Weapons' Aunt Gladys prequel moves ahead with major update following Amy Madigan’s Oscar win
After the runaway success of the horror movie, its stand-out character is taking centre stage.
After becoming one of cinema's biggest talking points in 2025, horror movie Weapons will be getting a prequel film charting the origins of stand-out character Aunt Gladys. The genre-bender, which tells the story of a strange mystery when a group of schoolchildren all go missing in the dead of night, became a hit upon release, raking in just shy of $270million at the worldwide box office. Aunt Gladys, played by Amy Madigan, proved an instant fan favourite, thanks to her eccentric make-up and stand-out colourful wigs. A sinister figure from the very beginning, Gladys pulls the strings from behind the scenes, but, even still, there's no predicting just how influential she would be on the film's dramatic, and surprisingly hilarious, finale. During awards season this year, Madigan took home an Oscar for her portrayal of the already iconic horror villain – and now fans are set to find out more about the character. View Green Video on the source website According to Deadline, the new movie, tentatively titled Gladys, will be written by Zach Cregger and Zach Shields. Cregger wrote and directed the first Weapons film following the success of his 2022 horror movie, Barbarian. He will be joined on the new project by Shields, whose credits include Krampus Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Madigan is set to reprise her role in the upcoming film. At this year’s Academy Awards, Madigan took home her first Oscar, beating out Teyana Taylor for One Battle After Another, Wunmi Mosaku for Sinners, and Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, both for Sentimental Value. When she took to the stage, she let out a Gladys-like cackle before declaring: "This is great!" <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2026/04/GettyImages-2266299282-f633bb3.jpg" width="5776" height="3853" alt="Amy Gladigan wears a black and gold outfit with sunglasses as she smiles while holding her Oscar statue. Her eyes are hidden by her sunglasses, and her hair is pulled back, with two strands framing her face" title="US-ENTERTAINMENT-FILM-AWARD-OSCARS-PRESS ROOM-TROPHY" /> She went on to thank Cregger, who "just wrote a dream part that made her want to grab it by the throat", as well as several other members of the cast and production team. "As you can tell, I’m a little flummoxed," she added, noting her "legs were shaking" before paying tribute to her fellow nominees and her family. She ended her speech with a dedication to her husband, fellow actor (and four-time Oscar nominee) Ed Harris, saying "none of this would matter without you by my side". Weapons is available to rent or buy. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Oscar predictions 2027: 25 films which could compete for best picture next year
We might be a year away, but we can already take a good stab at predicting some of the films which might well feature at the next Oscars.
After what sometimes felt like an endless awards season, last night's Academy Awards ceremony in LA marked the end of this year's cycle, with Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another eventually named as the deserving best picture winner. The film saw off competition from the likes of Ryan Coogler's Sinners to win the main prize, with Anderson also scooping the honours for best director and best adapted screenplay. It was the first time the filmmaker had won Oscar gold despite coming close on numerous previous occasions, but few would have been too surprised if they'd been told this time last year that he would finally get his day in the sun. With that in mind, we're taking an early stab at suggesting who might be in the running this time next year. We've used our expert insight to round up a list of some of the films that might well be in contention when the time comes to hand out golden statuettes in 2027. It should obviously be taken into account that – with the exception of one or two films – most of the titles listed below have not yet been screened, and so we're relying entirely on the names attached and plot synopses to indicate which films might be in the running. It's likely that after some of these premiere they could drop off our predictions list entirely, and it's equally probable that several films will come out of nowhere to emerge as major contenders in the coming months – as was the case this year. But for the time being, read on for a list of films that could be up for best picture in 2027. If nothing else, it certainly points to another exciting year for new releases... 1. The Odyssey View Green Video on the source website It's almost impossible to imagine a world in which Christopher Nolan's follow-up to his Oscar-sweeping 2023 biographical epic Oppenheimer doesn't land a glut of nominations. While winning two best pictures in a row may prove a little too much, the combination of on-screen and off-screen talent, source material and pre-release buzz mean that something would have to go drastically wrong for the film to not at least get a space in the best picture line-up. We can't wait to see just how Nolan adapts Homer's epic. 2. Disclosure Day When Steven Spielberg releases a new film, there's always a fairly good chance it will land in the best picture line-up – and his two most recent efforts (West Side Story and The Fabelmans) both made the cut this decade. He's returning to the familiar world of sci-fi – and specifically UFOs – for his hotly-anticipated summer release, and with an A-list cast including Josh O'Connor, Emily Blunt, Colin Forth and Colman Domingo, we reckon there's a fairly good chance the legendary director is back in the running again. 3. Dune: Part Three The first two films in Denis Villeneuve's masterful sci-fi trilogy have both been best picture nominated, and we see no good reason why that won't be the case again this time around, as he continues the saga with a film inspired by Frank Herbert's sequel novel Dune Messiah. Plus, it wouldn't really be an Oscars ceremony these days without a film starring Timothée Chalamet featuring in the best picture line-up – even if the Marty Supreme star is yet to get his hands on one of those coveted golden statuettes for himself. 4. Project Hail Mary Another sci-fi film on the list, and this one we have the added benefit of having already seen. Adapted from Andy Weir's novel of the same name and helmed by directing duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, this likeable adventure stars Ryan Gosling in the title role and has been met by rave reviews from critics ahead of its imminent release in cinemas. The last film adapted from a sci-fi book by Weir was The Martian, which found itself nominated for best picture – and this looks a fairly safe bet to repeat that feat. We also know that the Academy loves to nominate blockbusters at the moment, so the crowd-pleasing nature of this one – coupled with the aforementioned critical acclaim – bodes well. 5. Josephine It's fairly common for a film that premieres at the Sundance Film Festival to make its way onto the best picture shortlist, with Train Dreams having achieved exactly that this year. This sophomore film from writer/director Beth de Araújo was the most positively reviewed film of this year's slate at the festival, and with Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan in key roles, may have enough star power to attract attention from voters despite its status as a fairly small independent production. The drama follows an eight-year-old who witnesses a brutal assault and begins to experience fear and paranoia. 6. The Social Reckoning The Social Network losing out to The King's Speech for best picture at the 2011 Oscars is considered by some to be one of the worst snubs in recent times, so it will be interesting to see if this follow-up – which is based on the events surrounding the 2021 Facebook leak by whistleblower Frances Haugen – can also attract similar acclaim. Aaron Sorkin is once again on scripting duties and also replaces David Fincher in the director's chair, while Jeremy Strong takes over from Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg. Other new additions to the cast include 2025 Oscar winner Mikey Madison, 2026 Oscar nominee Wunmi Mosaku and The Bear star Jeremy Allen White. 7. The Adventures of Cliff Booth One of the reasons Fincher isn't returning behind the camera for The Social Reckoning is because he is instead helming this follow-up to another previously Oscar-nominated film: Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood. Brad Pitt – who won an Oscar for his role in the original – is back as Cliff Booth for another Tarantino-penned period drama, reportedly set eight years later in 1977. Elizabeth Debicki is the most high-profile new addition to the cast, but little about the exact plot is known. 8. Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew All three of Greta Gerwig's previous films as a solo director – Lady Bird, Little Women and Barbie – have been nominated for best picture, so on the face of it she seems a decent bet to continue that streak with this major Netflix-backed production. The source material – the sixth published novel in CS Lewis's Narnia series – might not seem like an obvious fit for the Oscars, but the same could undoubtedly have been said about Barbie, and we all know what happened there. Never rule Gerwig out. 9. Digger View Green Video on the source website Around a decade ago, Alejandro González Iñárritu was enjoying a superb streak at the Oscars, with back-to-back best director gongs for Birdman and The Revenant – although his only film released since then was 2022's Bardo, which was nowhere to be seen at the Oscars that year. His next film could very well signal a return to Oscar glory, however, especially given it stars Tom Cruise in the lead role, the first film in what the megastar reportedly envisions as his return to prestige filmmaking having mainly involved himself with action franchises in recent years. The enigmatic plot synopsis reads simply: "The most powerful man in the world embarks on a frantic mission to prove that he's humanity's saviour." 10. Ink Danny Boyle is another filmmaker with plenty of Oscars pedigree, and this latest drama could well see him back in the mix for the first time in some years. Based on James Graham's acclaimed stage play of the same name, it stars Jack O'Connell as former editor of The Sun Larry Lamb and Guy Pearce as notorious media mogul Rupert Murdoch, with the plot following the rise of the latter's empire. On paper, those all look like good ingredients for Oscars success. 11. Wild Horse Nine Yet another filmmaker who is no stranger to the Oscars, Martin McDonagh will be looking to make it three best picture nominations in a row following the successes of his last two films Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin. His latest effort is a Chile-set period drama starring John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell and Steve Buscemi and will follow a pair of CIA agents as they face a trust-testing mission from Santiago to Easter Island during 1973. 12. The Entertainment System Is Down Triangle of Sadness marked the first time Swedish director Ruben Östlund had seen one of his films nominated for best picture, so it will be interesting to see if his next film can follow that in securing a nomination. Another star-studded satire, it features Keanu Reeves and Kirsten Dunst and follows the passengers of a lengthy flight when they are forced to contend with their boredom after the plane's entertainment system is broken. 13. Michael Music biopics of major stars can be hit or miss when it comes to getting nominations at the Oscars, but there is plenty of recent precedent – and given that Jackson remains one of the biggest stars to ever (moon)walk the planet, we definitely can't rule out this effort from Antoine Fuqua making the cut. However, given the well-documented controversy surrounding Jackson, it remains to be seen exactly how this film will be received – so this is far from a sure thing at this juncture. 14. Jack of Spades Josh O'Connor's career has been going from strength to strength in recent years, and the latest major filmmaker he's teaming up with is Joel Coen – who is, of course, one half of legendary directing duo the Coen brothers. A gothic mystery set in Scotland, it sounds like an intriguing proposition and so if reviews are good there's definitely a possibility it could be the first solo Coen effort to land a best picture nod. 15. Parallel Tales If you're a fan of French cinema, the idea of a film starring Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Catherine Deneuve and Vincent Cassel will probably have already set your anticipation levels extremely high. The combination of an acclaimed director (Iranian Asghar Farhadi), an evocative subject matter (the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks) and the fact that the Academy has been embracing international cinema more than ever in recent years, suggest this could have a very good chance of a best picture slot. 16. Artificial It's been close to a decade since Luca Guadagnino's Call Me by Your Name scored several nominations including a best picture nod, and although his five subsequent efforts haven't made the cut, he's a filmmaker who's remained very much in the zeitgeist. If this hot-topic biographical drama starring Andrew Garfield as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman performs well critically, we could very well see him return to the line-up – watch this space. 17. Paper Tiger Despite attracting consistent critical acclaim for films including We Own the Night, The Immigrant and Armageddon Time, James Gray appears to never have especially registered with Academy voters. But this crime thriller starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller – which follows two brothers who get entangled in a dangerous Russian mafia scheme – has all the makings of another great film from the auteur. Could he finally get some overdue Oscar recognition? 18. Fjord Given the Oscars have been increasingly looking further afield to the world of international cinema in recent times, it's worth looking at some of the high-profile European films due for release this year – and this family drama from Romanian director Cristian Mungiu looks very exciting indeed. With the cast led by not one but two recent Oscar nominees in Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan, there's an awful lot of talent involved, so it's definitely one to keep an eye on. 19. 1949 Polish director Paweł Pawlikowski hasn't directed a film since 2018's Cold War – which saw him Oscar-nominated for best director after his previous film Ida had taken the best international feature award five years earlier. Given the Academy's aforementioned embrace of international cinema since, this biographical period drama about exiled German novelist Thomas Mann looks like another decent prediction, especially when we consider that another recent Oscar nominee – Sandra Huller – is part of the cast. 20. Butterfly Jam Russian director Kantemir Balagov turned heads on the arthouse scene with his 2019 film Beanpole, and for his first English-language effort he's assembled an impressive cast that includes Riley Keough, Barry Keoghan and Harry Melling. Not too much has been given away about the plot beyond the fact that it centres on a Circassian circus troupe in New Jersey, but it's another one which could end up attracting awards attention if reviews turn out positive. 21. The Dog Stars The ever-prolific Sir Ridley Scott returns with this star-studded post-apocalyptic thriller following a civilian pilot (Jacob Elordi) and a tough ex-marine (Josh Brolin) who face struggles in the aftermath of a flu virus that nearly wiped out humanity. Margaret Qualley and Guy Pearce also star. Scott has never exactly been shy when it comes to singing his own praises, and the veteran filmmaker has already labelled his latest effort "maybe my best movie". If such a bold statement turns out to have any truth, then surely this film is a shoo-in for a best picture nomination. 22. The Drama As if leads Zendaya and Robert Pattinson weren't reason enough to put this film on our list, the mysterious nature of the plot and the early buzz from those who have seen it at test screenings suggest this film from Dream Scenario director Kristoffer Borgli could really capture the zeitgeist. But will it be good enough for a best picture nod? With release set for next month, it might not be too long before we find out if this one really has a shot. 23. Klara and the Sun Taika Waititi's recent output – including Next Goal Wins and Thor: Love and Thunder – hasn't attracted anywhere near the acclaim of his earlier efforts. But with terrific source material – Kazuo Ishiguro's 2021 novel of the same name – and a stellar cast including Amy Adams and Jenna Ortega, perhaps this could be the one to put him back on track. A lengthy delay between the end of production – which wrapped almost two years ago – and eventual release have set the alarm bells ringing for some pundits, but there remains an outside chance that Waititi could once again find his film back in the best picture line-up more than half a decade on from the success of Jojo Rabbit. 24. Toy Story 5 View Green Video on the source website Pixar is returning to arguably its best-loved property with a fifth film focusing on Woody, Buzz and co – which will see them go head-to-head with a new threat to playtime: a frog-like tablet named Lilypad, voiced by Greta Lee. While it might seem like a long-shot for best picture, it's not without precedent: the tremendous third film in the series made the line-up following its release in 2010. Could a return to form see Pixar back in the main category, as opposed to being consigned to best animated feature consideration as has been the case more recently? 25. The Other Mommy Given how great a night horror had at the 2026 Oscars, it would be silly not to include at least one film from the genre in this list. And although there are a few options to choose from – including the reportedly terrifying upcoming A24 release Undertone – we're opting for this one as something of a wildcard prediction. Starring Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain in the lead role and helmed by British director Rob Savage, it follows a paranormal entity known as Other Mommy who threatens a young girl and starts haunting her home. Let's see how much the Academy has really embraced horror cinema... Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Oscars 2026 snubs numerous late A-list stars from emotional In Memoriam segment
The 98th Academy Awards paid tribute to stars such as Robert Redford, Diane Keaton, Rob Reiner and Catherine O’Hara.
Several notable film and TV figures were omitted from the In Memoriam segment of the Oscars 2026 on Sunday (15 March). Held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, the 98th Academy Awards featured an expanded In Memoriam segment, paying tribute to previous Oscar winners Robert Redford and Diane Keaton, and director Rob Reiner. Actors Catherine O’Hara, Claudia Cardinale and Diane Ladd were also among those honoured. But several notable stars such as film icon Brigitte Bardot, Dawson’s Creek actor James Van Der Beek, and Euphoria and Grey’s Anatomy star Eric Dane were not included in the line-up. French screen legend-turned-activist Bardot died aged 91 in December from cancer. Van Der Beek died on 11 February aged 48 after a battle with colorectal cancer, while Dane, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2024, died aged 58 eights days later on 19 February. Despite being mainly known for their roles in television, the pair have also both appeared in a string of films. The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley also took to social media to express his disappointment following his father David Keighley’s omission from the segment. David Keighley was the first quality control officer for IMAX and oversaw post-production on more than 500 IMAX films. “So incredibly disappointed and heartbroken that the #Oscars and AMPAS chose not to include my father, David Keighley, and his immeasurable contributions to IMAX and cinema in the In Memoriam segment in the broadcast,” he wrote. “I will never forget.” David died of cancer in August at the age of 77. Other stars absent from the line-up included Lost in Space actor June Lockhart, Harold and Maude star Bud Cort, and Dr Kildare and Shogun actor Richard Chamberlain. View oEmbed on the source website Despite the omissions, the In Memoriam segment was widely praised by Oscar viewers. "That was the best In Memoriam in the history of memorials. Thank you to The Academy," wrote interviewer Landon Johnson, and journalist Matt Neglia said: "Classiest, most beautiful #InMemoriam ever?" Read more: Hidden gems at the 2026 Oscars: 10 nominated films you might not have seen Which film has won the most Oscars ever? Academy Award winner records Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Oscar winners 2026: Full list as One Battle After Another wins best picture, Michael B Jordan takes home best actor
Other big winners on the night included Jessie Buckley for best actress and Sean Penn for best supporting actor.
In a very big night for the film, One Battle After Another was named best picture at last night's 98th Academy Awards in LA – with director Paul Thomas Anderson's film beating the likes of Sinners and Hamnet to become the latest winner of Hollywood's most coveted honour. The film took home an additional five awards, including best director for Anderson, best music, best casting, and best adapted screenplay. An absent Sean Penn also took home the award for best supporting actor, beating the likes of Frankenstein's Jacob Elordi and Sentimental Value's Stellan Skarsgard, for his performance in One Battle After Another. Meanwhile, Michael B Jordan took home a much-contested best actor award for his work as identical twins in the night's most-nominated film, Sinners, while the film also won best original screenplay, best music, and best cinematography. Awards season constant Jessie Buckley did indeed win best actress for her turn in Hamnet, while Amy Madigan won her first Oscar for her turn as Gladys in the horror film Weapons. Elsewhere, there were also wins for the likes of K-Pop Demon Hunters for best animated feature, Sentimental Value for best international film, and Mr Nobody Against Putin for best documentary feature. Read below for the full list of nominees and winners. Oscar winners 2026: Full list of Academy Awards winners Best picture Bugonia F1 Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another - WINNER The Secret Agent Sentimental Value Sinners Train Dreams Best director Chloe Zhao – Hamnet Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another - WINNER Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value Ryan Coogler – Sinners Best actor Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon Michael B Jordan – Sinners - WINNER Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent Best actress Jessie Buckley – Hamnet - WINNER Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I'd Kick You Kate Hudson – Song Sung Blue Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value Emma Stone – Bugonia Best supporting actor Benicio del Toro – One Battle After Another Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein Delroy Lindo – Sinners Sean Penn – One Battle After Another - WINNER Stellan Skarsgaard – Sentimental Value Best supporting actress Elle Fanning – Sentimental Value Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value Amy Madigan – Weapons - WINNER Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another Best original screenplay Blue Moon It Was Just an Accident Marty Supreme Sentimental Value Sinners - WINNER Best adapted screenplay Bugonia Frankenstein Hamnet One Battle After Another - WINNER Train Dreams Best animated feature Arco Elio K-Pop Demon Hunters - WINNER Little Amélie of the Character of Rain Zootropolis 2 Best international film The Secret Agent It Was Just an Accident Sentimental Value - WINNER Sirat The Voice of Hind Rajab Best original score Bugonia Frankenstein Hamnet One Battle After Another Sinners - WINNER Best original song Dear Me from Diane Warren: Relentless Golden from K-Pop Demon Hunters - WINNER I Lied to You from Sinners Sweet Dreams of Joy from Viva Verdi! Train Dreams from Train Dreams Best costume design Avatar: Fire and Ash Frankenstein - WINNER Hamnet Marty Supreme Sinners Add Radio Times as a Preferred Source on Google Keep up to date on what’s worth watching with your favourite entertainment news from Radio Times – see more of our exclusive news and interviews featured prominently in Top Stories when using Google. Best cinematography Frankenstein Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sinners - WINNER Train Dreams Best documentary feature The Alabama Solution Come See Me in the Good Light Cutting Through Rocks Mr Nobody Against Putin - WINNER The Perfect Neighbour Best film editing F1 Marty Supreme One Battle After Another - WINNER Sentimental Value Sinners Best production design Frankenstein - WINNER Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sinners Best makeup and hairstyling Frankenstein - WINNER Kokuho Sinners The Smashing Machine The Ugly Stepsister Best sound F1 - WINNER Frankenstein One Battle After Another Sinners Sirat Best visual effects Avatar: Fire and Ash - WINNER F1 Jurassic World: Rebirth The Lost Bus Sinners Best casting Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another - WINNER The Secret Agent Sinners Best short documentary All the Empty Rooms - WINNER Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud Children No More: "Were and are Gone" The Devil is Busy Perfectly a Strangeness Best short film (animation) Butterfly Forevergreen The Girl Who Cried Pearls - WINNER Retirement Plan The Three Sisters Best short film (live action) Butcher's Stain A Friend of Dorothy Jane Austen's Period Drama The Singers - WINNER Two People Exchanging Saliva Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Which film has won the most Oscars ever? Academy Award winner records
Find out who's had the most nominations and wins for acting, directing, screenwriting and more.
