer | A) Jessie Buckley |
| 2) Ben Crandall (LEAD) | B) Rose Byrne |
| 3) Danny Vance | C) Timothée Chalamet |
| 4) Drug Kingpin | D) Benicio Del Toro |
| 5) Duke the Dog-Faced Boy | E) Leonardo DiCaprio |
| 6) Erik (LEAD) | F) Jacob Elordi |
| 7) Josh | G) Elle Fanning |
| 8) Jules | H) Ethan Hawke |
| 9) Lucy (2 Years) | I) Kate Hudson |
| 10) Moll (LEAD) | J) Michael B Jordan |
| 11) Rafi |
K) Inga Ibsdottir Lilleas |
| 12) Rastus Sommers | L) Delroy Lindo |
| 13) Rena | M) Amy Madigan |
| 14) Renate | N) Wunmi Mosaku |
| 15) Rooster | O) Wagner Moura |
| 16) Seema | P) Sean Penn |
| 17) Sigrid Auge (LEAD) | Q) Renate Reinsve |
| 18) Skye Davidson | R) Stellan Skarsgard |
| 19) Teen #2 | S) Emma Stone |
| 20) Terry Jean Moore (LEAD) | T) Teyana Taylor |
THE ANSWERS ARE AFTER THE JUMP...
Got your guesses ready? Tell us how you did once you've read the answers...
Sunday, January 25, 2026 at 9:00AM by Nathaniel R
I should probably switch this up as I've been doing it annually, but I can't resist. I love imagining a Frankenstein-fusion of the parts of all the BEST ACTRESS nominees. If you smoosh or stitch Renate, Kate, Emma, Jessie, and Rose together our Best Actress Category Avatar is a mid-career still-ascending brunette star on her second nomination. She's also dabbled in musicals, played Sally Bowles in "Cabaret", and BAFTA recognized her genius before Oscar voters did! Maybe she has false memories of winning an Oscar but this is only her second nomination. Her director has a proven track record with guiding actresses -- she may have even worked with them before -- to stellar performances. She's a fire sign with earth rising, a wife, a mother of two, and she just turned 40.
The movie she's nominated for is a drama about a young grieving mother struggling to balance her artistic career ambitions, with her obnoxious needy child--- wait, is she Alice from Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore?. No uh, never mind, the movie is weirder than that. There's a darkly comic subplot about incels and mysterious holes in her ceiling but the main thrust of the narrative is that the most important man in her life (was it her dad or husband? I forget) is perpetually absent, consummed by his own artistic career ambitions, and has no time for her needs!
See the updated Best Actress chart
The chart includes a daily poll, "How'd They Get Nominated?" speculation (not meant as judgment -- nobody is nominated on performance alone!), stats, anecdotes, and trivia.
