Out of the many things I’ve adopted from my beautiful mother, one of the most notable pass downs would be our love of award shows. When I was younger and had a strict (totally unnecessary) bedtime of 7:30, my mom used to put on the red carpet footage from whatever award show season it was. She titled the red-carpet “The Pretty Dress Show.” This ended up being a core memory of me and my mother, something I looked forward to all the time. She would let me watch that with her and put me to bed before the award show even started. I didn’t even know there were awards involved in this pretty dress show. As I outgrew my nonsense bedtime, the Oscars specifically became something I looked forward to with my mother. Even in college, we text through most every award show.
Now that everyone is aware of my credentials, here are my 2026 Oscar predictions:Â
Best Picture.Â
Now, I have had a difficult time with this category ever since “La La Land” didn’t win. However, as mentioned in the title of the award, this is granted to the “best” film created in the past year. In the past few years, we can see lots of very popular and critically acclaimed movies winning. Although the past winners of this award don’t follow a particular pattern, there are a few things we can see. Typically there is a large connection with the best director, there tends to be a preference for a true story, and a common theme is found in inspirational stories about overcoming obstacles. To me, and my understanding of how the academy works (very little), my educated guess is “Marty Supreme” will win best picture. Based on a true story, check. Emotional and inspirational story of overcoming obstacles, check. We can’t tell quite yet, obviously, but I believe the cinematography and audience engagement with this film give it the extra push to win this award.Â
Best Actor.Â
I have yet to lose a prediction for this category. I have only been predicting the winners for two years, but I still think I’m pretty impressive. In the many reviews I have seen about the Oscars, typically this category is a pretty easy guess. This year, similar to 2023 with Brenden Fraiser and Austin Butler, we have Micheal B. Jordan and Timothee Chalamet going head-to-head. As we know, Timothee plays Mary Supreme in “Marty Supreme.” Micheal B. Jordan plays Smoke and Stack, the twins in “Sinners.” Both actors gave incredibly deep and passionate performances. Critics are torn between the two, you’ll get a different prediction every website you click on. My take? Micheal B. Jordan takes the Oscar home. To be able to play twins with drastically different personalities with both depth and well thought-out detail is a real skill. When twins are portrayed on screen by an actor known to not actually have a twin, you run the risk of taking the audience out of it. Not once did I have that issue with Smoke and Stack. It also feels important to mention “Sinners” is the most nominated film to date, it recently broke the previous record of 14 nominations from “La La Land,” “All About Eve,” and “Titanic” with a whopping 16 nominations.Â
Best Actress.
My favorite category, which I’m sure is shocking to no one. As a woman who’s dabbled in theatre, seeing this award being presented always gives me chills. Much like my prediction for this Oscar. Angela Basset winning this award in 2023 brought me to tears. To me, this was the easiest to predict. Call me corny and cliche, but when a woman gives a performance as good and bone-chilling as Jessie Buckely in “Hamnet,” there are no other options. To be frank, there is not a single woman nominated for this category that I would not be ecstatic to watch accept this award. I thoroughly enjoyed all of their performances. On the contrary, if you have not seen this movie and you’re holding off on it because it’s “Shakespearean,” watch it. The depth and emotion of this story are brought to life with Jessie Buckely. Buckley showcases emotions so well that audiences from all around can feel it. Not only is she favored to win by most people, but it’s one of those movies that leaves you thinking for hours following. People consume media constantly to feel something. This movie and Jessie Buckley’s performance does just that. Â
Best Director.
The most underrated of the “big five” awards for me. A director’s vision for a film is one of the most important, if not the most, aspects of creating a successful film. Obviously every movie and production has millions of moving parts, but a director is in charge of putting all of those moving parts together to fit an image they have in their head. I’ve always been incredibly impressed with people who have director minds. The directors nominated have their film up for best picture. I’m going to stray from the normal here. I do not think Josh Safdie, the director of “Marty Supreme,” is going to win this. Paul Thomas Anderson, the director of “One Battle After Another,” had one of the most visually pleasing, action packed, unsettling movies of the year. In transparency, this movie was not my favorite. I thought it was incredibly well done and impressively engaging, but I didn’t care too much for the storyline. That being said, it doesn’t take much to be able to appreciate the work that went into the movie. Cinematically, it was one of the best movies I had seen in a while. Between the score, the acting—specifically Sean Penn—and the creative liberties taken by the production team, it was nothing short of a beautiful film. Above all, and what I think sets it up for success more than the others, it’s new. The raw and visceral take on humanity without the fluff the movies give is not a new concept, but done this way it was new. All the other films and directors showcase amazing things, but to do something new and exciting with cinema in a world impressed by very little, it’s a skill only a fantastic director has.Â
Best Original Screenplay.
A lot of people tend to confuse this award and best picture. Best screenplay is awarded solely to the written script of a show. Whereas the best film is the final product, including costume, set, production, score, etc. This is where I think I might lose some people on my predictions but hear me out: “Bugonia.” This is not favored to win this category at all. I want to specifically mention script writing and the difficulty specifically to write character work well. When I am watching a movie and a character does or says something that doesn’t make logical sense to me, I am taken out of the moment. While watching “Bugonia,” her words, actions and physical actions felt incredibly real. A script is the root of a good show. As not only a writer, but as an actress and a lover of books, writing dialogue that is organic and easy to translate into the greater story is a skill underappreciated in the film industry. “Bugonia” was one of my favorite movies to watch from this list of nominations. So, maybe that makes this specific prediction a tad biased, but truly, the dialogue and physical actions of this film stood out to me as natural and animated.Â
The pretty dress show, or the Oscars as most of you call it, airs live March 15 on ABC or Hulu at 7 p.m. The red carpet starts at 6:30 p.m. My suggestion? Get ballots and print them out for all your friends and have a watch party. Make some snacks, make some predictions, maybe even text your mom throughout the whole thing. That’s what my mom did, and that’s just what I plan to do. Thank you, Mom, for giving me the love of the Oscars. May the best films, actors and actresses, directors, and scripts win!Â