The Oscars 2026 are upon us, as the who's who of Hollywood descend on the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles — hoping either to claim a golden statuette or deliver what might be the finest performance of their career: the gracious-in-defeat face. This year, Ryan Coogler's Sinners leads the charge with an impressive – and well-deserved – 16 nominations – including in almost every major category, making it the most nominated film in Academy Awards history. But will the vampire horror sweep the board and officially become the most successful film in Oscars history? Elsewhere, Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another and Chloé Zhao's Hamnet are also in the running for a truly memorable night, having picked up 13 and eight nods respectively, while Marty Supreme, Sentimental Value and Frankenstein have nine nominations apiece. Read more: Every best picture Oscar winner of 21st century ranked – from Crash to Moonlight Oscar nominations 2026: Full list of nominees as Sinners smashes record with 16 nods As the glitzy ceremony rolls around once again, we're taking a look at some of the biggest Oscar records, from the most-decorated film of all time to the actors who have won more than anybody else. There's even a chance that we could see more records broken tonight, with both Sinners and One Battle After Another in the running to make Oscars history. If you're interested to find out more about the impressive Oscar records spanning the history of the nearly 100-year-old event, read on to find out about the films and people with the most Academy Awards. Which film has won the most Oscars of all time? Three films hold the record of winning the most Academy Awards, having garnered 11 Oscars each: Ben-Hur (1959), Titanic (1997) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). Out of these, Titanic received the most nods with a total of 14 nominations. <a id="menur4co" class="fui-Link ___1q1shib f2hkw1w f3rmtva f1ewtqcl fyind8e f1k6fduh f1w7gpdv fk6fouc fjoy568 figsok6 f1s184ao f1mk8lai fnbmjn9 f1o700av f13mvf36 f1cmlufx f9n3di6 f1ids18y f1tx3yz7 f1deo86v f1eh06m1 f1iescvh fhgqx19 f1olyrje f1p93eir f1nev41a f1h8hb77 f1lqvz6u f10aw75t fsle3fq f17ae5zn" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Link Download the Radio Times app">Download the Radio Times app for more Oscars 2026 coverage – including exclusive features. But it's entirely possible that Sinners – with its whopping 16 nominations – could equal or better that record. The film is up for the best picture trophy, while Coogler has been nominated for best director — and would become the first Black winner in the category if successful. Three of its stars (Michael B Jordan, Wunmi Mosaku and Delroy Lindo) are also all in the running across the various acting categories. Other nominations for Sinners include best original screenplay, original score, original song, costume design, cinematography, editing, production design, makeup and hairstyling, sound, visual effects and casting. Then there's One Battle After Another, which has received 13 nominations. As well as being in the running for best picture, PTA has been nominated for best director and Leonardo DiCaprio for best actor. Teyana Taylor has been nominated for best supporting actress, while co-stars Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn are also competing in the best supporting actor category. The film is also up for best adapted screenplay, original score, cinematography, editing, production design, sound and casting. Who has won the most Oscars of all time? The person who has triumphed more times at the Oscars than anyone else in history is Walt Disney. America’s most iconic filmmaker racked up a whopping 26 Oscars, four of which were honorary awards, and he also holds the record for the most nominations on record – 59. Who has won the most Oscars for acting? Actress Katharine Hepburn holds the record for the most Oscars for acting, having won four Academy Awards across her career and earned a total of 12 nominations. Hepburn won Oscars in the best actress category for her performances in the films Morning Glory (1933), Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968) and On Golden Pond (1981). Actors Jack Nicholson, Daniel Day-Lewis and Walter Brennan, meanwhile, are the three men with the most Oscars for acting, having each won three times. While some of Brennan and Nicholson’s awards were for best supporting actor, all three of Day-Lewis’s victories were for best leading actor, and he holds the record in that category. If Sean Penn wins best supporting actor for One Battle After Another, he will become one of just seven actors to have won three acting Oscars. Who is the most nominated actor at the Oscars? The person with the most nominations for acting is Meryl Streep, who has received 21 nods over the course of her career. She has won three times for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), Sophie’s Choice (1982) and The Iron Lady (2011). Streep has also been nominated for The Deer Hunter, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Silkwood, Out of Africa, Ironweed, A Cry in the Dark, Postcards from the Edge, The Bridges of Madison County, One True Thing, Music of the Heart, Adaptation, The Devil Wears Prada, Doubt, Julie & Julia, August: Osage County, Into the Woods, Florence Foster Jenkins, and The Post. But it's worth noting that Emma Stone, with her best actress nomination for Bugonia, has surpassed Meryl Streep as the youngest woman to earn seven Oscar nominations. Who has won the most Oscars for directing? John Ford won none of his four Oscars for his famous Westerns. Instead, he holds the Best Director record for The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941) and The Quiet Man (1952). Although Ford has won the most Oscars of any director, William Wyler holds the record for the most nominations in this discipline earning 12, three of which won him some silverware. Ford was nominated for five overall, boasting an enviable conversion rate. Which British person has won the most Oscars? Film composer John Barry has won more Oscars than any other Brit. He has garnered five Academy Awards in total, two for Born Free (1966), and one each for Lion in Winter (1968), Out of Africa (1985) and Dances with Wolves (1990). Who has won the most Oscars for screenwriting? Five people have been awarded three screenwriting Oscars: Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen, and Paddy Chayefsky. But it is Allen who has won the most Academy Awards in the Best Original Screenplay category, for his films Annie Hall (1977), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and Midnight in Paris (2011). Which British actor has won the most Oscars? That would be Daniel Day Lewis with his three wins for My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood and Lincoln. The actor was also nominated for Oscars for his turns in In the Name of the Father, Gangs of New York and Phantom Thread. The Academy Awards will air on Sunday 15 March 2026. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
How Train Dreams winning the 2026 Oscar for best picture could help spread its most vital message
2026 is a tough time, but Train Dreams is the antidote.
There is a tranquility in Clint Bentley’s best picture nominee that feels entirely at odds with the clangour of modern America. Set in the early years of the 20th century, the meditative drama tells the tale of a railroad labourer grappling with life’s most existential questions, considering his lowly standing in a world that swells around him. An introspective ballad to the wonder of life’s ephemerality, Train Dreams is the ideal antidote to the desolation of late-stage capitalism. A stirring celebration of what it means to be alive while sharing similarities with the "great frontier" of classic western cinema, this should be the kind of film that the Academy laps up like a savoury hors d'oeuvre. But, this is not a film made for lovers of mythical gunslingers or elaborate heists in windswept dustbowls — this is a different kind of romance — an impassioned ode to God’s lonely souls, trying to find the breadth to flourish in the face of affliction. Based on Denis Johnson’s novella of the same name, Bentley’s film is a similar miniature epic that tails Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton), a man who earns his way felling forests and constructing a grand railroad in its place. A pensive introvert, Grainier finds more kinship in the soaring pine trees than in his ragtag co-workers, though glimmers of companionship are offered in the form of like-minded labourers such as William H. Macy’s Arn. His tumultuous, industrious life in the forest contrasts nicely with the haven he has created back home, where his wife Gladys (Felicity Jones) and young daughter thrive. Existing in an almost ethereal paradise that is submerged in the same sun-soaked cinematography of a Terrence Malick landscape, the home effortlessly cohabits with the surrounding environment and the family abide by the self-same chaotic forces of nature. Without warning, their lives are upended by tragedy and their paradise crumbles, leaving Grainier to find meaning in the ash that’s left behind. It’s a devastating tale that unfolds with gorgeous meditation, looking into how one navigates profound ruin with the resilience necessary to rebuild again from the bottom-up. Wondrous and inspiring, it’s an ode to the true meaning of the resolute American Dream. Such is why Train Dreams resonates so deeply in the midst of contemporary times and would make an apt choice for the best picture statuette, offering a calm reverie of true spiritual prosperity that acts in opposition to the idea of contemporary capitalist glory. Neither money, nor material wealth, is championed in this tale. Instead, the beauty of the wild, and humanity’s innate and inextricable attachment to it is the focus. View Green Video on the source website This was clearly something the lead actor ruminated about, with Edgerton explaining to Radio Times that he was often struck by how often he needed to remind himself "how disconnected I can be from the planet that I live on". "Human beings, we use the planet," he added, "we really use it, and we chew it up, rather than, as indigenous cultures do, feel like they belong to the land. There's a lot of things that really felt very potent to me, that I felt struck a chord." As climate change continues to change the shape of our planet and AI threatens the makeup of our very existence, never has it felt so crucial to, both literally and metaphorically, touch grass. By awarding Train Dreams their most prestigious prize, the Academy could underscore the importance of such personal introspection and connection with the natural world during such a tumultuous era that has seemingly forgotten the significance of such virtues. Though it may not seem like it on the outside, the film makes the perfect companion piece with Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme, with both films singing from different pages of the American Dream. So too is it thematic siblings with Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, as both harness the near-mythological beauty of the natural world to punctuate their passionate pleas of grief and resilience. Yet, Train Dreams certainly stands as its own epic, differentiating itself from the other nine best picture nominees through its sheer earnestness, pursuing a philosophical meaning to existence with the same impassioned quietude as a late-night campfire conversation. It is executed with delicate precision too, with cinematographer Adolpho Veloso managing to achieve the impossible by making digital film-making look remarkably like the grain and vivid depth of celluloid. A win in the cinematography category is its most likely success, as while the film is worthy of a best picture statuette, it seems to be languishing behind the pack. Yet, handing Train Dreams the main prize would be an astute choice for the Academy, particularly if they want to be seen as championing the industry’s most exciting upcoming creatives — Bentley and his co-writer Greg Kwedar just last year enjoyed critical and commercial success with the excellent Sing Sing. Doing so would broaden the film’s modest popularity, making its pertinent message of human resilience and connection in a turbulent world more widespread — and that can only ever be a good thing. Train Dreams is available to stream on Netflix. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Sinners becoming the 2026 best picture winner would prove the Oscars don't need to play it safe
Ryan Coogler's Mississippi-set horror has more nominations than any film in history — and is much more than just a vampire story.
From the moment Sinners hit cinema screens back in April of last year, it was clear that it would be a contender in the Hollywood awards race. There was immediate critical acclaim for everything from storytelling and soundtrack to casting and cinematography, which culminated in 16 Oscar nominations – the most received by a single film in history. But now, as 98th Academy Awards draws near, Sinners has increasingly felt like a worthy winner of the best picture Oscar. Yet another impressive outing from writer/director Ryan Coogler (Black Panther, Fruitvale Station) and star Michael B Jordan (Creed, Without Remorse), Sinners is set in Jim Crow-era Mississippi and follows twin brothers Smoke and Stack (Jordan) as they return to their hometown and open a juke joint, which reunites them with friends and loved ones like their cousin, Sammie 'Preacher Boy' Moore (Miles Caton). But what starts as a night of celebration for the Blues soon descends into destruction as the vampire Remmick (Jack O'Connell) arrives with a trail of blood in his wake. View Green Video on the source website The acclaim for Sinners feels more important than ever in a time when people of colour around the world are facing an exhausting cycle of violence and dehumanising rhetoric. Coogler takes a setting that constantly tells Black and brown communities that their lives are disposable and puts their ancestry and spirituality at the centre, proving they are important and have epic stories to be told. Just look at one the film's most striking scenes, the transcendent juke-joint dance sequence. As Sammie sings I Lied To You, spirits from the past and present are drawn into the joint, which catches the attention of Remmick, who hopes to turn Sammie into a vampire and use his gift of music to reconnect with his ancestors. It's an extraordinary moment, so it's no surprise that it's this very song that Caton will perform at this year's Oscars. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2026/02/GettyImages-2262996034-bf246b5.jpg" width="7636" height="5090" alt="Ryan Coogler accepts the Original Screenplay Award for 'Sinners' on stage during the EE BAFTA Film Awards 2026 at The Royal Festival Hall on February 22, 2026 in London, England." title="Ryan Coogler accepts the Original Screenplay Award for 'Sinners' on stage during the EE BAFTA Film Awards 2026 at The Royal Festival Hall on February 22, 2026 in London, England." /> At the heart of Sinners' success is its cast, with many members rightfully nominated in other Oscar categories, including Michael B Jordan for best actor, Delroy Lindo for best supporting actor and Wunmi Mosaku for best supporting actress, which she also won at this year's BAFTAs. For Caton, Sinners marks his onscreen debut, which is a feat made even more impressive by how much he holds his own opposite these acting greats – even when Sammie is made to feel weak and less spirited than his twin cousins. The last – and only – film to even resemble a horror movie and win best picture was The Silence of the Lambs in 1992 — and while there have been impressive accomplishments from other horror entries over the years (The Substance, Get Out), arguably none have had as rightful a claim as Sinners. For Hollywood, a victory for Sinners would prove that a best picture winner doesn't need to "play it safe". It would declare that a film dealing in the supernatural and the lore of vampires can be treated as serious art rather than "just another vampire movie". Indeed, in one of the two credits scenes, Coogler leaves audiences with a sentence to send shivers down their spines – and truly encapsulates the heart of his film's story. With all the oppression around them, Sinners' revelling characters were only truly free during their time spent in the juke joint before sundown, as even if Remmick wasn't summoned, a racist mob would still come to attack. When reunited with Sammie decades after the events of the deadly night, Stack is asked if he also felt that, before the sun went down, it was the best day of his life. He replies: "No doubt about it. Last time I seen my brother. Last time I seen the sun. And just for a few hours, we was free." Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
How a win for the delicate Sentimental Value would bring something totally fresh to the Oscars' 2026 best picture race
With nine nominations and some of the finest performances of the year, this fine Norwegian family drama is more than worthy of the top prize.
"But we didn't have the same childhood. I had you.” Spoken by Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas’s Agnes in Sentimental Value, these 10 words are some of the most affecting in any film from 2025. It's a line that encapsulates the reason that the film has been nominated for nine awards in this year’s Oscars race – one that perfectly and poignantly captures the antithetical yet remarkable relationship between sisters. Renate Reinsve’s Nora, brown-eyed and teary, cradles the gentle form of the younger sister she has spent a lifetime loving, attempting to compensate for the affection withheld by their father and wondering why Agnes didn’t end up as fractured as she did. It’s a seismic moment – and one that any viewer of the 133-minute feature would cite as a standout. That scene alone feels worthy of an award. Of all the films nominated for best picture this year, it’s clear that Sentimental Value possesses the most heart – and for that reason, it deserves to win. Following his acclaimed drama The Worst Person in the World (arguably a 2022 best picture snub itself), Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier has returned with an even more assured character study in the form of Sentimental Value, once again centred on a performance by the astonishing Renate Reinsve. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2026/03/SentimentalValue32Renate-ReinsveAnders-DanielsenLiePhotoKasper-Tuxen-Andersen-2dd7ea4-e1772533480422.jpg" width="3230" height="2150" alt="Renate Reinsve as Nora in Sentimental Value, laying down in a bed, with covers pulled over her, smiling." title="SentimentalValue_32_Renate-Reinsve_Anders-Danielsen_Lie_Photo_Kasper-Tuxen-Andersen" /> This time, she’s Nora Borg – a 30-something theatre actress whose adult identity has been painfully marred by her relationship with her estranged father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), an acclaimed film director. When Gustav offers Nora a part in his new film, her historic resentment of him begins to resurface. What soon unfolds is a story of love, change and the limits of forgiveness, complicated further when American actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) is instead cast in the film as the character based on Gustav’s deceased mother, Karin. Films about family have always been integral to the Oscars. From Kramer vs Kramer to Little Women to Little Miss Sunshine and beyond, the family unit is a structure that both the Academy and audiences have been drawn to for decades – likely because of how intimate and relatable its intricacies can be. Sentimental Value slots itself within this genre at the highest tier. Its exploration of sisterhood, of the trauma suffered by the oldest daughter within a dysfunctional family system, is not only deeply realistic and profoundly poignant, but acutely confronting for much of the film’s audience. How eloquently the film manages to capture such a specific yet overlooked window of real life is more than enough reason for a win. The immaculate performances of its leading ladies also make Sentimental Value so emotionally penetrating. Nora's complexities, Agnes's delicacy and Rachel's sensitivity are all exceptional – with all three actresses so well aligned to their roles that it's almost uncanny. It’s simply no wonder that as well as best picture and a slew of other nominations, all three of the women also received nods for their turns in the film. Skarsgård is also bold in his portrayal of emotionally unintelligent Gustav – at times completely infuriating and at others, almost tragic. The film’s acting feats are only strengthened by its earnest script, rich cinematography and stunning production design. Not a single other of this year’s nominees managed to transform something as regular as a house into a character of its own – yet Sentimental Value somehow finds itself able to do so with a delightful ease. The dark panelled, Dragestil-style wooden structure of the Borg family home is filmed steadily and centrally, yet in a way that is intimate and connecting – skilfully transitioning bricks and mortar into a living, breathing manifestation of familial history – with all the memories of laughter, love and loss that several generations of the Borg family have endured. At times, such presentation even leaves the audience concerned more for the fate of the house than the outcome of its human characters. A best picture win for Sentimental Value would also make history as only the second ever international film to win the award. In nearly a century of Oscars history, only the 2019 Korean black comedy-thriller Parasite managed to achieve the feat. For Sentimental Value to follow in its footsteps would be a triumph: a resounding signal that non-English language stories, those rooted in culture and family and history, are worthy of recognition on a global scale – not just on a one-off chance. View Green Video on the source website Sentimental Value may not be as clamorous as Sinners, as incensing as One Battle After Another, or as overtly determined to drain the tears from its audience as Hamnet. It’s not a film that relies on being direct or excessive. What Sentimental Value is, however, is a tender, cinematic study of humanity. Of existence. Of the reasons we become the way we are. And so, perhaps after several recent years of boisterous best pictures, it’s time for something more delicate to regain a victory. Sentimental Value is now streaming on MUBI. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The time has come for Hollywood's biggest names to celebrate the best films of the year, with the Academy Awards just days away. This year's Oscars race has been an impressive one to say the least, with Sinners receiving a record-breaking 16 nominations, followed closely behind by One Battle After Another. As it stands, the best picture race and lead actor categories are still up to much debate, with Sinners, One Battle After Another and The Secret Agent considered frontrunners, while it seems Michael B Jordan and Jessie Buckley will walk home with the gold in their respective lead categories. Alongside usual acceptance speeches and electric performances, it has been confirmed the Oscars will include a special tribute to Rob Reiner, who sadly died in December 2025. It is understood that this year's in memoriam segment will be longer than past ceremonies. "I guess we can't really go into detail of what it's gonna be this year, but we really hope that it is a tribute that moves people and feels like it does the incredible people we've lost this year justice," producer Katy Mullan explained. If you're looking forward to see what the dazzling night has in store, read on for everything you need to know about how to watch the Oscars 2026 in the UK. You can also remind yourself of the 2026 Oscars nominations ahead of the main event. When are the Oscars 2026? Date and time <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2026/03/SentimentalValueRenate-ReinsveInga-Ibsdotter-Lilleaasphoto-Kasper-Tuxen-69d7e7d-e1773402945239.jpg" width="1612" height="1076" alt="Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as Nora and Agnes in Sentimental Value. They are lying down, Nora is hugging Agnes as she smiles. Nora has tears in her eyes." title="SentimentalValue_Renate-Reinsve_Inga-Ibsdotter-Lilleaas_photo-Kasper-Tuxen" /> The Oscars are scheduled to take place on Sunday 3 March 2026, returning to its usual home at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The ceremony has been held at the Dolby since 2001, except in 2021 when the ceremony was at a smaller venue due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ceremony will kick off 4pm PT and will last for three hours. Download the Radio Times app for more Oscars 2026 coverage – including interviews with the stars and exclusive features. How can I watch the Oscars 2026 in the UK? For a third year, the Academy Awards will be shown in full on ITV, making it hugely accessible for movie fans in the UK. The broadcaster will offer free-to-air programming on ITV1 and its streaming service ITVX, including red carpet coverage and analysis from a panel of film aficionados, including Elle Osili Wood, Samson Kayo and Fred Asquith. They join Jonathan Ross for the live show, offering insight, commentary and analysis of Hollywood's biggest night. For those in the UK, the ceremony will begin at 11pm, though ITV's coverage will kick off from 10:15pm. Who is hosting the Oscars 2026? Conan O'Brien returns to the Oscars stage for a second year, a move that was confirmed less than a month after last year's ceremony drew to a close. O'Brien has been testing out his presenter material in comedy clubs, telling the New Yorker: "I grew up watching Bob Hope do it, Johnny Carson do it. So it’s a very cool thing to be connected to. As you know, I’m very interested in history, and this thing has been around for a hundred years — almost a hundred years — so let’s have fun with it, is my attitude." View oEmbed on the source website Which musical acts will perform at the Oscars 2026? This year's Oscars will feature musical tributes from Sinners and KPop Demon Hunters. "This year, our music performances are inspired by two of the most powerful cultural phenomena in film: Sinners, the most nominated film in Oscars history, and KPop Demon Hunters, a global pop culture sensation," Oscar producers Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan said in a joint statement. "These show moments are more than just performances — they expand into cinematic tributes that celebrate the relationship between music and storytelling and why these films resonated so deeply with audiences around the world." View oEmbed on the source website Miles Caton and Raphael Saadiq will perform I Lied to You alongside Misty Copeland, Eric Gales, Buddy Guy, Brittany Howard, Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Bobby Rush, Shaboozey and Alice Smith. While the voices of HUNTR/X, Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami, will perform Golden from the hit animated movie. Who is presenting awards at the Oscars 2026? There are plenty of starry names in this year's presenting line-up, including former winners Adrien Brody, Kieran Culkin, Mikey Madison and Zoe Saldaña. Other confirmed presenters include One Battle After Another breakout star Chase Infiniti, Hamnet's Paul Mescal, plus Oscar nominees Rose Byrne, Delroy Lindo and Wagner Moura. Javier Bardem, Chris Evans, Demi Moore, Kumail Nanjiani, Maya Rudolph, Will Arnett, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Robert Downey Jr, Anne Hathaway, Gwyneth Paltrow, Nicole Kidman, Jimmy Kimmel, Ewan McGregor, Pedro Pascal, Bill Pullman, Lewis Pullman, Channing Tatum and Sigourney Weaver round out the line-up. The Academy Awards will air on Sunday 15 March 2026. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
How The Secret Agent's overflow of cinematic possibilities proves it deserves best picture at the 2026 Oscars
Wagner Moura is quietly staggering in this textured, stylish and profound Brazilian film from Kleber Mendonça Filho.
