2026 Oscars: Nominees, Presenters & How to Watch the Ceremony
Hollywood’s biggest night is upon us. The 98th Academy Awards, hosted for the second consecutive year by Conan O’Brien, will be broadcast live tonight, , from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood. The ceremony begins at 4:00 PM PT / 7:00 PM ET and will be available to watch on ABC and stream on Hulu.
This year’s awards boast a particularly competitive field, led by Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, which made history with a record-breaking 16 nominations. Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another follows closely with 13 nominations, while Frankenstein, Marty Supreme, and Sentimental Value each received nine. The Best Picture category is a crowded one, too including Bugonia, F1, Hamnet, The Secret Agent, and Train Dreams.
The Academy has introduced a fresh category this year – Best Casting – the first addition since Best Animated Feature was created in 2002. Nominees in this inaugural category include the casting directors for Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent, and Sinners.
Beyond the new award, the Academy has also implemented stricter viewing requirements for its members. To ensure informed voting, members are now tracked via the Academy Screening Room app to verify they’ve watched all nominated films. For screenings outside the app, members must submit forms detailing when and where they viewed the movies.
In an effort to keep the show moving and conclude on time, the broadcast will feature live performances of two nominated songs: “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters and “I Lied to You” from Sinners.
The presentation of the awards will be entrusted to a star-studded lineup of presenters, including past winners and nominees. Among those taking the stage are last year’s acting victors, Mikey Madison, Adrien Brody, Kieran Culkin, and Zoe Saldaña. Joining them will be Will Arnett, Javier Bardem, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Anne Hathaway, Chase Infiniti, Paul Mescal, Demi Moore, Kumail Nanjiani, Gwyneth Paltrow, Nicole Kidman, Jimmy Kimmel, Delroy Lindo, Ewan McGregor, Wagner Moura, Pedro Pascal, Bill Pullman, Lewis Pullman, Channing Tatum, and Sigourney Weaver. A reunion of the cast of Bridesmaids, featuring Rose Byrne, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and Melissa McCarthy, is also planned, as is a gathering of Marvel stars Robert Downey Jr. And Chris Evans.
Conan O’Brien returns as host after receiving praise for his performance last year. He has reportedly been workshopping material at clubs around Los Angeles, aiming to strike a balance between entertainment and acknowledging the current global climate. O’Brien acknowledged the challenge of navigating potentially sensitive topics, stating he aims to “hit this particularly, very thin line” between entertaining and acknowledging realities, and that his job is to be “the human avatar” for the audience at home.
The competition for Best Actor is particularly tight, with Michael B. Jordan (Sinners) and Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme) currently considered frontrunners. The Best Actress race features Jessie Buckley (Hamnet), Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You), Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value), and Emma Stone (Bugonia).
The full list of nominees, updated live as winners are announced, can be found on The Hollywood Reporter’s website. The show will also air live in over 200 territories worldwide, and an official live red carpet show, hosted by Tamron Hall and Jesse Palmer, will begin at 6:30 PM ET/3:30 PM PT on ABC.