The wholehearted embrace of international cinema – once largely consigned to its own separate category – has been one of the most encouraging developments at the Oscars in recent years. Since Parasite’s groundbreaking win back in 2020, almost every best picture line-up has seen at least one film in a language other than English compete for the top prize, and that’s the case again this year, with both Norwegian drama Sentimental Value and Brazilian film The Secret Agent in the mix. The latter of those is, for my money, the best of a pretty stellar crop of nominees in the category. Interestingly, it’s the second film from Brazil in as many years to be up for best picture, following on from Walter Salles's I'm Still Here last time out. And that’s not the only similarity between the pair. Just like that film, The Secret Agent unfolds in the 1970s against the tumultuous backdrop of the country’s military dictatorship, although on this occasion we’re dealing with a work of fiction inspired by the atmosphere of the era rather than the dramatisation of a true story. The fourth narrative feature from writer/director Kleber Mendonça Filho, the gripping, stylish, and at times endearingly offbeat film is built around a quietly staggering performance from Wagner Moura, who is quite rightly up for best actor. Moura plays Armando, a university professor with an initially unclear past on the run for reasons that are gradually and deftly unspooled over a luxurious 2 hour 40 minute run-time that never comes close to dragging. In the early scenes, he arrives in the city of Recife and adopts a new identity as Marcelo, seeking to evade his enemies while also reuniting with his young son Fernando, who is living with the parents of his mysteriously dead wife. That’s the starting point for a remarkable, profound film that defies easy categorisation and consistently keeps the audience on its toes, offering up a richer range of delights than any of its competitors in the awards race. From the tense opening sequence set at a petrol station – where a lone dead body lies ominously on the ground – to a riveting climatic chase scene with a memorable instrumental score, the film is dripping with atmosphere and local character. Crucially, Mendonça Filho manages to convey the terrors of the dictatorship and the insidious evils of a corrupt society while also expressing a clear affection for Recife of the time and its ordinary residents, a nostalgia that could earlier be glimpsed in his 2023 documentary Pictures of Ghosts. This approach includes a number of dramatic detours that naysayers might argue saddles the film with a lack of focus, but in truth provides a freewheeling looseness that only adds to its transportive power. There’s an entire subplot dedicated to a recent shark attack that eventually leads to one of the film’s most eccentric touches: a fantastic B-movie inspired sequence starring a rampaging severed leg. Meanwhile, Mendonça Filho also includes a touching send off for the late German actor Udo Kier, who previously appeared in his surreal 2019 western Bacurau and has a striking cameo here. Throughout, the film is truly alive to the possibilities of cinema – and it’s no coincidence that Armando’s father-in-law is employed as the projectionist at a local picture house, where young Fernando has become entranced by the poster for Jaws. One of those possibilities, which gives the film its main thematic thrust, is the vital significance of cinema as a tool of collective memory. Although set in the ‘70s, the film is inspired by Brazil’s more recent brush with fascism under the far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro, and it seeks to both honour the memory of the brave dissidents whose sacrifices in that earlier era have been scrubbed from the official record and to acknowledge that the only way of facing up to present and future troubles is to address the evils of the past. This aspect of the film is further driven home by a smart framing device that sees a modern day student learning about the activities of Moura's character through audio recordings and newspaper archives, building up to an affecting coda. View Green Video on the source website From a technical standpoint, The Secret Agent is near faultless, and special commendations must go to cinematographer Evgenia Alexandrova and production designer Thales Junqueira, whose work combine to create a ‘70s Brazil that feels richly detailed and bursting with colourful life. Meanwhile, casting director Gabriel Domingues thoroughly deserves his own Oscar nod; every actor, from Tânia Maria as vivacious elderly dissident Dona Sebastiana to Kaiony Venâncio as chilling hitman Vilmar, fits their character to a tee. It’s the combination of these factors – the political and personal relevancy, the textured sense of time and place, the tremendous character work, the sheer thrilling cinematic verve of it all – that would make The Secret Agent such a deserving Oscar winner. It truly stands apart from the rest of the pack. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Hidden gems at the 2026 Oscars: 10 nominated films you might not have seen
We all know about One Battle After Another, Hamnet and Sinners – but here are some Oscar-nominated films from this year that might have slipped under your radar.
The quality of this year's Oscar best picture race is of a very high standard – with frontrunners Sinners and One Battle After Another joined in the category by a number of other tremendous films including The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value and Marty Supreme. But as well as those big-hitters, there are several other movies in the running in various other categories that may have slipped under your radar. As ever, many of those can be found in the best international and best documentary feature categories – with the likes of Sirât and Mr Nobody Against Putin among those worth seeking out. Meanwhile, we've also selected a few films that have picked up a stray nomination in a below-the-line category but have otherwise been largely snubbed, such as make-up and hairstyling nominee The Ugly Stepsister. Check out our list of 10 hidden gems from the Oscar nominations list below – including our official Radio Times reviews and details on where to watch each film. 1. If I Had Legs I'd Kick You Nominated for: Best actress – Rose Byrne RT Review: Motherhood is a mountain to be exhaustingly climbed in this scathing, innovative comedy drama from American writer/director Mary Bronstein (who also pops up to play a patronising paediatrician). Rose Byrne is sensational as Linda, a woman whose life, and ceiling, is tumbling down around her. She's grappling with the demands of her daughter (a largely unseen Delaney Quinn) whom she feeds via a gastric tube, while trying to maintain her career as a psychotherapist. Her ship-captain husband Charles (voiced by Christian Slater) is away with work, and her own therapist (Conan O'Brien) seems to despise her. Things get really ugly when Linda is forced to move herself and her daughter into a motel (run by A$AP Rocky's James) and she starts behaving recklessly, while a client's crisis touches a nerve. Bronstein confronts the depth of Linda's depression and the judgements she faces in imaginative, interrogatory style, punctuating her film with sometimes wildly funny farce. A never-better Byrne, deservedly Oscar-nominated, thrives under the film's intense focus, juggling comedy and tragedy with aplomb. – Emma Simmonds Where to watch: In cinemas 2. The Voice of Hind Rajab Nominated for: Best international feature RT Review: A five-year-old Palestinian girl trapped in the crossfire of an Israeli attack in Gaza calls for help in this harrowing true-life docudrama produced by Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix. Set entirely in a Red Crescent emergency centre, the film uses real audio of Hind Rajab, alone in a stationary vehicle with her relatives all dead around her as bullets rain down. Volunteer Omar (Motaz Malhees) takes her call, desperate to get an ambulance to her, but clashes with his protocol-following colleague Mahdi (Amer Hlehel) making it an agonising process. Tunisian film-maker Kaouther Ben Hania (Four Daughters) pulls together an urgent and often difficult-to-watch piece, as the frightened child begs to be rescued. Ben Hania handles the material sensitively right to the end, even when footage of the real car is shown. Some may question the ethics of using a real distress call, but the result is a devastating anti-war work. – James Mottram Where to watch: Available to rent and buy 3. Mr Nobody Against Putin Nominated for: Best documentary feature RT Review: One man's mundane filmed reports become a diary of growing oppression and militarisation in this excellent documentary from Russia. Pavel "Pasha" Talankin is the events co-ordinator and videographer at the school in his small Ural hometown. Shortly after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin implements a "patriotic education policy" that mandates state propaganda in schools, and the ensuing indoctrination lessons and tub-thumping displays must be filmed as proof of compliance. Over the next two and a half years, doggedly filming his life in and around the school, Talankin does his best to combat disinformation and encroaching nationalism, but the risk of being labelled a dissenter starts to grow too real to ignore. Credited as co-director and cinematographer, Talankin shares direct and personal insights laced with lively wit and humanity. American film-maker David Borenstein marshals Talankin's extensive footage, crafting a compact and compelling story with a range of interesting participants. Various youngsters provide emotional resonance - several of Pasha's male ex-students face imminent mobilisation - but it's a quietly fanatical pro-Putin history teacher who is arguably the most memorable character. A deserved BAFTA winner and Oscar nominee, the film is both an invaluable document of an urgent situation and living proof of the deep-rooted link between large-scale politics and the seemingly provincial. – Calum Baker Where to watch: BBC iPlayer 4. The Perfect Neighbor Nominated for: Best documentary feature RT Review: On 2 June 2023, mother-of-four Ajike Owens was shot and killed by her neighbour, Susan Lorincz. This harrowing Oscar-nominated documentary follows the build-up to the incident and its aftermath, with footage comprised almost entirely of recordings from police officers' bodycams. What unfolds is the story of Lorincz, a 58-year-old white lady, terrorising the black residents of her street with complaints about children playing near her property. The police are called over and over again to deal with her 911 calls until Lorincz finally makes her horrifying decision. The incident was a test of Florida's controversial "stand your ground" laws, and this film dissects their inadequacy with a very sharp scalpel. With the permission of Owens' family, film-maker Geeta Gandbhir explores their shock and grief on the night of the shooting, and the community outrage that followed. It's a difficult watch, but a true feat of documentary film-making: a howl of escalating fury captured, with deceptive simplicity, by law-enforcement officers who sadly failed to connect the dots. – Jayne Nelson Where to watch: Netflix 5. Sirât Nominated for: Best international feature Taking its name from the Arabic word for a bridge between heaven and hell, this mercilessly tense thriller from Galician writer/director Oliver Laxe holds its audience in a vice-like grip. It follows Luis (Sergi López), a middle-aged Spanish man who takes his pre-teen son and dog to an illegal rave in the Moroccan desert, having heard that his missing daughter might be there. When it gets shut down, he continues his search by following a group of partygoers (many of whom played by non-professional actors) towards the Mauritanian border. A perilous road trip follows, and as Luis becomes a fish increasingly out of water, nods to Heart of Darkness or Mad Max give way to the four-wheeled hallucinatory kicks of William Friedkin thriller Sorcerer. There are breathtakingly cruel bumps in the road and a political backdrop that may feel inelegantly plotted, but such concerns give way to the overall sensory experience - and an existential edge to the survival story. As an electronic music score sends basslines throbbing and the ravers' subwoofers pulsing, this utterly exhilarating film becomes a parable for our relationship with fate and the sublime. – Max Copeman Where to watch: In cinemas 6. The Alabama Solution View Green Video on the source website Nominated for: Best documentary feature This harrowing documentary uses illicit cell phone footage filmed by Alabama prison inmates to reveal the appalling conditions they are forced to endure. Filmed over six years - after inmates reached out to a team who had been hired to film a sanitised social event - it's a brutal, stomach-churning, blood-soaked, rat-infested chronicle of abuse, slave labour and death. But even with the federal government demanding changes, Alabama officials double down on dealing with the problem in their own way. There must be an "Alabama Solution," says the state governor, seemingly unaware how close that sounds to "Final Solution". This is not an easy watch, but it's utterly compelling. Even if you attempt to watch it with a healthy dose of cynicism - is it one-sided? Does it romanticise the prisoners into plucky rebels? - in the end, the weight of horrific visual evidence means the inmates come out of this with far more humanity than their political leaders. And while the documentary doesn't claim this is a specifically black-and-white issue, you're left in little doubt that racism is the root of the problem. – Dave Golder Where to watch: NOW 7. The Smashing Machine Nominated for: Best make-up and hairstyling In a role not so far removed from his own experience as a one-time WWE wrestler, Dwayne Johnson gives a fine performance as real-life UFC competitor Mark Kerr in this sports-themed drama. Set between 1997 and 2000, Ultimate Fighting Championship – a bruising mixed martial arts combat sport – is taking off with the undefeated wrestler Kerr among its leading lights. But as his addiction to painkilling opioids takes hold and arguments flare with girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt), his world begins to fall apart. Winner of the best director award at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, Benny Safdie (co-director of Uncut Gems) strives for realism rather than triumphalism here. Authenticity is furthered by casting folk from the real UFC world, including the excellent Ryan Bader as Kerr's friend/trainer Mark Coleman. While a spray-tanned Blunt and a wig-wearing Johnson are great, the low-key narrative never quite hits the dramatic heights, perhaps because Kerr's own story isn't exactly filled with fist-pumping moments. Sometimes too on-the-nose, it's nevertheless a bold look at a misunderstood sport. – James Mottram Where to watch: Available to rent and buy 8. The Ugly Stepsister Nominated for: Best make-up and hairstyling Offering a fresh twist on the classic Cinderella fairy tale, this Norwegian horror focuses on a less traditionally attractive member of the family and the grotesque attempts to beautify her. Lea Myren stars as the wallflower sibling subjected to extreme medical procedures by a mother determined to turn her daughter into desirable marriage material. First-time director Emilie Blichfeldt satirises the gruesomeness and cruelty prevalent in numerous Brothers Grimm stories, although the main thrust of the narrative is a commentary on peer pressure, modern-day attitudes to body image and the perception of glamour. The minefield of dysfunctional familial relationships is addressed with dark humour, helping to undercut the scenes of primitive, barbaric surgery that more squeamish viewers may find discomforting. All told, the film presents an unsettling blend of folklore and feminism that, while well intentioned, ultimately asks more questions than it answers. Nonetheless, it's held together by a captivating, heartbreaking performance by former child star Myren as the supposedly unlovable ingenue. – Terry Staunton Where to watch: SHUDDER 9. All the Empty Rooms Nominated for: Best documentary short This short documentary follows American TV journalist Steve Hartman as he concludes a long-gestating project: documenting his country's proliferating school shootings via the now empty bedrooms of murdered children. It's far from easy viewing as Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp visit four sets of grieving parents across California, Texas and Tennessee, who have kept the rooms – bedding, stuffed toys, handmade art – largely preserved. Two of the adults mention the smell of their late kids, in just one of the film's many affecting nods to how memories can linger via physical spaces, objects and sensations. One victim, teenager Gracie Muehlberger, had her next couple of days' outfits planned; they still hang on her rail. Director Joshua Seftel structures his film around Hartman's four visits in 2025, allowing the parents to memorialise their children and providing the viewer a simple, stark sense of what is taken from the world in the wake of these violent events. Between each scene, the reporter shares his motivations for the project, which provides its own moving subplot - that of a journalist known for his cheery human-interest pieces choosing to take a stand against one of his society's more peculiar and disturbing regular phenomena. – Calum Baker Where to watch: Netflix 10. Little Amélie or the Character of Rain Nominated for: Best animated film This delightful animated tale paints a world seen through the eyes of a toddler. Our narrator is Amélie (voiced by Loïse Charpentier), who lives with her Belgian family in 1960s Japan. At two and a half, she assumes that she is the centre of the universe -perhaps even God! Annoyingly, she can't bend the world to her will. But she can bond with housekeeper Nishio-san (Victoria Grosbois), until lines blur and she is unsure whether she feels Belgian - most of the dialogue is in French -or Japanese. Deftly adapting from Amélie Nothomb's memoir The Character of Rain, directors Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han use delicate brushstrokes to tell Amélie's story up to the age of three. As she experiences more of life, they expertly contrast washed-out watercolours with more vibrant hues. Taking a leaf out of Studio Ghibli's book, they also focus on small moments to build mood: someone gently straightening a pair of shoes, for example. The result is elegant, sweet and, with its subtle themes of post-Second World War national tensions, surprisingly poignant. – Jayne Nelson Where to watch: In cinemas Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Every best picture Oscar winner of 21st century ranked – from Crash to Moonlight
With the Oscars almost upon us, we look back at the past 25 best picture winners – and put them in order from worst to best.
Heading into this Sunday's Academy Awards in Los Angeles, the best picture race seems to have solidified largely around two films: Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another and Ryan Coogler's Sinners. Both films have their passionate champions, and either would be pretty great winners of a prize which has thrown up a fascinating array of victors at recent ceremonies – a far cry from the years not so long ago where the category was mainly the domain of safe, rather middlebrow pictures. As we wait to see which of those likely winners prevails, we've gone back in time to the turn of the century to rank each of the last 25 winners in order from worst to best, and have published the list below, alongside our official Radio Times review for each winner. Of course, it's always worth pointing out that such an exercise is inherently subjective – and it's very possible that your own list could differ substantially from the one printed below – it's certainly a varied group of films, some of which will naturally appeal to some viewers more than others. Scroll down for the ranked list and details of where you can watch the films in question. 25. Crash View Green Video on the source website RT Review: Los Angeles provides the setting for writer/director Paul Haggis's finely tuned ensemble drama about interconnected lives, which was the surprise winner of the 2005 best picture Oscar. Like Short Cuts and Magnolia, Haggis's film ambitiously weaves several narrative strands into a short time frame – in this case, just 36 hours. Here, as the title suggests, the characters are brought together by a series of violent collisions and close encounters. Among them are a racist cop (Matt Dillon), a TV director's highly strung wife (Thandie Newton), a detective dogged by serious family problems (Don Cheadle) and two car-jacking victims (Sandra Bullock and Brendan Fraser). Haggis and co-writer Bobby Moresco - who picked up an Academy Award for their screenplay - have created a raft of fully developed characters, linked by chance, criminal acts and simmering racial tensions. As events (both kind and cruel) unfold, even the most seasoned movie-goer will find something here to surprise - and shock. – Karen Krizanovich Where to watch: Prime Video 24. A Beautiful Mind RT Review: Ron Howard makes pictures of quality if not always distinction. So after years of being ignored by the American Academy as a director, it seems that with this biographical drama he decided 2002 would be his Oscar year. The true story of maths genius John Forbes Nash Jr, who battled paranoid schizophrenia at the height of his academic success and eventually won the economics Nobel Prize, is tailor-made Oscar fare. It has the triumph-over-tragedy, against-all-odds theme going for it, plus a powerhouse performance from Russell Crowe as Nash. Any film that traces nearly 50 years of an influential man's life is making a claim to some celluloid glory, but underneath all the impressive ageing make-up, what exactly do we have here? A difficult man with a complex psychological condition - reduced to a series of delusional episodes to furnish a thriller subplot - who has devoted his life to an almost insurmountably dry subject, namely advanced mathematics theory. This is in no way a badly made picture, and there's reliable support from Ed Harris, Adam Goldberg and Paul Bettany. However, the film's overweening desire to be taken seriously gets in the way of the story. That said, the film won the best picture Oscar, Howard walked away with best director and Jennifer Connelly won a best supporting actress statuette for her well-judged performance as Nash's wife, though Crowe lost out as best actor to Denzel Washington in Training Day. – Andrew Collins Where to watch: Prime Video/Paramount Plus 23. Everything Everywhere All at Once RT Review: After the quirky Swiss Army Man, the directing pair known as Daniels head even further into oddball terrain with this wacky and ambitious sci-fi comedy drama. It centres on Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh), a Chinese immigrant in America, whose mundane life running a launderette with her husband (Ke Huy Quan) and daughter (Stephanie Hsu) is upended when she discovers she has the power to cross into other dimensions. With the fate of all worlds at stake, Evelyn must kung fu kick her way across the "multiverse", and even has to fend off Jamie Lee Curtis's possessed auditor. The film is filled with zany invention, but also a pile-up of puerile jokes and laboured attempts to be profound. As a result, some viewers may struggle to stay the course. However, Yeoh has gravitas in spades and is a much-needed focal point in the head-spinning visions of time and space. – Max Copeman Where to watch: Available to rent/buy 22. Green Book RT Review: He's better known for gross-out fare such as Dumb and Dumber, but Green Book finds Peter Farrelly trying his hand at more awards-friendly material, channelling the touring troubles of African-American musician Don Shirley into an odd-couple dramedy. Viggo Mortensen plays Tony Vallelonga, an Italian-American bouncer hired in 1962 to chauffeur pianist Shirley (Mahershala Ali) on a tour of the Deep South in the run-up to Christmas. Mortensen turns in a charming, comedically gifted performance as the racist-turned-rough diamond. Ali is even finer, and the discreet way he conveys Shirley's heartache is terrifically moving. Their unlikely friendship recalls Driving Miss Daisy, with the film establishing itself in that same virtuous but simplified and commercially friendly tradition. Mortensen and Ali make an irresistible duo in a well-meaning and touching (albeit slightly misjudged) film that boasts plenty of polish but lacks the requisite grit. Right down to its crowd-pleasing conclusion, it gives 1960s race relations an unnecessarily accessible overhaul. – Emma Simmonds Where to watch: Prime Video/BBC iPlayer 21. CODA RT Review: A remake of the 2014 French film La Famille Bélier, writer/director Siân Heder's smartly judged crowd-pleaser distinguishes coming-of-age conventions with rich reserves of salty wit and choppy feeling. Emilia Jones stars as "child of deaf adults" (CODA) Ruby Rossi, the 17-year-old hearing deckhand for her family's Massachusetts fishing operation. But when Ruby's choirmaster, Bernardo Villalobos (Eugenio Derbez), recognises and begins to nurture her vocal talents, tensions build between the teenager's passions and her family commitments. Even if you can see where this is going, Heder and her cast summon the character nuances needed to make the film sing. Deaf actors Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin make warm, ribald work of Ruby's loving parents, complemented by Derbez's wry, tangy take on inspirational-teacher clichés. Meanwhile, Jones leads with appealingly awkward, expressive conviction all the way to the genuinely affecting climax: when the inevitable montage and its accompanying tears arrive, they feel earned. – Kevin Harley Where to watch: Apple TV+ 20. The King's Speech RT Review: In this marvellously moving tale, Colin Firth is impressive as King George VI, the British monarch who suffered from a debilitating nervous stammer. From the outset, when he freezes on national radio, the tension of striving to uphold his image is palpable. And it's George's wife Elizabeth (the future Queen Mother, played by a sprightly Helena Bonham Carter) who drives him on, unlike his distant father (Michael Gambon), who continually puts him down. Elizabeth engages the services of speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), who is a breath of fresh air in a world of stifling formality, although his intimate approach initially maddens George. Director Tom Hooper (The Damned United) deftly captures a man in limbo amid the scandal of his brother Edward's abdication of the throne and the run-up to the Second World War, while Firth manages to express George's crippling fear without losing any dignity. Inevitably, his friendship with Lionel becomes pivotal, but what comes across just as powerfully is how lonely life can be at the top. This is the type of thing the British film industry does so well - a bit of history, a bit of social comedy, a few liberties with the truth and a flag-waving finale. – Stella Papamichael Where to watch: NOW 19. The Artist View Green Video on the source website RT Review: Just like they did in their French OSS 117 spy spoofs, director Michel Hazanavicius and star Jean Dujardin perfectly evoke an authentic period and style in this remarkable re-creation of Hollywood's silent movie era. Filmed in black and white, in the squarer Academy ratio, with only the briefest and cleverest dips into sound (the intertitles are in English), this evocation of Tinseltown on the eve of The Jazz Singer is a film buff feel-good joy. Dujardin's charm (he was named best actor at Cannes 2011 and at the Oscars) is successfully harnessed as matinée idol George Valentin, whose career nosedives with the arrival of the talkies. Meanwhile vivacious Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), who joins one of his movies as an extra, finds her star rising as the studios look for fresh talent with attractive voices. Embracing the techniques and look of the times, and paying homage to numerous silent classics and Citizen Kane, this loving, warm pastiche is a sheer delight. – Alan Jones Where to watch: Available to rent/buy 18. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) RT Review: The late-midlife crisis of a fading Hollywood star is the basis of this surprisingly profound and extraordinarily kinetic satire about life and success in the age of social media. Michael Keaton stars as Riggan Thomson, an actor who found fame in the 1990s with a trilogy of superhero films based around the title character. When the film starts, Thomson is about to debut his first play as writer, producer, director and star, a piece adapted from Raymond Carver's short stories. But as woes pile on in the lead-up to opening night (money is tight, publicity is non-existent, a key player gets KO'd) Thomson begins to hear the persuasive voice of his one-time alter ego. The Birdman conceit is a good excuse for some great effects, but where Babel director Alejandro González Iñárritu really excels is in delivering an excellent drama about a man on the edge. Perhaps his best decision was to cast Keaton (Hollywood's pre-Christian Bale Batman), who is outstanding as the lead, and Edward Norton, superb as his nemesis, the Method actor from hell. – Damon Wise Where to watch: Disney+/Netflix 17. Argo RT Review: A true story that involves the CIA, Hollywood and the anti-American regime of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini shouldn't be as seamless as this gripping, beautifully performed and often very funny but dramatic thriller. The year is 1979 and the US embassy in Tehran has been stormed, with many of its workers taken hostage. However, six have fled, and are being secretly sheltered by the Canadian ambassador (Victor Garber), but time is running out. The CIA has exhausted every avenue, including a feeble plan to whisk them out on bicycles, so when "exfiltration" expert Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) suggests disguising them as a film crew and scouting locations for a Star Wars rip-off, it seems as good an idea as any. Alan Arkin and John Goodman are superb as the operation's jaded Tinseltown connections in a terrific story that deftly offsets tension with comedy. The excellent screenplay also examines the nature of storytelling and resolves the conflict, for once, with coolness and clarity. – Damon Wise Where to watch: Prime Video 16. Nomadland RT Review: A transformative journey across the American west unfolds with utter majesty in writer/director Chloé Zhao's Oscar-winning adaptation of Jessica Bruder's non-fiction book. Reeling from the twin tragedies of losing her home and her husband, the free-spirited Fern (Frances McDormand, who also won an Academy Award for her performance) is plunged into a transient existence as she hits the road in a lovingly converted van. It's an unforgiving lifestyle, dependent on seasonal gigs and "stealth parking". But along the way, Fern meets many beautiful souls (including real-life nomads Linda May and Bob Wells), and finds a sense of community with other older Americans, who have been similarly cast adrift. Nomadland transcends narrative conventions, allowing us to simply luxuriate in its protagonist's exploits. With a stunning score from Ludovico Einaudi that's by turns melancholy and soothing, and sublime cinematography by Joshua James Richards, the film boasts a remarkable ability to capture the cathartic power of connecting with nature, and is an almost spiritual experience. As she salutes the resilience of humankind, Zhao has given us something genuinely unforgettable. – Emma Simmons Where to watch: Disney+ 15. Chicago RT Review: It took more than a quarter of a century to bring the 1975 musical Chicago to the screen, but it was worth the wait to get it right. In this spirited film adaptation, Renée Zellweger stars as Roxie Hart, the ambitious newcomer who dreams of singing and dancing in one of the city's jazz clubs, and Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Velma, the established performer. After the shootings of a lover and an unfaithful husband, they end up in prison and discover that the publicity surrounding a capital murder case can be a boon to a career in showbusiness. Director Rob Marshall licks the problem of how to film a musical that was presented as vaudeville on stage – it's closer to that style of short scenes and "turns" than to conventional musical comedy – by re-creating the musical numbers as fantasies in Roxie's head. He loses none of the energy of the stage version nor its dark subtext on the corrupting nature of stardom. Oscar-nominated Zellweger is perfect casting despite - or perhaps even because of - her inexperience in the genre, while the Oscar-winning Zeta-Jones sings and high-kicks as if born on Broadway. – Brian Pendreigh Where to watch: ITVX 14. Slumdog Millionaire RT Review: Shot almost entirely on the streets of Mumbai, British director Danny Boyle's hyper-energetic rags-to-riches tale (and winner of eight Oscars) aims to dazzle and delight from the start, and for the most part it succeeds. Dev Patel plays the titular "slumdog" Jamal, a poverty-stricken orphan who's enjoying a triumphant run on India's version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. He's now just one correct answer away from the jackpot of 20 million rupees, but the show's host becomes suspicious and the police are brought in. During Jamal's interrogation, episodes from his extraordinary life unfold, revealing that each quiz question relates to a different experience - ranging from the tragic to the rumbustiously comical. Patel is an appealing lead and he is ably supported by Freida Pinto as his lifelong love interest Latika and Madhur Mittal as his cynical, morally compromised brother Salim. But the movie's real star is the city itself, which is brought to hectic, exuberant life by Boyle and ace cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle. – Adam Smith Where to watch: Available to rent/buy 13. The Hurt Locker RT Review: Director Kathryn Bigelow's 2004-set account of the lives of a US Army bomb-disposal squad in Iraq focuses on the men who voluntarily put themselves next to deadly IEDs (improvised explosive devices). The contrasting attitudes and philosophies of a trio of soldiers (played by Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty) come under scrutiny, with each man keenly aware that every job may potentially be their last. Bigelow, one of the very few women working in the traditionally male-dominated action and war genres, avoids both red wire/yellow wire cliché and political preaching to deliver a film that is as psychologically fascinating as it is taut and exciting. Ralph Fiennes and Guy Pearce are among the well-known faces in smaller roles. – Adam Smith Where to watch: Available to rent/buy 12. The Shape of Water RT Review: There are monster movies and there are Guillermo del Toro's monster movies, but this Oscar-winning fantasy should not be confused with the more teen-friendly likes of Hellboy and Pacific Rim. Sally Hawkins plays Elisa, a mute office cleaner who works at a high-security government lab, where aviation technology is being developed. One day, her curiosity is piqued when a strange container is wheeled in. The tank contains a beautuful webbed fish-man (a prettified nod to the occupant of the Black Lagoon), and Elisa is smitten. The real monster of the piece, however, is Michael Shannon's ice-cold Colonel Strickland, who sees the creature as an abomination. Elisa gets wind of Strickland's plans to vivisect her new friend, to further the fledgling Nasa programme, and her race to save him adds a genuinely tense climax to a surprising and striking adult fairy tale. – Damon Wise Where to watch: Disney+ 11. The Departed RT Review: After a run of solid, adventurous but ultimately underwhelming efforts (Gangs of New York, The Aviator), director Martin Scorsese returned to more familiar form with a superior, Boston-set cops-and-gangsters story based on the Hong Kong crime drama Infernal Affairs, and won the long-awaited best director Oscar for his trouble. Rookie cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is assigned to go deep undercover to help catch local Mafia godfather Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Meanwhile, Costello has groomed Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) since puberty to be his spy on the force. The complex script (fluently adapted by William Monahan) rotates around these two moles, who orbit each other like twin suns for most of the movie, but only meet in the third act. It all makes for extremely watchable entertainment. The leads are luminous (especially Nicholson, doing his best work in years here), but supporting players Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin and Ray Winstone all steal scenes with glee. – Leslie Felperin Where to watch: Available to rent/buy 10. Million Dollar Baby View Green Video on the source website RT Review: For those who thought Unforgiven was the masterpiece of Clint Eastwood's autumn years, this sharp, moving and brutally bleak drama proves that he can bring the same grizzled genius to the sports arena. Adapted from Rope Burns, a book of short stories by FX Toole, it stars Eastwood as Frankie Dunn, a washed-up boxing coach whose fighters abandon him as soon as they hit the big time. Dumped by his latest slugger, Dunn reluctantly turns his attentions to Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), a 31-year-old waitress who turns up at his gym begging for lessons. Dunn tutors Maggie to success, but then this otherwise standard underdog story takes a shocking turn in its final third that gives the movie an unexpected depth and immense power. Morgan Freeman is impressive as Dunn's crumpled sidekick, and Oscar winner Swank is terrific, too, but this is Clint's film, both as its tortured hero and as a great American director. – Damon Wise Where to watch: ITVX 9. Spotlight RT Review: In 2001, The Boston Globe ran a story about a priest accused of child abuse. After digging deeper, the members of the paper's Spotlight team unearthed a number of similar stories, revealing evidence that led to countless other priests who had molested young boys. Their investigation also proved all of these scandals had been covered up by senior members of the Catholic Church. This extraordinary story from writer/director Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent) is brought vividly to life in a riveting drama that sticks mindfully to the facts. Portraying real events and real people, it discloses how a small, four-person team (played by Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Brian d'Arcy James) exposed a shocking, widespread cover-up. For most of the film's running time, we follow these characters as they gather information, which isn't nearly as dull as it might sound. In fact, the film is utterly engrossing from start to finish, playing out as a detailed, quietly intelligent procedural in the style of All the President's Men, and praise cannot be heaped higher than that. The film was rewarded with Oscars for best picture and best original screenplay. – Stephen Carty Where to watch: Lionsgate+ 8. Gladiator RT Review: Ridley Scott and the boys from DreamWorks produced the first genuine Roman epic since 1964's The Fall of the Roman Empire with this virtual remake that deals with the transition of power from the sage-like Marcus Aurelius to his monstrous son, Commodus. The fictional hero, General Maximus, is Caesar's adopted heir, whom Commodus turns into an exile after killing his family. Becoming a gladiator, Maximus fights to avenge his loved ones and save the soul of Rome. The film's strengths are a fine script, which doesn't stint on the politics, and excellent performances from Richard Harris as Aurelius and Oliver Reed, in his final film, as a gladiator trainer. Also superb is Joaquin Phoenix as the paranoid, teenage Commodus, while Russell Crowe is utterly convincing as the Conan/Spartacus-like hero. As always with Scott, the visuals are fabulous: the computer-generated ancient Rome is simply staggering, allowing helicopter shots over the city and turning the Colosseum into a living building, a character in its own right and a blood-soaked stage on which the fate of the characters and the empire is enacted. For those old enough to remember the 70mm epics of yesteryear, this is a nostalgic synthesis of all of them. For those who haven't seen those earlier movies, Scott will open their eyes to a "brand-new" old world. – Adrian Turner Where to watch: Prime Video 7. Anora RT Review: The Florida Project writer/director Sean Baker heads to New York with this breathless and very grown-up twist on Cinderella. Ani (Mikey Madison) is a fiery and quick-witted Brooklyn sex worker who is introduced to high-rolling new client Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn). The 18-year-old son of a Russian oligarch, Ivan is brash and bratty, but hits it off with Ani when he pays her to be his girlfriend. After weeks of hedonistic pursuit, the couple elope to Las Vegas. When they return, though, Ivan's parents dispatch his hapless minders to have the marriage annulled, and Ani must fight to keep her new-found life of luxury. As director, Baker brilliantly navigates a fascinating world of high-heels, fishnet stockings and tacky Take That remixes, while his electric script effortlessly shifts between drama and screwball comedy. At the centre of it all, Madison is magnetic as the firecracker with sad eyes, anchoring a complex character study that boasts a sparkling comedic surface. – Max Copeman Where to watch: NOW 6. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King RT Review: Peter Jackson deservedly won the best director Oscar for this powerful and enchanting concluding episode to his massively ambitious adaptation of JRR Tolkien's trilogy. It also became the first fantasy film to receive the best picture Oscar and won awards in all the categories it was nominated for, equalling the record haul of 11 set by Ben-Hur and Titanic. One staggeringly beautiful sight follows another as the brilliant ensemble cast brings Tolkien's fantasy masterpiece to life, and Jackson mixes man, myth and magic together with astonishing scope and intoxicating invention. The action picks up from The Two Towers with Frodo crawling to Mount Doom to finally destroy the ring, while Aragorn enlists an army of the dead to help Gandalf defend the besieged city of Minas Tirith from the Witch-king and his armies. Jackson's loyalty to Tolkien's over-stuffed text means certain characters get little screen time and the ending does drag on with its series of teary farewells. But these are minor gripes considering his towering achievement in creating a timeless, literate and passionate masterpiece that will live for ever. The Minas Tirith battle sequence in particular will surely go down as one of the greatest in cinema history. – Alan Jones Where to watch: NOW 5. 12 Years a Slave RT Review: Aside from the milestone 1970s mini-series Roots, Quentin Tarantino's revenge fantasy Django Unchained, and a handful of others, there have been precious few films about slavery in the US told from the point of view of the enslaved. At the very least, director Steve McQueen's adaptation of Solomon Northup's memoir (which was previously adapted for TV in 1984, starring Avery Brooks) represents essential viewing for correcting that imbalance. The added bonus is that it's also a tremendously powerful piece of cinema, a tale of suffering, endurance, courage and abiding humanity about a freeborn man kidnapped and sold into slavery, which packs all the more wallop for the elegance with which it's made. Yes, the scenes where characters are brutalised and tortured are shocking in the extreme. However, McQueen tempers that horror with a bravura display of directorial craft, so that the most emotionally devastating moments – for instance, a long-held close-up of Northup singing – arrive with maximum force. Chiwetel Ejiofor's restrained, finely modulated lead performance fully deserves all the praise that's been heaped upon it, but the supports, especially Lupita Nyong'o and Michael Fassbender, are no less impressive. – Leslie Felperin Where to watch: Available to rent/buy 4. Oppenheimer RT Review: The physicist who oversaw America's race to develop the atom bomb before the Nazis is the beating heart of director Christopher Nolan's spectacular, Oscar-winning depiction of world-changing history. Cillian Murphy gives a stunning performance as J Robert Oppenheimer, dubbed "the father of the atomic bomb", and he's supported by an awesome array of talent, including Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh (as the women in his life), Robert Downey Jr, Matt Damon and Casey Affleck. The three-hour running time and scientific jargon demand patience, but Nolan's marriage of visuals and sound design is often dazzling, not least during the tension-filled detonation of the prototype device. Oppenheimer's postwar battle with authorities over his politics also features, and the fusion of these intersecting narratives delivers a dramatically explosive climax. But it is Murphy's haunting turn, often conveyed in unsparing close-up, that anchors this beautifully cinematic epic. – Jeremy Aspinall Where to watch: Available to rent/buy 3. No Country for Old Men RT Review: There's a lot of money being chased in this masterful, multi-faceted thriller from the Coen brothers, but it's not really what's at stake. Set in Texas in 1980, it begins with Vietnam War veteran Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbling across a desert drug deal gone wrong and escaping with a suitcase containing $2 million. A game of cat and mouse ensues, as Moss is pursued by a ruthless assassin armed with a cattle stun gun (Javier Bardem), various Mexican drug dealers and an ageing police sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones), whose despairing take on the state of America provides the movie's moral heart. Adapting Cormac McCarthy's terse noir novel for the screen, the Coens deliver a complex, utterly riveting thriller that's also a philosophical meditation on the inexorable nature of fate. They also succeed in marrying the writer's apocalyptic sense of social breakdown with their own blackly comic sensibility. The result is a terrific crime movie that bears comparison with their other career high points, Blood Simple and Fargo. – Jamie Russell Where to watch: Paramount+ 2. Parasite RT Review: The gulf between rich and poor is taken imaginatively to task in this flawless and consistently surprising satire from South Korea's Bong Joon-ho (Okja, Snowpiercer) that bagged four Oscars. An air of mischief pervades the film, with trickery the name of the game for the protagonists and director alike. When we're first introduced to the Kim family (with Chang Hyae Jin as mum and Song Kang-ho as dad), they're living out an impoverished but amiable existence in a squalid semi-basement flat. Their luck changes when their son (Choi Woo-sik) is recommended for a tutor post he's not actually qualified for, with a family who have more money than nous - and sensing a golden opportunity, a breathtakingly audacious con is born. Explosions of righteous anger and further ignominy await in an eventful, enjoyably farcical narrative that alternates between nail-biting suspense and wicked wit. Parasite delights in its devious set-up and savage social commentary, offering sleek stylings and devilish details. It's a wonderfully sneaky film that, before you know it, will have worked its way right under your skin. – Emma Simmonds Where to watch: ITVX/BFI Player 1. Moonlight View Green Video on the source website RT Review: This Oscar-winning film from writer/director Barry Jenkins slowly teases out the true sexuality of a repressed young African-American named Chiron. Combining style and subtlety, Moonlight illustrates a liberating journey of self-acceptance that derives tension from the contrast between the tough Miami backdrop and the secret this shy boy keeps inside. Each of the film's three parts is equivalently heart-rending in observing at close quarters Chiron as attention-starved child (Alex Hibbert), then persecuted teen (Ashton Sanders) and finally, a battle-scarred and mistrustful adult (Trevante Rhodes). Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris shine in supporting roles, the former playing a father figure and the latter, Chiron's dysfunctional parent. Jenkins eschews judgement, allowing his superb cast the space to inhabit their characters quietly and truthfully, while the cinematography cultivates intimacy and emphasises alienation. Together they lay bare the experience of growing up poor, black and gay in a film of rare empathy and shimmering beauty. – Emma Simmonds Where to watch: Available to rent/buy Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Why One Battle After Another deserves to win the war for best picture at the 2026 Oscars
Celebrating a film as politically urgent as the action thriller with Leonardo DiCaprio is an opportunity the Academy must not miss – especially when recognition for 14-time nominee Paul Thomas Anderson is so overdue.
The so-called “Career Oscar” can be an awkward compliment. There are two types, but both are tinged with embarrassment: honorary Oscars for those who never received a statuette — and competitive awards given to established talent largely due to their unrecognised body of previous work, rather than the film actually nominated that year. Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, Charlie Chaplin, Debbie Reynolds and Peter O'Toole are some of the most egregious examples of the former; Martin Scorsese (The Departed), Paul Newman (The Color of Money), Al Pacino (Scent of a Woman) and Henry Fonda (On Golden Pond) fit into the latter category, where one can hardly say they won for their best work. This year, the Academy can avoid another one of these by handing Paul Thomas Anderson a best picture Oscar. The superlative One Battle After Another presents voters with an unmissable opportunity to invest in their future selves and save face down the line, after years of leaving a generation’s most acclaimed film-maker without a prize from his industry’s leading body. The Californian writer/director has come a long way from the 27-year-old wunderkind who dazzled audiences with his second feature in 1997, the porn-industry drama Boogie Nights. That was the first of his films to receive an Oscar nomination and he has been a consistent fixture on ballots ever since, with eight out of his ten features nominated in any category. Overall, Anderson’s films have had 41 nominations and won three awards, for acting, cinematography and costume design. The man behind There Will Be Blood, The Master, Phantom Thread and Licorice Pizza has 14 nominations and zero wins to his own name. View Green Video on the source website Of course, the likes of Sinners and Hamnet should not lose to One Battle because Anderson’s previous films deserved more love in years gone by — that would be the kind of logic that sees the Academy get it wrong so often. Rather, Anderson’s time has come because One Battle is an achievement that stands above the competition in its own right. As with Oppenheimer two years ago, the fact that the statuette would go to an acclaimed-but-unrecognised film-maker is merely convenient for the Academy. What makes One Battle so singular is its dexterity. Released in September to widespread and breathless praise, not least from our own review, the loose adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland follows paranoid recluse Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) as they are hunted by a ruthless army colonel (Sean Penn), who has history with Bob after the latter's years in a left-wing revolutionary group. It is a film that defies easy genre categorisation in the best way: equal parts political thriller, father-daughter drama, stoner comedy and pulp actioner. As much as the comedy of Anderson’s script entertains, the film has an astonishingly countercultural edge for something that cost Warner Bros over $100 million. A farcical and shaggy quest for a phone charger is intercut with a riot between immigration enforcement officers and civilians; the best Hollywood car chase since Mad Max: Fury Road is preceded by a gag about Tom Cruise; there are white supremacists who discuss eugenics while calling themselves The Christmas Adventurers Club. View Green Video on the source website To smuggle this social commentary into such an accessible package should be commended, as unlike the cynical Bugonia, it shows that having something to say about America’s cultural moment should not be at the cost of entertainment. In 1997, Anderson said in an interview that he left film school after a screenwriting teacher told students they should not aim to make Terminator 2. Sean Penn’s near-indestructible villain in One Battle is a middle finger to such snobbery and the Academy should echo the sentiment. Anderson is something of a shoo-in for the best director prize this year, but in recent years that award has felt like a consolation for contenders whose films are deemed too ambitious for best picture. Just ask The Power of the Dog’s Jane Campion or Roma’s Alfonso Cuarón. At the time of writing, One Battle After Another is seemingly in a two-horse race with Sinners, the only nominee that can compete in terms of cultural footprint. Ryan Coogler’s blockbusting vampire horror would be a refreshing outlier in the best picture canon, but there’s an argument that a win would not serve it well. Sinners’s strength is in its embrace of horror and the B-movie, but a best picture Oscar off the back of a record 16 nominations would have people debating its credentials among traditional “prestige” dramas, which Coogler’s film has no interest in being. One Battle After Another would perhaps be a more conventional winner in this regard, but absolutely no less thrilling. An urgent film of resistance and rebellion would be an apposite and culturally confronting choice — and exactly the kind that the Academy should make in a time when America appears on the brink. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Why Marty Supreme's unlikable characters are still a reason it deserves to win best picture at the 2026 Oscars
Timothée Chalamet and Josh Safdie's story of a table tennis player in 1950s New York is a rare and unforgettable high-wire act with people you would never want to know.
Surely destined to succeed at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre this year is Josh Safdie’s electric sports drama Marty Supreme. Yes, the “ping-pong movie” that became a talking point over New Year has rallied its way to nine Academy Award nominations, including best director for Josh Safdie and best actor for Timothée Chalamet, alongside a coveted best picture nod. Standing in its path are formidable contenders, from Ryan Coogler’s record-breaking horror Sinners and Chloé Zhao’s delicate adaptation Hamnet to Paul Thomas Anderson’s sprawling political epic One Battle after Another. Yet for all the richness of this year’s field, no film feels more deserving than Marty Supreme. Aside from being a gripping tale of the fine line between ambition and obsession, it is a high-wire act built almost entirely on people you would never want to know – and it somehow makes them unforgettable. Loosely inspired by table tennis champion Marty Reisman, Safdie’s first solo feature since his split from brother Benny centres on Marty Mauser (Chalamet), a cocky 1950s New York shoe salesman with two things in inexhaustible supply: ego and ambition. Marty is not a hero in any conventional sense. He is vain, selfish and exhausting. He mistakes self-belief for superiority and treats relationships like stepping stones. In less capable hands than those of Chalamet and Safdie, he would be intolerable. View Green Video on the source website Chalamet delivers a career-best performance, anchoring the film so completely that our grip on Marty never loosens, however far the character drifts from decency. The role demands charm, arrogance and vulnerability, and Chalamet navigates those shifts with astonishing control. For a three-time nominee who has already claimed the Golden Globe and Critics' Choice awards, this feels like the performance that could finally secure him Oscar gold. Equally, Safdie understands that cinema doesn’t need comfort to captivate. Marty’s unlikability isn’t a flaw; it’s the engine. Armed with a gift for the game and an even sharper gift of the gab, Marty flatters and manipulates his way to the international stage, aided by a slippery financier (Kevin O’Leary) and his faded Hollywood-star wife (Gwyneth Paltrow), both of whom are just as transactional and self-serving as he is. Together, they create a world where charm is currency and integrity negotiable – and Safdie turns that moral volatility into thrilling cinema. Even the supporting cast is shaded in moral grey. Marty’s girlfriend Rachel (Odessa A’Zion) initially appears to offer warmth and recognisable vulnerability, a woman bruised by the men in her orbit. Yet she too is entangled in lies and manipulation. His loyal friend Wally, played by a quietly brilliant Tyler Okonma (Tyler, the Creator), seems at first a grounding presence. But Safdie gradually reveals that he is cut from the same cloth, equally capable of deceit when it serves him. While One Battle and Sinners have clear villains in the form of neo-Nazis and vampires, the faults of Marty Supreme’s characters are realistically baked into their personalities, asking complex questions of the viewer about who they’re siding with. The nearest the film comes to innocence lies on its margins: Marty’s childhood friend Dion (Luke Manley) – the mastermind behind the orange ping pong ball that defined the film’s press campaign – and deaf table tennis player Koto Kawaguchi, whose impactful performance is the perfect antidote to Marty’s exhausting bravado. Yet while these figures offer fleeting notes of sincerity, it is the thornier characters who keep us hooked. In refusing to populate this world with saints, Safdie elevates the film above its peers. Beneath its propulsive surface, Marty Supreme is a satire dappled by melancholy. Where other nominees address ambition, family and rebellion more directly, Marty Supreme tackles something more knotty – the cultural worship of winning at any cost, asking whether the pursuit of greatness leaves room for connection, humility or love. It’s the shift in pace at the film’s close where these themes collide. Chalamet delivers a moving performance as the events of Marty’s life culminate in one defining moment. It reframes everything we’ve spent the previous two hours digesting, spitting it out with sobering clarity. Followed by a genius credits sequence, those final minutes secure the film’s place among the year’s very best. While One Battle triumphed at the BAFTAs, Chalamet is earning deserved acting recognition. His recent speeches – bold declarations about striving for greatness – have prompted murmurs that the line between actor and character may be blurring. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2026/01/GettyImages-2255799235-0a104cc.jpg" width="6000" height="4000" alt="Timothée Chalamet, winner of the Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy award for "Marty Supreme," poses in the press room during the 83rd annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton on January 11, 2026 in Beverly Hills, California" title="83rd Annual Golden Globe Awards - Press Room" /> Meanwhile, Safdie’s solo status has been scrutinised following his professional separation from his brother and long-time collaborator. For those waiting to see what he did next, Marty Supreme is proof of artistic identity and confidence for the 41-year-old. To build a film around an antihero is hardly new. To build one around a protagonist with so little instinctive warmth – and still have audiences rooting for him throughout – is rare. In honouring Marty Supreme, the Academy would be recognising a loud and proud piece of film-making that trusts viewers to embrace complexity over comfort. The film proves that greatness on screen does not require goodness at its centre. Marty’s marathon climb to stardom plays like a breathless sprint, powered by a set of richly complicated characters. It seduces us and holds our attention without asking us to approve of its players. That alchemy – turning unlikeable people into riveting cinema – is precisely why it deserves to win best picture. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
To be or not to be? There's no question the 'emotionally manipulative' Hamnet deserves to win the 2026 Oscar for best picture
The tragic tale of William Shakespeare's family life is well deserving of its flowers.
To be or not to be? It probably shouldn’t be a question. Somehow, for many pundits and critics, Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s acclaimed historical fiction novel Hamnet has become something of a villain this Oscars season. It’s a bizarre take when the tragedy has so much to offer. The film tackles a lesser-known element of William Shakespeare’s life: the loss of his son Hamnet. Like O’Farrell’s novel, though, this text primarily centres its experience on Shakespeare’s wife and Hamnet’s mother, here named Agnes. Portrayed with ferocity and heartbreaking nuance by Irish triple-threat Jessie Buckley, Agnes is a spiritual, earthy and misunderstood figure — one who draws the attention of Shakespeare in his youth (a moving Paul Mescal) and before his success as a playwright in London. Primarily set in the pastoral setting of Stratford-Upon-Avon, we see how the Shakespeare clan grows in size following Agnes and Shakespeare’s wedding, with the pair welcoming three children and living an idyllic life as William's career in London begins to take off. View Green Video on the source website However, the true crux of the drama occurs when a malady claims the life of their son Hamnet (the wonderful young talent Jacobi Jupe) and sets them on diverging paths… until Shakespeare’s works come to the rescue. A moving examination of grief and the power of art, Hamnet has signalled another vote of confidence in Zhao from the film industry, after the plaudits and gongs won for her much-celebrated film Nomadland. The prospect of a female and non-white Oscar-winner gaining recognition from the Academy so close to her previous wins should be welcomed – as although ceilings can be shattered, in the film industry they can always quickly grow back, leaving a long wait until the next slice of the pie. Separately, success for Hamnet would be just recognition for one of our finest acting talents in Jessie Buckley, who continues to give emotionally true performances in a singular range of roles. It is highly likely — at least at this stage — that Buckley will take home the award for best actress, but her performance is not the sole selling point of this touching and ethereal cinematic experience. A costume drama – linked to Shakespeare no less – would not be a groundbreaking best picture win as such, but Hamnet being so grounded in the female experience in plot, style, performance and creation makes it a pivotal competitor this year. Equally, the absence of Mescal, the ever-brilliant Emily Watson and Jacobi Jupe in their respective categories feels a crying shame, meaning Hamnet is only able to compete on limited fronts. Snobbery or a lack of recognition towards "women's films" is nothing new in the industry or in film criticism, of course, but it feels very strange here when one considers the pedigree of the talent on show. There have been complaints about Hamnet being stereotypical "Oscar bait", but the chief issue many have had has been around claims that Zhao's film is "emotionally manipulative". The final act, in particular, swells with pure emotion as Agnes attends a performance of her husband’s play Hamlet, thanks to the touching work of Buckley, Mescal, and both Jacobi and Noah Jupe. The score from Max Richter — which includes his recognisable track On the Nature of Daylight — only further crystallises the sheer emotion of the scene. Some have argued that the film does not earn this sentimentality and outpouring of emotion – and I have had to ask them what film they have been watching. How can a film moving crowds of moviegoers to tears be manipulative, especially when using the sheer emotion evoked from Shakespeare's own work? Good cinema is designed to play with our emotions. It endeavours to capture shades of the human experience that are hard to put into words. It reaches out to a pained soul in the audience – just as Shakespeare’s own work did. To be or not to be? Here, there’s no question, Hamnet is well deserving of its flowers. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Oscar 2026 predictions: Which films will actually win at the 2026 Oscars – and why?
Some races look more or less tied up – especially best actress – but there's still room for plenty of surprises and upsets in several categories.
Oftentimes when we approach the Oscars, many of the major prizes already look like foregone conclusions ahead of time, but – for the most part – that's not the case this time around. With the exception of best actress, which looks more or less sewn up for Hamnet's Jessie Buckley, most of the main categories still appear to be up for grabs, with some very tight races for the likes of best actor and best supporting actress. But who will actually end up taking home the golden statuettes when all is said and done on Sunday evening? We've taken a look at the major categories below, assessing the various runners and riders and delivering our verdict on who seems most likely to prevail. Read on for our Oscars 2026 predictions. What will win and should win best picture? In recent years, with an entire industry of obsessives and prognosticators calculating every single outcome at every step of the six-to-nine-month awards season, the Oscars best-picture race has often suffered from fatigue long before its finale in February/March. Some years, thankfully, a late surprise pops in to reverse a seeming foregone conclusion: Anora, CODA and Parasite are all recent examples of films whose wins were set in stone almost overnight, during sudden groundswells with just weeks of voting to go. And nine years ago, Moonlight famously mounted its grand upset on the night itself. But this year, One Battle After Another has – surely to the irritation of even its most ardent fans – found itself comfortably in the position previously held by Oppenheimer, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Nomadland and The Shape of Water: a nigh-on unstoppable steamroller. Until now. Two weeks before the biggest night on America’s film calendar, Sinners pulled a couple of last-minute surprises at the Actor (formerly SAG) Awards and finally forced a little drag onto One Battle After Another’s runaway campaign – and that could be enough for a full-on overtake. View Green Video on the source website The critical reception to One Battle After Another upon its September premiere was rapturous – and has remained so, even weathering what might, for lesser films, have become insurmountable online squabbles about its political outlook and its representation of Black women. But in addition to being very good, the $130m+ production marks the biggest film yet from respected auteur Paul Thomas Anderson, whose 11 other nominations for writing, directing and producing have spanned modern classics Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread, as well as Inherent Vice and Licorice Pizza. (He missed out on a personal nomination for 2012’s The Master, which still scored three acting nods.) Having never won, Anderson is now in a position recently occupied by Oppenheimer’s Christopher Nolan: a popular titan of the medium simply awaiting his crown. But One Battle’s 13 nominations – which would be headline news in a different year –were overshadowed on Oscar nominations morning by Sinners, which broke records with its 16 nods. The two films, both produced by Warner Bros, share some similarities: these are fleet-footed but serious-minded blockbusters that switch between deft, blood-pumping action sequences and quieter, more affecting dramatic scenes, all in service of something charged with both political meaning and personal feeling, not least around race and Blackness in America, and the insidious, often violent maintenance of a white-supremacist status quo. So, the films are both accomplished, but more to the point they are timely – and they explore their themes in popular, accessible styles, which certainly make them appealing for Academy voters looking to show the vitality of their industry. It’s these vital qualities, and the overdue narratives that attend both Anderson – as a beloved veteran – and Coogler – who could become, 98 years in, the first African-American person to win an Oscar for directing – that have kept both films at the top of the pile where early favourites Hamnet (eight nominations, including best picture and director) and Frankenstein (nine, including best picture) have stumbled in the face of relative apathy. And despite an impressive nine nominations apiece for fellow best picture/director nominees Sentimental Value and Marty Supreme, neither film has felt “big” enough to touch the duelling frontrunners; the Academy awarded an indie last year, with Anora – perhaps it’s time to go big again. Of these two robust multiplex pictures, One Battle has enjoyed dominance all season and still sits as the likely statistical frontrunner following its steady sweep of so-called “precursor” awards. Its wins at Hollywood’s Directors and Producers guilds show its popularity among the US industry, while its strong showing at the BAFTAs (where it even beat homegrown favourite Hamnet to best film) indicate broad support among the American Academy’s international voters. But actors make up more than one-eighth of Oscar voters, and many of those are also in the Screen Actors Guild, which awarded Sinners its top prize (best cast, beating One Battle’s ensemble) and, possibly more tellingly, gave Michael B Jordan a surprise best-actor win over category favourite Timothée Chalamet. This might not all translate to Oscar victory – just ask previous best-cast winners Hidden Figures and The Trial of the Chicago 7 – but on the other hand, the BAFTA and Producers Guild awards have themselves proved patchy indicators of Oscar’s eventual best picture. Meanwhile, four out of the last ten years have shown eventual splits between picture and director – including the infamous Moonlight/La La Land ceremony, early in President Trump’s last term of office. Though Sinners still looks unfortunately likely to notch up an historical number of losses (it needs to win six Oscars to avoid that fate), its hopes of taking best picture glory even while Anderson enjoys his directing gong suddenly look stronger than ever. – Calum Baker Our predicted winner: Sinners Who will win and should win best actress? Despite some truly astonishing snubs (how this won’t be Amanda Seyfried’s year is criminal), the best actress category is arguably the most stacked of this year’s Oscars cycle. From grieving mothers and troubled eldest daughters to potential aliens, the category is brimming with power. Even so, it seems that there is one clear frontrunner: Hamnet’s Jessie Buckley. Now a two-time nominee following her nod for 2021 drama The Lost Daughter, the Irish actress has received enormous acclaim for her role as Agnes, William Shakespeare’s wife, in Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel. Emotionally raw and completely devastating, Buckley’s rich performance as a woman living through unimaginable tragedy is exactly the kind the Academy favours. Already the recipient of all the major awards preceding Oscars night – the Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice, BAFTA and Actor Award – history dictates that Buckley will almost certainly win, with no lead actress ever having failed to take home an Oscar after winning all four. Still, there could be a glimmer of hope left for Rose Byrne. Earning her first ever nomination in her versatile, three decade-long career, Byrne is at her very best in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, where she plays Linda, a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown under the pressure of raising an unwell daughter with an absent husband and tumultuous job. Byrne’s anxiety is palpable across the 113 minutes, filmed predominantly with claustrophobic close-ups that allow the audience to capture the complete emotional texture of its protagonist. Byrne is ferocious and sympathetic – folding in threads of humour with her strong comedic chops. Should Buckley somehow manage to stumble on the big night, it’s probable that Byrne will be next in line, especially considering her Golden Globe win earlier this season. And then there’s the return of Emma Stone, whose near-annual nominations seem inevitable at this point. This year marks Stone’s fifth nod – and it’s for one of her most layered roles to date. In Bugonia, she is Michelle Fuller, a pharmaceutical CEO who may or may not be from outer space. There are several tiers to Stone’s fascinating performance, all better understood upon second viewing. A win for Stone, however, seems unlikely, at least partly due to her relatively quiet campaign. However, with two Oscars already under her belt, Stone may not be that determined for another win. Kate Hudson has also found herself a spot on the list for her charismatic yet tragic portrayal of Claire Cartwright in Craig Brewer’s Song Sung Blue. Though Hudson was praised as the standout of the musical drama, her nomination was the most unexpected of the season – with the somewhat rogue selection prompting much social media discussion – and many arguing that Amanda Seyfreid’s mesmerising performance in The Testament of Ann Lee, Jennifer Lawrence’s feverish turn in Die My Love or Chase Infiniti’s debut in best picture favourite One Battle After Another were equally, if not more, deserving. Regardless, it’s Hudson who has cemented her spot in the line-up – even though a win seems only a minor possibility. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2026/03/SentimentalValue32Renate-ReinsveAnders-DanielsenLiePhotoKasper-Tuxen-Andersen-2dd7ea4-e1772533480422.jpg" width="3230" height="2150" alt="Renate Reinsve as Nora in Sentimental Value, laying down in a bed, with covers pulled over her, smiling." title="SentimentalValue_32_Renate-Reinsve_Anders-Danielsen_Lie_Photo_Kasper-Tuxen-Andersen" /> Finally, there’s Renate Reinsve – whose nomination was probably never in any doubt. Reinsve’s delicate, sensitive and completely captivating performance as Nora Borg in Sentimental Value is something to admire, exploring familial complexities and infused with remarkable realism: with a particular scene between Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas one of the year’s most touching moments. Though a Reinsve win may be improbable, with the Academy often favouring louder voices over precise, tender performances, her turn will almost certainly be remembered long after this season, regardless of the outcome. – Chezelle Bingham Our predicted winner: Jessie Buckley (Hamnet) Who will win and should win best actor? It was supposed to be plain sailing. Exactly 12 months ago, any soreness Timothée Chalamet would have felt after losing a best actor Oscar to Adrien Brody would have been softened by commentators declaring that “his time will come”. And it looked like being soon, too. The release of exhilarating ping-pong drama Marty Supreme in December last year took acclaim for the 30-year-old actor to new heights – and Critics’ Choice and Golden Globe awards followed. Then, the announcement of his third Oscar nomination in January saw him become the youngest individual to receive three best actor nominations since Marlon Brando in 1953. Put simply: even alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, momentum has always been with Chalamet and his coronation has seemed one of the safest bets of this year’s Oscars race. View Green Video on the source website That is, until the last two weeks. Fellow nominees Ethan Hawke and Brazilian critical darling Wagner Moura have rarely threatened to steal Chalamet’s thunder (despite Moura winning a Golden Globe), but Sinners’ Michael B Jordan has emerged from the shadows to become a genuine contender. The BAFTA best actor prize went to Robert Aramayo for Scotland-set drama I Swear, which is perhaps a case of a homegrown win that will have little impact on the Oscar race, but since then there has been a groundswell of support for Sinners. So much so, last week the vampire horror drama swept the Actor Awards and Jordan edged Chalamet to make things dicey for prognosticators and pundits. Jordan’s performance as Smoke and Stack, two enterprising twin brothers in 1930s Mississippi, is central to the appeal of Ryan Coogler’s film, and an Oscar win would make him the first actor since Lee Marvin in 1965’s Cat Ballou to be recognised for two performances in one film. Notably, if Chalamet were to prevail, though, he would also become the first best actor winner in 22 years to win without having a BAFTA and Actor Award on the shelf in advance – as this year's best supporting actor frontrunner Sean Penn did so in 2004. As for Leonardo DiCaprio, despite the evident love for his film One Battle After Another, it’s possible that voters have seemingly found his performance to be too comedic to compete with the field. One need not be Barry Norman to see that for The Academy, anguish is often currency. In that regard, Chalamet’s ping-pong hustler Marty is perhaps a little light, although his spectacular performance is also showy in a way that wouldn’t look out of place alongside recent winners, not least in a tearful final scene that neatly recalls the ending of Chalamet's breakthrough film, Call Me by Your Name. So, as Sunday night at LA’s Dolby Theatre approaches, best actor is quietly looking ever less certain. Or, in table tennis terms: Marty is still serving for the match, but the scoreline is a lot closer than he’d like. – Max Copeman Our predicted winner: Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme) Who will win and should win best supporting actor? Of the four acting categories at this year's Oscars, supporting actor is the only one made up entirely of nominees whose performances come in films included in the best picture line-up. The closely matched selection comprises two stars from Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another and one each from Sinners, Sentimental Value and Frankenstein – with the frontrunner in the race having switched multiple times over this long awards season. At time of writing, two-time best actor winner Sean Penn has emerged as the favourite for his turn as heinous villain Colonel Lockjaw in One Battle After Another. Back-to-back victories at two of the most important precursor ceremonies – the BAFTA Film Awards and the Actor Awards – alongside the generally strong performance of the film across the board, suggest he'll be a tough man to beat, and it's easy to make a case that he'd be a deserving winner. In Lockjaw, Penn expertly embodies one of the most odious antagonists put to the screen in years, delivering a twitchy, deeply disturbing physical performance that viscerally captures the character's creepy, pathetic nature as well as both his insatiable lust and deep-rooted insecurity. He's a character who would certainly fit in with a handful of previous winners – joining other chilling villains like Javier Bardem's Anton Chigurh (No Country for Old Men) and Heath Ledger's Joker (The Dark Knight) as memorable victors in this category. For a long while, it looked like Penn's biggest competition may come from his One Battle cast mate Benicio del Toro, who plays an altogether more sympathetic character in karate teacher turned radical community leader Sensei Sergio St Carlos. Del Toro enjoyed strong results across various critics circle awards, but has failed to muster a major win at any of the more telling precursor shows – and it now looks a long shot that he'll win the same prize he won 25 years ago for Steven Soderbergh's Traffic. Instead, if anyone is to unseat Penn as the favourite at this stage, it looks like being Stellan Skarsgård for his turn as film director Gustav Borg in Sentimental Value. Of all the nominees, he – along with Jacob Elordi in Frankenstein – is the most likely to be found guilty of category fraud, with his role very much registering as a leading one to most viewers. But such a charge didn't stop Kieran Culkin from taking this prize last year, and Skarsgård – who already has the Golden Globe to his name – would be a popular choice: a veteran actor who's worked across both auteur and blockbuster cinema for decades finally getting his due for one of his most rich and layered performances. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2026/03/SentimentalValueStellanSkarsgardElleFanningphoto-Kasper-Tuxenv2-1-757af76-e1772533558545.jpg" width="3104" height="2067" alt="Stellan Skarsgard and Elle Fanning as Gustav and Rachel in Sentimental Value, walking along a beach. Rachel is holding her hands out, laughing. Gustav is smiling." title="SentimentalValue_Stellan_Skarsgard_Elle_Fanning_photo-Kasper-Tuxen_v2 (1)" /> As for Elordi, a win at the Critics Choice awards back in early January seemed to put him very much in the running, but he's failed to build on that momentum. And though his impressively understated and unexpectedly tender performance as The Creature – a character played by more actors than just about any in cinema history – has been widely heralded, it seems he's not really in the race for now. The way his career is going, it seems likely his time will come in the not-too-distant future. Which leaves us with Delroy Lindo. The veteran London-born actor had been considered something of a surprise nomination, not because his terrific, tragic turn as Delta Slim in Sinners was in any way undeserving, but because he'd been left off many of the other nominations lists. But Lindo is another consistently strong performer who seems overdue an Oscar, and though he still seems an outside bet at this stage, few would deny that his charismatic, soulful portrayal of the ageing harmonica player would be a brilliant choice of winner. And if this awards season has taught us anything, it's rule out Sinners at your peril: there's a lot of passionate support behind the film, and that could very well help sweep Lindo to victory. – Patrick Cremona Our predicted winner: Sean Penn (One Battle After Another) Who will win and should win best supporting actress? Of all the awards at this year's Oscars, the race for best supporting actress is perhaps the one worth staying up for. This year's nominees have been selected from five of the very best films of 2025, including two nods in the horror genre for Sinners and Weapons, two from BAFTA-winning Sentimental Value and one from One Battle After Another, which has already scooped plenty of trophies elsewhere. As it stands, Sinners' Wunmi Mosaku seems to be the frontrunner after taking home the BAFTA, but Golden Globe and Critics' Choice prizes went to Teyana Taylor and Amy Madigan respectively – who pose the biggest threat to the British actress. While the ball could be in anyone's court, past voting patterns show the BAFTA, Critics' Choice and Golden Globes best supporting actress winners have only been split this way eight times before – with the BAFTA winner going on to win the Oscar in the most recent case. In 2021, Jodie Foster won the Golden Globe for The Mauritanian, Maria Bakalova won the Critics' Choice for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm and Youn Yuh-jung won the BAFTA for Minari. And who won the Oscar then? Youn Yuh-jung. Mosaku faces strong competition, though, with Teyana Taylor once a frontrunner in the category after her Golden Globes win. Despite only appearing in the first half hour of the film, her performance as the fearless Perfidia Beverly Hills commanded the attention of cinemagoers and voting bodies. Fellow contenders include stars of Norwegian family drama Sentimental Value in Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, who were safe bets for nominations but stand slim chances of winning. That leaves Amy Madigan, whose inclusion for her portrayal of Aunt Gladys in Weapons was something of a surprise nomination, albeit a welcome one among critics and cinephiles. Audiences had seen the Academy embrace horror last year, with Demi Moore nominated for best actress after starring in body-horror The Substance, but Weapons had largely been shut out of mainstream awards chatter – which positions Madigan as a dark horse. With Oscar night drawing near, the statuette could be anyone's. – Katelyn Mensah Our predicted winner: Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners) Who will win and should win best director? This year’s array of best director candidates for the Academy Award includes a trio making their category debut, a former winner, and a four-time nominee who must be favourite. At the end of 2025, you might have expected Guillermo del Toro (Frankenstein) or Yorgos Lanthimos (Bugonia) to be in the final five. However, Josh Safdie moved into contention following the December release of Marty Supreme and the Oscar buzz around Timothée Chalamet’s dazzling performance as a charismatic hustler out to achieve greatness. It’s Safdie’s first nomination in any category and the first film made solo since 2008 and the 2024 split with co-directing sibling Benny. View Green Video on the source website Joachim Trier received a screenplay nomination for The Worst Person in the World (2021), but his nod for Sentimental Value is his first for directing. The story of a reunion between two sisters and their estranged film-maker father (played by Swedish veteran Stellan Skarsgård) has garnered four acting nominations, with only Skarsgård in the shake-up for a statuette. Trier will likely miss out, although the film has a chance of copping the Academy Award for best international feature, and is available on Mubi now. A winner at the 2021 Oscars for Nomadland, Chloé Zhao became only the second woman to receive the Academy Award after Kathryn Bigelow broke that particular glass ceiling for The Hurt Locker in 2010. The Chinese film-maker’s second nomination as director is for Hamnet, the adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel about the fallout from the tragic death of Shakespeare’s son, for which both women are nominated in the best adapted screenplay category. However, Hamnet’s chances of success lie with Irish actress Jessie Buckley, whose performance as Will’s grieving wife Agnes seems destined for Oscar glory. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2026/02/GettyImages-2262996034-bf246b5.jpg" width="7636" height="5090" alt="Ryan Coogler accepts the Original Screenplay Award for 'Sinners' on stage during the EE BAFTA Film Awards 2026 at The Royal Festival Hall on February 22, 2026 in London, England." title="Ryan Coogler accepts the Original Screenplay Award for 'Sinners' on stage during the EE BAFTA Film Awards 2026 at The Royal Festival Hall on February 22, 2026 in London, England." /> Previously nominated as a producer (Judas and the Black Messiah) and a songwriter (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Ryan Coogler (Creed) gets his first director nomination for hit horror flick Sinners. Only the seventh Black director to be nominated after John Singleton for Boyz n the Hood in 1992, who was then followed by Lee Daniels (Precious), Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), Jordan Peele (Get Out) and Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman), Coogler is the second favourite. However, Sinners has a record 16 Oscar nominations and wins likely elsewhere, including Coogler for his genre-blending original screenplay about twin brothers confronting racism and vampirism in 1930s Mississippi. And the winner will be... Paul Thomas Anderson for black comedy thriller One Battle After Another, the film-maker’s fourth Oscar nomination as director after There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread and Licorice Pizza and his 14th in total, but with no wins. That is sure to change with Anderson also up for best film and his adapted screenplay about a befuddled ex-revolutionary (Leonardo DiCaprio) on the run from his military nemesis (a superb Sean Penn). With all the main awards bodies (Golden Globes, Directors Guild and, most recently, BAFTA) all voting for Anderson, the indications are that one of the finest film-makers of his generation will be celebrating on 15 March. – Jeremy Aspinall Our predicted winner: Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another) The 98th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday 15 March. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Why Frankenstein does not deserve to be left out in the cold in the Oscars 2026 best picture race
In a particularly standout year for horror, this would be a historic win for the film, which adapts and improves upon Mary Shelley’s original material.
It took director Guillermo del Toro 30 years to finally say “It’s alive!” to his Frankenstein film, with every studio passing on it until Netflix approached him. He also set high standards for himself, wanting to create “the greatest Frankenstein ever”. This passion project was ignited when he saw the 1931 film as a boy, and although Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel has been adapted hundreds of times, the master of monsters has something fresh to bring to the table… the Evelyn table. In this version, Oscar Isaac (with a very good English accent) plays Victor Frankenstein, with Jacob Elordi as the doomed Creature he creates. There are a few notable changes from the book, which some people have welcomed, while others have criticised. There’s the introduction of the new character Henrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz), a wealthy arms dealer who funds Frankenstein’s experiments. Lady Elizabeth Harlander (Mia Goth, who also plays Frankenstein’s mother Claire) is Henrich’s niece, and Victor’s brother’s fiancée. In the book, she’s called Elizabeth Lavenza, an orphan raised by the Frankenstein family as Victor’s cousin and eventual fiancée. But the biggest difference of all is that the violent Creature in the novel is replaced by a much more sympathetic character who only lashes out in self-defence, not in fits of rage, while Frankenstein is more overtly violent and downright cruel. As Shelley always intended, the man is the monster, and the Creature is the moral one – del Toro just connects those dots even more. View Green Video on the source website The film also includes the scene where the Creature learns how to speak and read from a blind man who is unaware of what he looks like, which has often been left out of other adaptations, but is pivotal to understanding the Creature. When Elordi made his first movie, The Kissing Booth, he was reading posts online about himself, and one said: “This plank of wood is so boring he could play nothing but Frankenstein’s Creature.” The seed was planted that he was determined to take on the role, and he plays it with so much humanity and childlike wonder. Del Toro cast him specifically because of his eyes, which exude innocence and purity. Much has been made of how attractive Elordi is, with one BBC article even going so far as to compare his casting to “having a vegetarian Dracula” – an unfair, objectifying point to make. Yes, the Creature is meant to be hideous, but giving audiences the same bolted-neck image we’re used to seeing wouldn’t make this new or interesting. Del Toro told Entertainment Weekly that what he “didn't want was the feeling that you were seeing an accident victim that has been patched [together]. Victor is as much an artist as he is a surgeon, and if he's been dreaming about this creature for all his life, he's going to nail it. It looks like a newborn, alabaster creature. The scars are beautiful and almost aerodynamic". Elordi breaks your heart as the statuesque Creature seeking Frankenstein’s approval. He does the same in Wuthering Heights as Heathcliff, and that’s down to his acting – and indeed, those warm, emotive eyes. Oscar Isaac is also magnetic (and very stylish) leading Frankenstein’s descent into madness. Although leading man Doug Jones wasn’t nominated in del Toro’s Oscar-winning film The Shape of Water for his role as Amphibian Man, Elordi is nominated for best supporting actor, which is a significant leap in recognising creature performances. They’re typically snubbed at awards shows, as is the horror genre in general. Frankenstein has already been praised and awarded for hair and makeup (Elordi sat in the makeup chair for 10 hours having his prosthetics applied), costume design and production design, plus Elordi won at the Critics’ Choice Awards, but it would be historic to have this gothic horror awarded best picture. This is a particularly standout year for horror with Weapons, best-picture contender Sinners, which has the most Oscar nominations ever with 16 – and The Ugly Stepsister (for best make-up and hairstyling) all in the running. It’s a huge shame that Frankenstein had a limited three-week theatrical run before its Netflix release as this film was always meant to be seen on the big screen – it’s visually stunning, with beautiful practical effects and costumes, and the Creature’s rumble of “Victorrrr” is something that deserves to be heard in surround sound. The ending of the film is a beautiful departure from the original tale, with the Creature choosing to seek out the dying Frankenstein and forgive him. Frankenstein finally takes responsibility for being the “father” and apologises to the Creature for abandoning him, his own “son". It’s an incredibly powerful and emotional scene, and as the Creature strides across the Arctic ice, he turns his face to the sun, like Frankenstein taught him to do, and cries – leaving us on a note of hope, rather than despair. Although the book is a masterpiece, del Toro’s ending is really touching and, dare I say, better. After its success on the circuit so far, One Battle after Another is probably the film to beat, but Sinners’ vampires are also coming for Frankenstein’s Creature. This monster hit deserves to not be left out in the cold, but to bask in the warmth of the dazzling Oscars spotlight. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Why underdog F1 has a real case to argue for a best picture win at the 2026 Oscars
It's hard to argue that this formulaic sports drama should beat its fellow nominees, but previous best picture winners and the popularity of Formula One mean that stranger things have happened…
There’s an expression in Formula One racing: “outperforming the car.” It refers to a scenario in which a driver delivers outstanding results despite the questionable pedigree of the vehicle itself. You might apply that maxim to F1, the sports drama that has been nominated for four Oscars including, somewhat bafflingly, best picture – despite receiving perfectly average notices across the board and no buzz for its top-line talent. Directed by Joseph Kosinski and starring Brad Pitt, the film combines a “one last chance" narrative with the kind of high-speed car races that only a (reported) $200 million-plus budget can buy. Pitt, who also co-produces, plays Sonny Hayes, an ex-F1 driver whose career stalled after an on-track accident 30 years ago. He’s given a chance to prove he’s still got it when an old friend (Javier Bardem) invites him to race for his new team. It’s an inoffensive throwback to the kind of sports films that Hollywood used to make on the regular. The expected beats all play out in slick, unsurprising fashion (“visceral but corny,” said our own review) as Sonny gets back behind the wheel and pieces his life together, one lap at a time. View Green Video on the source website Here’s the thing: the film’s trio of Oscar nominations for technical achievements does make sense. The film’s sound, editing and visual effects work in tandem to capture the concussive noise and speed of a Formula One Grand Prix. The movie’s race sequences, crafted with the cooperation of F1, are genuinely exciting (even if Sonny commits so many illegal moves that, realistically, he would have incurred championship-ending penalties from the notoriously stringent FIA). So, the technical nods feel warranted — but best picture? That’s a stretch. What exactly is it about F1 that earns it a place alongside the likes of Sentimental Value, Sinners and Marty Supreme? Those are films with genuine artistry under the hood. They feel urgent and ground-breaking, their drama and action threaded with prescient questions about, respectively, forgiveness, the power of music and single-minded egotism. On a purely narrative level, F1 can’t hope to touch them. Screenwriter Ehren Kruger, in essentially rewriting his own Oscar-nominated script for Top Gun: Maverick, struggles to come up with anything even half as compelling as a real Grand Prix, instead relying on stock drama (love issues with Kerry Condon; team rivalry with Damson Idris) to fill the yawning spaces between races. And of all the Oscars for which the film has been nominated, it’s a shame that Hans Zimmer wasn’t acknowledged for his surging score. (Though he did make the 20-strong pre-nomination shortlist, whittled down by members of the Academy’s music branch.) More than anything, it imbues F1 with an undercurrent of tension and excitement that is otherwise lacking from the, well, formulaic story. Still, the question remains: does F1 really have a shot at best picture? History says no. In 2020, Academy voters garlanded another racing drama, Ford v Ferrari (aka Le Mans ’66), with a similar array of technical nominations plus best picture. On the night, it won two — best sound editing and best film editing — and lost out on the big prize, which went to a history-making Parasite. Kosinski and Kruger’s last collaboration, also with Oscar-nominated producer Jerry Bruckheimer, was 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick — that received six nominations including best picture, with only one win, for its sound. Not that the future is ever set when it comes to the Academy. Who knows, maybe the “Drive to Survive effect” has reached as far as Hollywood. Formula One ratings have skyrocketed in the wake of that Netflix show, which takes viewers inside the cockpits and allows us to get to know the racers more intimately than ever before. Could voters, conscious of the Oscar ceremony’s own flagging popularity, be looking to prove they still have their fingers on the pulse by picking F1 as the best film of the year? Will the technical mastery of this rubber-burning Rocky thrust it to gold? “I’ve always believed that you should never, ever give up,” Michael Schumacher once said. In a world where Crash, Green Book and CODA can win the top prize, maybe underdog F1 has a shot at the podium after all… Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Why Bugonia winning the 2026 best picture Oscar is perfect for the supreme anxiety of these maddening times
Starring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, the latest black comedy from Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos might be this year's underdog.
There’s no Oscar best-picture hopeful this year with slimmer chances than the latest black comedy from director Yorgos Lanthimos, which has been met with a cautious reception even while scoring nominations at most major awarding bodies. But this underdog status highlights what’s interesting about the film: defined by an apparent sourness and misanthropy missing from frontrunners like One Battle After Another and Hamnet, the gorgeous and unhappy Bugonia feels far more suited to its moment – even if many of us would hesitate to admit this. The story follows a conspiracy-obsessed white American man, Teddy (Jesse Plemons), who persuades his loyal cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) to help kidnap Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), the CEO of a biomedical company. Teddy believes that Michelle represents an extra-terrestrial race that is working to infiltrate and destabilise humanity, and he wishes, quite literally, to be taken to her leader. Will Tracy, nominated for his screenplay, adapts the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet! and smartly whittles its story down, retaining the major twists but excising a couple of subplots. What remains keeps largely to the compelling battle of wits between abductor and abductee, the latter gender-swapped from the original film. Tracy, Lanthimos and co-producer/star Stone craft a focused study in class dynamics that demands its viewer constantly refocus their own values and ethics. View Green Video on the source website Teddy, deeply troubled, seems to be enacting a revolutionary strike against the corporate class, whose frequent malfeasance has, so we see in the film, real and painful consequences for the 99 per cent. (Weeks after filming wrapped, big-pharma CEO Brian Thompson was murdered in New York. An encapsulation of popular reaction to this might be a December 2024 Saturday Night Live audience cheering a reference to Thompson’s alleged killer.) But this anti-hero’s motivations are far from altruistic or even particularly righteous. Michelle, meanwhile, is every bit the “girlboss” archetype: self-serving, powerful, glib. Yet, the violence she endures is horrible, while the film-makers clearly enjoy watching her smoothly manipulate the confused Teddy. For all this, Bugonia deftly avoids a kind of dreary “both-sides” satire through the way it gradually raises its stakes and recalibrates its characters, forever complicating the cosy dichotomies that plague so much "political" popular art. (Duck out now if you wish to avoid spoilers.) As the story progresses, Michelle drops more details about the Andromedan race, supposedly invented on the spot to placate Teddy. Meanwhile, we discover more grotesque details about Teddy’s backstory. The details accumulate, and complicate the film’s already slippery point of view. At the film’s end, both Teddy and Don are dead and Michelle – revealed to have been an alien all along – returns to her people and pushes a button that instantly kills all Earthlings. Lanthimos closes with a series of upsetting but rather breathtaking tableau shots of human corpses, all having been shut down painlessly in the middle of their day-to-days. The animals remain and thrive. Mercilessly absurdist as it riffs on ideas of supreme power and ecological collapse, Bugonia (the title itself is far from inviting) refuses to flatter its viewer with easy ideas. Robbie Ryan’s remarkable cinematography highlights something sickly about its subjects; the film’s visual texture seems to be that of both a sweaty, hazy Southern Gothic drama and a grimy sci-fi. Its spaces, even Michelle’s clean corporate office, thrum with the same sense of unease and looming violence as the excellent Jerskin Fendrix score that ties the action together. Many similar instincts are present in Bugonia’s biggest competition, Oscar’s runaway favourite this year: Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. That film’s frontrunner status lies not just in its obvious quality, and the “overdue win” narrative that attends the legendary Anderson, but in its specific contemporary political motifs and viewpoint, from its opening raid on an immigration facility onward. Audiences and awards voters have been drawn to the film’s floating sense of representing and critiquing the here-and-now; the notion, perhaps, that supporting it somehow sticks it to someone. The thing is, no film can bear that weight; even the radical classic Battle of Algiers, which features in one scene of Anderson’s film. In any case, One Battle After Another, for all its pointed sideswipes and clear strong feelings about its country’s political system, is clearly more motivated by its march towards comfort and encouragement, the strains of Tom Petty’s American Girl playing us out as radicalised teen Chase Infiniti drives off to fight the next generational fight. It’s stirring… and in its own way, intrinsically Hollywood, from a film-maker who grew up just a few miles over from Tinseltown’s great white sign. It’s a film that endorses revolutionary violence, while keeping this safely in the confines of spectacular entertainment. Bugonia, on the other hand, never once draws back from its slide into madness. It remains nervy to the end. This is not to tear apart the highly engaging and accomplished One Battle After Another. But its frontrunner status is shored up by a sense of attention-grabbing timeliness that, upon examination, isn’t necessarily as robust as its loudest cheerleaders would claim. Perhaps voters wishing to highlight a film that aptly summarises the supreme anxiety of these maddening times might look elsewhere. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Are you being emotionally manipulated? Why an Oscar contender is splitting opinion about emotional response
Despite critical acclaim and several Oscar nominations, Hamnet has fiercely divided some audiences – with some accusing Choe Zhao's film of 'emotional manipulation.' Are there actually any grounds for that?
If you've been following the ongoing awards race, you can't have escaped the fact that Jessie Buckley has been lavished with acclaim for her leading turn in Chloé Zhao's film Hamnet. The drama – adapted from Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 historical fiction novel of the same name – sees the Irish actress take on the role of Agnes, the wife of William Shakespeare who experiences unimaginable tragedy when her titular son dies from the bubonic plague. After debuting at least year's Telluride Film Festival, early word on the film, and especially its devastating emotional impact, was ecstatic. Our own 5-star Radio Times review was full of praise – with critic James Mottram calling it a "masterly study of loss". He added: "The finale, all set around a stage performance, lives long in the memory, making this quietly-hewn movie feel utterly wrenching." That verdict was by no means an anomaly. The film was met with a wave of extremely positive reviews, many of which emphasised the sheer visceral nature of the grief depicted by Buckley's performance as Agnes. Meanwhile, there were many reports of cinemagoers leaving their screenings in floods of tears and needing considerable recovery time before continuing about their days. Unsurprisingly, a glut of award nominations followed; for the film itself, for Zhao's direction, and of course for Buckley's leading turn – with Paul Mescal also picking up several nods for his supporting turn as Shakespeare (although he was snubbed by the Oscars). View Green Video on the source website But despite all this acclaim, a dissenting opinion soon began to emerge. A number of pieces surfaced that referred to the film as "grief porn" or "trauma porn", with some pundits revealing how they found it to be an exercise in "emotional manipulation". One particularly critical piece in The Independent described it as "artificial and manipulative Shakespeare fan fiction". As is often the way with these things, a fierce social media debate kicked off in response. Aren't all films, by their very nature, in the business of manipulating emotions, one side argued. Naysayers suggested it was a lack of subtlety that was the problem, with the film designed purely to elicit a strong emotional response without handling the film's themes with more care or depth. At Radio Times, our own writers were divided. Katelyn Mensah, senior entertainment and factual writer, was firmly in the pro-Hamnet camp. "[I found it] emotional from start to finish," she tells me, adding that it was Buckley’s portrayal of Agnes that had especially moved her. "What makes it so moving is that in the scenes before his death, Hamnet exchanges the illness from his sister, giving his life for hers – and to see a young child display such fearlessness stuck with me," she continues. "It’s the raw emotion through Buckley’s portrayal from the moment Hamnet dies to the moment Agnes sees Hamlet at the Globe that carries the movie’s emotional weighting." As for whether the film is guilty of emotional manipulation, she said that while understanding that the impact may differ from viewer to viewer, the film "doesn’t force you to feel sad about what’s happened". "Grief isn’t linear, there is no ‘routine’ way to deal with the loss of someone, let alone the loss of a child, so there is no ‘routine’ way to respond to it when it’s presented in the arts, whether it be theatre, cinema or on television," she says. On the other extreme, senior film sub-editor and writer Calum Baker found that while he appreciated the clear, handmade quality of the film and the work of it's set designer and cinematographer, he was frustrated that it was told in "too broad [strokes] to find any specific texture or real insight". "For the most part, the film seemed to graft a modern emotional sensibility onto a particular (if mostly imagined) historical situation, which made it all a bit too glib for me, which was a shame as a lot of the narrative ideas were good," he explains. Of the "would-be cathartic play performance" that serves as the film's emotional climax, Baker adds that he felt it "was built from shallow ideas and emotional conveniences". He continues: "Not once did I feel immersed, and functionally believe these events were happening to people; instead, I felt their planning, writing, staging and acting at every turn — their sheer contrivance." Given these emotional responses to the film have differed quite so widely, I was intrigued to hear the perspective of someone with a more psychological background, particularly to get into this idea of emotional manipulation. And so I consulted Robin Banerjee, an academic at the University of Sussex, who has carried out extensive research into the emotional impact of film and TV on the public. Interestingly, Banerjee's own response to the film had been strong. "I was really moved by it," he says. "I thought it was really emotional. I reacted emotionally to it, and so did pretty much everybody in the cinema. It was a very powerful film, and it obviously did pull on people's emotional connections. It did kind of draw things out in terms of how people were feeling." Regarding the accusations of emotional manipulation, Banerjee said while he considered it an "interesting take", it was not one he was inclined to agree with. "My own perspective is that there's nothing new here, right?" he says. "Every [piece of art] draws on your emotional experiences. That's what it means to read a book, that's what it means to watch TV. I mean, that's what it's designed to do. Of course, it's designed to tap into our emotions. "And some films are going to be doing that much more than others, and some will be intended to do that much more than others," he continues. "I feel so much content that's out there, whether it's films or books or podcasts or TikTok videos, so much of it is based on tapping into people's emotional experience, and that's how media works." He added: "My perspective is that human beings are too complicated. It's going to be an individual experience, and what's too much for one person is going to be completely neutral, or not much of a reaction for another person. So I would be really, really cautious about putting media content into buckets and say this is over the line. "As a psychologist, I would definitely not feel comfortable to say, 'This is over the line. It's too emotional. This is going to be too moving.' I think that would be not a smart thing to do." Banerjee also points to the work he had previously done with Radio Times for the Screen Test, a groundbreaking research project that was carried out in 2023 with the aim of exploring the power of television and radio in people’s lives. "One of the things we found in the Screen Test was that there were real variations in the level of empathic connection with what people are seeing on screen," he says. "I think those emotional responses are really, really important, and some of them are definitely more powerful than others, and some are meant to be more powerful than others, and I don't think we should apologise." So what's the conclusion? Can art really be emotionally manipulative? And if so, is Hamnet guilty of such a thing? Perhaps the simple answer is that looking at things through this lens is slightly missing the point. All art is manipulative to some degree by its very nature, and it simply depends on how much the individual viewer buys into the sincerity and the believability of the scenario being played out in front of them. Any number of factors can feed into that, and personal experiences and artistic preference has always meant that two different people can have entirely opposite emotional responses to the same material. Is it really fair to dismiss someone's genuine reaction by telling them, "Aha, but you've just been manipulated into thinking that way!' Even Baker, who had the most anti-Hamnet stance of those I spoke to, wasn't so sure we should be looking at things quite in this way. "'Manipulation' is not necessarily the word I would use," he says. "On the contrary, it often felt rather hands-off to me, as if the filmmakers had gotten halfway through the conceptualising or the staging of a scene and given up, deciding it was merely good enough." At this point, perhaps I should confess that though there was plenty about Hamnet I greatly admired, I myself felt a little emotionally distant from the no doubt devastating events that were happening on screen. Indeed, there are many other films in the best picture line up at this year's Oscars that elicited a more profound and strong emotional response from me, including – in different ways – both Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent. There are a few reasons why Zhao's film didn't quite click for me in the way it did for others, not least the fact that the extremely sombre tone adopted for the whole piece felt to me almost oppressively overbearing. But again, that seems to me to be a matter of individual taste rather than anything more significant. Perhaps then, it's best to retire the word "manipulative" – or at least be a little more selective about when we use it – when it comes to reviewing art. There are frankly better ways of articulating why something didn't work without insulting the genuine emotional responses of other viewers, many of whose reactions will be rooted in personal circumstance. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Oscars completely snubbed the year's most daring film – and it doesn't make sense
There's just one problem with this year's Oscar nominations...
Add The Testament of Ann Lee to your watchlist Every Oscars season, us film fans are met with the inevitable snubs: from films of certain genres not being considered serious enough, to quiet, brilliant performances being dropped in favour of louder ones that sit within the rigid framework of what the Academy considers 'worthy'. Of course, we’re also then often met by the rogue choices that leave everyone blinking in disbelief at their television screens. (I, for one, received a few surprised texts when one certain Best Picture nominee was read out this afternoon…). This year, however, one particular snub has stuck out like a sore thumb – Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee. And not only was Ann Lee snubbed – it was completely ignored from the nominations list, with its name not falling under a single category in this year’s slate. That’s right. Daniel Blumburg’s staggering, hypnotic score (which I actually have on in the background while writing this) was erased; Woman Clothed by the Sun, one of the most angelic original songs of the year (I challenge anyone to listen to it and try to tell me it’s inferior to any of the five nominees) was blanked, Fastvold’s writing and brilliant direction were both nowhere to be seen. Not even Best Actress, which once seemed the only category Ann Lee could get a look in, served plaudits. It is that latter snub for Best Actress that perhaps is the most shocking. Until about a month ago, Amanda Seyfried receiving an Oscar nomination for pouring her entire heart and soul into playing Mother Ann Lee felt almost inevitable. And yes, while the Best Actress category is undoubtedly stacked this year, Seyfried’s Critics’ Choice and Golden Globe nominations had me convinced that her flawless performance as the founding leader of the Shaker movement would get at least a small nod. To be clear, The Testament of Ann Lee isn’t some kind of niche, underground film that only four of your biggest cinephile friends have seen (not that obscurity would have made its snub acceptable, but you get my point). Instead, the film boasted a fantastic ensemble (with Seyfried joined by the likes of Lewis Pullman and Thomasin McKenzie), a respected director, and a career-best performance in Seyfried – a previous Oscar nominee, no less. Mona Fastvold herself is no stranger to the Oscars. In 2024, she left her creative fingerprints all over The Brutalist, which went on to be nominated for 10 awards at the Oscars the following year – including Best Picture. (Though admittedly, Brady Corbet was the director at the helm of The Brutalist, and the Oscars don’t have the best track record with celebrating female filmmakers). Ann Lee’s complete exclusion is even more surprising given its massive achievement. With such a small budget covering such an epic scope, the cinematography, music, performances and structure all work so deliberately and so uniquely together to create a film that is truly unlike any cinematic experience I have gone through – and it’s a magnificent shame that the Academy considers it unworthy of even the smallest recognition. View Green Video on the source website Of course, the Oscars have never been particularly intelligent in recognising work that does something completely new. Instead, they are so frequently occupied by films that repeat the same patterns, aesthetics and ideas over and over again, largely ignoring those that have the ability to reshape the way we see cinema. Because Ann Lee is billed as a musical about a religious leader, and it does take its risks, it therefore falls out of that comfort zone. But every risk the film takes pays off greatly – and in a cinematic landscape that is made up predominantly of regurgitated remakes and gratuitous sequels, each risk is more than welcome. The film’s huge ambition is what makes it so incredible. Ann Lee may truly be one of the most individual films I have ever seen. On my first watch, I found myself in desperate need to rewind and watch it all over again – and on my second watch, it made me sob – and honestly, even now, I struggle to articulate exactly why. There is just something so unflinchingly raw, strange and beautiful in its craft that it just goes straight through you. And while, yes, it may be less 'accessible' than films such as Hamnet and Frankenstein, such accessibility should not be a measure of its greatness. Now, I’m not saying that Ann Lee should completely sweep the awards board. As much as I’d personally welcome that, it’s an unrealistic expectation. A historical film so deeply concerned with female spirituality, leadership and music perhaps was never going to be an easy sell in an environment that prioritises films that do not favour those things. But to ignore the film completely – this year, the Academy have genuinely left me baffled.
How to watch The Secret Agent in the UK – release date for Oscar-nominated film
The Brazilian political thriller is up for Best Picture and Best Actor at the upcoming Academy Awards.
For the second year on the trot, the line-up for Best Picture at the upcoming Oscars includes an acclaimed Brazilian film – with Kleber Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent following I'm Still Here in making it onto the 10-strong shortlist for the highly coveted award. Just like that earlier film, The Secret Agent is set in the 1970s and takes place against the backdrop of Brazil's military dictatorship of that era, with Narcos and Civil War actor Wagner Moura starring as a professor fleeing persecution after he finds himself embroiled in the political turmoil. In addition to the best picture nomination – and an unsurprising corresponding nod in the best international film category – the film is also up for a further two awards at the Oscars, including the inaugural best casting gong and the best actor prize for Moura. Moura will face tough competition from major stars including Timothée Chalamet and Leonardo DiCaprio for that latter honour, but he'll no doubt have plenty of support from fans of a film which has been receiving very high praise across the board. Intrigued and wondering how you can watch The Secret Agent in the UK? Read on for everything you need to know. How to watch The Secret Agent in the UK The Secret Agent is not yet available to watch in the UK – but there's not too long to wait. It will be released in cinemas from Friday 20th February, and given the boost the film has received thanks to it's Oscar nomination it should hopefully be playing at plenty of locations around the country – just check your local cinema to double check. The UK release comes nine months after it first premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival – where star Wagner Moura was awarded the Best Actor prize and Kleber Mendonça Filho was named Best Director – and the praise for the film has only increased in the time since. It is being distributed by Mubi in the UK, which means it will eventually also be available on that streaming platform – but we're still awaiting a date for when it will be available to watch at home. We'll keep this page updated when we hear any more information on that front. What is The Secret Agent about? The film is set in 1970s Brazil, against the backdrop of the country's military dictatorship of that era, and is described as "a gripping portrait of resistance and betrayal" that explores "the tension between personal conviction and political corruption". The official logline reads: "A university professor travels from São Paulo to the seaside city of Recife during Carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son. "He soon finds out he’s been tailed and spied on by neighbours in his new refuge, leaving him no possible escape from the tentacles of corruption." The Secret Agent trailer You can get a taste of what to expect from the film by watching the trailer below: View Green Video on the source website The Secret Agent is released in UK cinemas on Friday 20th February. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Oscars should be about celebrating groundbreaking films – so why has Brad Pitt's unremarkable F1 movie been nominated?
The inclusion of the formulaic sports movie from Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski is utterly baffling.
The term "Oscar-bait" is one that has been thrown around for decades when awards season rolls around. Traditionally, it was used to describe a film that was made with the express purpose of winning awards but with little thought for its lasting legacy beyond that. These films tended to be relatively safe true story period pieces or perhaps inspirational tales about an underdog overcoming terrible odds, and were generally defined by solid but unremarkable filmmaking and sentimental scripts that tended towards the formulaic. In other words, they were in-the-moment crowd-pleasers that pulled on the heartstrings but did little to truly shake up the film world. In recent years, however, the old criteria for what was considered an "Oscars film" has begun to shift, and the sorts of movies described above have largely been absent from the, admittedly, still imperfect best picture line-ups. Recent trends point to an Academy that is now more inclined towards auteur-driven cinema, international features and even films belonging to once awards-resistant genres like horror – just look at the monumental, record-breaking success of Sinners in today's nominations for one example of the latter. In keeping with these changes, this year's list of 10 films up for best picture includes plenty of nominees that deserve to be there – including Joachim Trier's incredibly moving family drama Sentimental Value and Paul Thomas Anderson's thrilling masterpiece One Battle After Another. And then, there's F1. View Green Video on the source website The racing picture's inclusion in the list has been treated by many pundits as baffling and – in this writer's opinion – with good reason: how on Earth is such a middling blockbuster worthy of a place among the finest 2025 had to offer? The film – which is directed by Top Gun: Maverick's Joseph Kosinski and stars Brad Pitt – was made in conjunction with the governing body of the titular sport, and that is very much apparent while watching: it plays as a branding exercise designed to increase the popularity of Formula One, rather than any sort of spectacular cinematic achievement. If nothing else, it must surely break the record for the highest amount of product placements in an Oscar-nominated movie. And while it might be unfair to disregard F1 outright – the racing scenes are filmed well, and the nominations in the editing and sound categories are perhaps fair enough – it seems bizarre to recognise a film which such a formulaic approach to storytelling as one of the year's best, especially when so many more audacious and interesting films have been left completely empty-handed (for example, Mona Fastvold's The Testament of Ann Lee, Lynne Ramsay's Die My Love, and Park Chan-wook's No Other Choice). In our 3-star review of the film ahead of it's release in the summer, we described it as "two-dimensional" and said of Pitt's central character: "There isn’t a great deal of depth to Sonny, a character forever teetering on the precipice of cliché." And cliché is exactly the word that comes to mind for just about the entirety of F1's bloated and predictable runtime: it's an empty spectacle, a well-crafted corporate exercise masquerading as a film. Frankly, it's more suited for an Advertising Award than an Academy Award. Of course, it's always worth mentioning that, as easy as it is to get swept up in – and as much fun as it can be to observe and debate – awards season has always fundamentally been a rather silly pursuit. In reality, it means little more than an excuse for Hollywood types to throw a bunch of glamorous parties and congratulate themselves, even if they do occasionally recognise some pretty deserving films in the process. So perhaps its a fool's errand to get too up in arms about any particular inclusions or omissions: a great film is a great film, and one's enjoyment of it or lack thereof needn't be dictated by how many accolades it is up for. But it's still interesting to keep track of these trends, and perhaps F1's inclusion points towards a new type of Oscar-bait: the populist choice. With fears that the ceremony is no longer as relevant as it once was – and viewing figures dwindling – there seems to be a recent push to recognise at least one overtly commercial movie alongside the more artistic fare every year (at risk of inviting the wrath of its passionate fanbase, I'd put last year's inclusion of Wicked in the same category.) And so, perhaps in this new era of the Oscars we're going to have to get use to seeing some pretty unremarkable – but undeniably high-grossing – films in the best picture line-up, often at the expense of more groundbreaking movies. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Oscar nominations are out – there's just one problem...
Every Oscars season, us film fans are met with the inevitable snubs: from films of certain genres not being considered serious enough, to quiet, brilliant performances being dropped in favour of louder ones that sit within the rigid framework of what the Academy considers 'worthy'. Of course, we’re also then often met by the rogue choices that leave everyone blinking in disbelief at their television screens. (I, for one, received a few surprised texts when one certain Best Picture nominee was read out this afternoon…). This year, however, one particular snub has stuck out like a sore thumb – Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee. And not only was Ann Lee snubbed – it was completely ignored from the nominations list, with its name not falling under a single category in this year’s slate. That’s right. Daniel Blumburg’s staggering, hypnotic score (which I actually have on in the background while writing this) was erased; Woman Clothed by the Sun, one of the most angelic original songs of the year (I challenge anyone to listen to it and try to tell me it’s inferior to any of the five nominees) was blanked, Fastvold’s writing and brilliant direction were both nowhere to be seen. Not even Best Actress, which once seemed the only category Ann Lee could get a look in, served plaudits. It is that latter snub for Best Actress that perhaps is the most shocking. Until about a month ago, Amanda Seyfried receiving an Oscar nomination for pouring her entire heart and soul into playing Mother Ann Lee felt almost inevitable. And yes, while the Best Actress category is undoubtedly stacked this year, Seyfried’s Critics’ Choice and Golden Globe nominations had me convinced that her flawless performance as the founding leader of the Shaker movement would get at least a small nod. To be clear, The Testament of Ann Lee isn’t some kind of niche, underground film that only four of your biggest cinephile friends have seen (not that obscurity would have made its snub acceptable, but you get my point). Instead, the film boasted a fantastic ensemble (with Seyfried joined by the likes of Lewis Pullman and Thomasin McKenzie), a respected director, and a career-best performance in Seyfried – a previous Oscar nominee, no less. Mona Fastvold herself is no stranger to the Oscars. In 2024, she left her creative fingerprints all over The Brutalist, which went on to be nominated for 10 awards at the Oscars the following year – including Best Picture. (Though admittedly, Brady Corbet was the director at the helm of The Brutalist, and the Oscars don’t have the best track record with celebrating female filmmakers). Ann Lee’s complete exclusion is even more surprising given its massive achievement. With such a small budget covering such an epic scope, the cinematography, music, performances and structure all work so deliberately and so uniquely together to create a film that is truly unlike any cinematic experience I have gone through – and it’s a magnificent shame that the Academy considers it unworthy of even the smallest recognition. View Green Video on the source website Of course, the Oscars have never been particularly intelligent in recognising work that does something completely new. Instead, they are so frequently occupied by films that repeat the same patterns, aesthetics and ideas over and over again, largely ignoring those that have the ability to reshape the way we see cinema. Because Ann Lee is billed as a musical about a religious leader, and it does take its risks, it therefore falls out of that comfort zone. But every risk the film takes pays off greatly – and in a cinematic landscape that is made up predominantly of regurgitated remakes and gratuitous sequels, each risk is more than welcome. The film’s huge ambition is what makes it so incredible. Ann Lee may truly be one of the most individual films I have ever seen. On my first watch, I found myself in desperate need to rewind and watch it all over again – and on my second watch, it made me sob – and honestly, even now, I struggle to articulate exactly why. There is just something so unflinchingly raw, strange and beautiful in its craft that it just goes straight through you. And while, yes, it may be less 'accessible' than films such as Hamnet and Frankenstein, such accessibility should not be a measure of its greatness. Now, I’m not saying that Ann Lee should completely sweep the awards board. As much as I’d personally welcome that, it’s an unrealistic expectation. A historical film so deeply concerned with female spirituality, leadership and music perhaps was never going to be an easy sell in an environment that prioritises films that do not favour those things. But to ignore the film completely – this year, the Academy have genuinely left me baffled. (In other, more Ann Lee-related terms, I Hunger and Thirst for the Academy to take this film seriously). The Testament of Ann Lee will be released in UK cinemas on 20th February. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Oscar nominations 2026: Full list of nominees as Sinners smashes record with 16 nods
One Battle After Another and Hamnet also performed well.
Ryan Coogler's Sinners has become the most nominated film in Academy Awards history after receiving a staggering 16 nods – including in almost every major category. The hugely acclaimed vampire movie – which was also a major box office hit – is one of 10 films which will compete for the best picture trophy at the ceremony in March, while Coogler is up for best director, and three of its stars (Michael B Jordan, Wunmi Mosaku and Delroy Lindo) are all in the running across the various acting categories. As expected, other films that performed well included Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another and Chloé Zhao's Hamnet – which scored 13 and eight nominations respectively. Those two films are arguably still the frontrunners to pick up the top prize, although the sheer number of nominations for Sinners suggests that it could pose a major challenge as well. Elsewhere, Marty Supreme, Sentimental Value and Frankenstein enjoyed plenty of success – gaining nine nominations each – while F1 was something of a surprise entry in the best picture category. The Academy's welcome embrace of international movies also continued, with place for both Brazilian drama The Secret Agent and the aforementioned Norwegian film Sentimental Value in best picture. However others such as It Was Just an Accident and Sirat had to settle for a place in the best international feature category. View Green Video on the source website As ever there were a couple of notable snubs – including Hamnet's Paul Mescal and One Battle After Another's Chase Infiniti – while some films were looked over entirely, including The Testament of Ann Lee and No Other Choice, both of which can consider themselves incredibly unfortunate to have no place in the conversation. These nominations were also the first to include the brand new casting category, with Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent and Sinners the five films to receive Oscar nods in this discipline. Read on for the full list of Oscars 2026 nominees. Oscar nominations 2026: Full list of Academy Awards nominees Best picture Bugonia F1 Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another The Secret Agent Sentimental Value Sinners Train Dreams Best director Chloe Zhao – Hamnet Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value Ryan Coogler – Sinners Best actor Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon Michael B Jordan – Sinners Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent Best actress Jessie Buckley – Hamnet Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I'd Kick You Kate Hudson – Song Sung Blue Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value Emma Stone – Bugonia Best supporting actor Benicio del Toro – One Battle After Another Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein Delroy Lindo – Sinners Sean Penn – One Battle After Another Stellan Skarsgaard – Sentimental Value Best supporting actress Elle Fanning – Sentimental Value Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value Amy Madigan – Weapons Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another Best original screenplay Blue Moon It Was Just an Accident Marty Supreme Sentimental Value Sinners Best adapted screenplay Bugonia Frankenstein Hamnet One Battle After Another Train Dreams Best animated feature Arco Elio K-Pop Demon Hunters Little Amélie of the Character of Rain Zootropolis 2 Best international film The Secret Agent It Was Just an Accident Sentimental Value Sirat The Voice of Hind Rajab Best original score Bugonia Frankenstein Hamnet One Battle After Another Sinners Best original song Dear Me from Diane Warren: Relentless Golden from K-Pop Demon Hunters I Lied to You from Sinners Sweet Dreams of Joy from Viva Verdi! Train Dreams from Train Dreams Best costume design Avatar: Fire and Ash Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme Sinners Best cinematography Frankenstein Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sinners Train Dreams Best documentary feature The Alabama Solution Come See Me in the Good Light Cutting Through Rocks Mr Nobody Against Putin The Perfect Neighbour Best editing F1 Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sentimental Value Sinners Best production design Frankenstein Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sinners Best makeup and hairstyling Frankenstein Kokuho Sinners The Smashing Machine The Ugly Stepsister Best sound F1 Frankenstein One Battle After Another Sinners Sirat Best visual effects Avatar: Fire and Ash F1 Jurassic World: Rebirth The Lost Bus Sinners Best casting Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another The Secret Agent Sinners Best short documentary All the Empty Rooms Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud Children No More: "Were and are Gone" The Devil is Busy Perfectly a Strangeness Best short film (animation) Butterfly Forevergreen The Girl Who Cried Pearls Retirement Plan The Three Sisters Best short film (live action) Butcher's Stain A Friend of Dorothy Jane Austen's Period Drama The Singers Two People Exchanging Saliva The 98th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday 15th March. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Oscar predictions 2026: Which films could compete for Best Picture next year?
This year's awards season has wrapped up...
Awards season has finally wrapped up following Sunday night's Academy Awards ceremony in LA – with Sean Baker's Anora ultimately taking top honours on Oscars night ahead of rivals including The Brutalist, Conclave and Emilia Pérez. Although Baker has been an acclaimed name in indie circles for several years prior to this latest film, few would have predicted Anora as an Oscars frontrunner prior to its premiere at Cannes last May, and so the idea of guessing next year's Best Picture at this stage is self-evidently something of a fool's errand. That said, a little bit of speculation never did anyone any harm, and so we've rounded up a list of some of the films that might well be in contention when the time comes to hand out golden statuettes again next year. Of course, it should be taken into account that – with the exception of one or two films – most of the titles listed below have not yet been screened, and so we're relying entirely on the names attached to indicate which films might be in the running. It's widely likely that after some of these premiere they could drop off our predictions list entirely, and it's equally probable that several films will come out of nowhere to emerge as major contenders in the coming months. But for the time being, read on for a list of films that could be up for Best Picture in 2026. If nothing else, it certainly points to an exciting year for new releases... Sponsored by Vue Save up to 30% on the latest releases at Vue in 2025 Are you a movie lover who always wants to be up to date with the latest releases? Then you're in luck, as RadioTimes.com readers can enjoy new films at Vue Cinemas for less. Customers will receive up to 30% off films with Vue Pass, as long as they have a RadioTimes.com account. It's a great time for new releases, with films such as Wicked, Nosferatu, The Brutalist and Moana 2 taking UK cinemas by storm. Head to your nearest Vue to catch these movies and more for up to 30% less if you're signed up as a RadioTimes.com member. Save up to 30% with Vue Pass Wicked: For Good This one seems a fairly safe bet for now. Given the major popular acclaim the first film received – and the fact that it managed 10 Oscar nods, including one for Best Picture – we'd be very surprised not to see Jon M Chu's follow-up in the running next year. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande will return to their roles of Elphaba and Glinda for the sequel, which is adapted from the second act of the hit stage show and includes some brand new musical numbers along with beloved favourites. Mickey 17 Despite receiving broadly strong reviews, Bong Joon-ho's sci-fi film starring Robert Pattinson – which opens in UK cinemas this week – already seems like something of a long shot, in part due to its somewhat bonkers nature. But given director Bong's previous film Parasite was such an Oscars sensation, famously being crowned Best Picture winner in one of the most exciting Oscars moments of recent times, we wouldn't rule it out completely yet. Could he do it again? Sorry, Baby It's been common in recent years for a film that premiered at Sundance Film Festival to make it into the Oscars conversation, with Jesse Eisenberg's A Real Pain narrowly missing out on a Best Picture nod this year despite nominations elsewhere (and a Best Supporting Actor win for Kieran Culkin). The best reviewed of this year's Sundance crop was this drama from first-time director Eva Victor – who also stars. It follows a college professor as she tries to recover from a sexual assault and has so far been widely praised. One Battle After Another The combination of Paul Thomas Anderson and Leonardo DiCaprio – in their first collaboration together – looks like it could be catnip for Oscars voters, especially when we consider that it is the popular auteur's most expensive film to date. Reportedly based on Thomas Pynchon's novel Vineland, an exact plot synopsis has not yet been provided, but we do know that the cast also includes Regina Hall, Sean Penn, Alana Haim and Benicio del Toro. Anderson is yet to make a bad movie, and has been in the running for Oscars glory several times before – could this be the one to win him gold? Avatar: Fire and Ash Both previous Avatar films have received Best Picture nominations in addition to their well-publicised commercial success, and so the third seems a good bet to follow suit at this stage. Not much has been given away as to exact plot details, but David Thewlis and Oona Chaplin are joining the existing cast, which already includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña and Kate Winslet, and we can be fairly certain James Cameron will have plenty more spectacle in store for us. Die, My Love Scottish director Lynne Ramsay has only made four films in her 25-year career – Ratcatcher, Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk About Kevin and You Were Never Really Here – but each of them has been hugely acclaimed. Her status as more of an arthouse auteur has seen her overlooked when it comes to Oscars in the past, but the combination of a big-name cast (including Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson) and the fact that the Academy has begun to embrace more left-field options in recent years means it could be a decent bet. Adapted by a novel of the same name by Ariana Harwicz, the synopsis reads: "In a farmhouse on the Montana countryside, a woman has mental health issues as her marriage breaks up." Materialists Celine Song made one of the most acclaimed directorial debuts of recent times with her Oscar-nominated romantic drama Past Lives – so it will be interesting to see if she can go two for two with her second feature, Materialists. The film stars Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal, and is reportedly a more traditional romantic comedy than her earlier effort, following a matchmaking expert who falls into a toxic love triangle. Bugonia The creative partnership between writer and director Yorgos Lanthimos and actor Emma Stone has already garnered several Oscar nominations, including a Best Actress win for Stone for 2023's Poor Things. Their fourth collaboration is a remake of a 2003 South Korean sci-fi comedy titled Save the Green Planet!, and follows two conspiracy-obsessed men who kidnap the CEO of a major company when they become convinced that she's an alien who wants to destroy Earth. The Ballad of a Small Player After two Best Picture nominations in a row for All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave (both of which also won Best Film at the BAFTAs), anything Edward Berger makes should be considered a possible contender. His next effort is a psychological thriller about a gambler and a con artist who flee Britain for Macau, with Tilda Swinton and Colin Farrell in the starring roles. Caught Stealing Darren Aronofsky can be something of a divisive filmmaker, but he has seen two of his films nominated for Best Picture in the past – Black Swan and The Fighter – and so we wouldn't bet against his latest movie being in the race next year. Starrung Austin Butler, Zöe Kravitz and Matt Smith, the crime thriller follows a former baseball player who finds himself immersed in criminality in New York in the 1990s. After the Hunt Luca Guadagnino's two 2024 releases – Challengers and Queer – received plenty of acclaim but ultimately fell short when it came to the awards conversation, but the prolific Italian director is already back with another film that could be one to look out for. After the Hunt stars Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield, and follows a college professor grappling with her secretive past when one of her colleagues is faced with a serious accusation. Eleanor the Great Scarlett Johansson has already been nominated for a couple of acting Oscars, and this year she's making her directorial debut with this drama starring veteran actress June Squibb as a 90-year-old Floridian woman who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a 19-year-old student in New York City. Not too much more has been revealed at this stage, but the early buzz is good, so it's definitely one to keep an eye on. Alpha Not so long ago, the idea of a film from a French director known for her works of extreme body horror being an Oscars contender would have seemed like a pipe dream – but the success of The Substance has changed everything. Not too much has been revealed about Alpha, but the synopsis for this third film from Raw and Titane director Julia Ducournau reads: "As the AIDS epidemic unfolds in 1980s New York City, one of 11-year-old Alpha's parents falls ill, forcing her to confront loss and her own mortality for the first time." The Smashing Machine The Safdie brothers are no longer working together, but both have new films expected this year, and each of them could well finds themselves vying for awards success. This sports drama comes from younger brother Benny Safdie and sees Dwayne Johnson star as former wrestler and MMA fighter Mark Kerr. Johnson has talked about a movie away from blockbuster hits to make more artistically minded films; could he emerge as a surprise acting nominee? Marty Supreme Meanwhile, Josh Safdie is teaming up with Timothée Chalamet for this film – also a sports drama – which is reportedly loosely based on the life of champion table tennis player Marty Reisman. Chalamet has already been in an incredible seven Best Picture nominated films at the age of 29, so any film he's in stands a decent chance of making the cut – can he make it eight? Jay Kelly After his rather misfiring adaptation of Don DeLillo's White Noise, Marriage Story writer/director Noah Baumbach will be hoping to return to the Oscars stage with this drama starring George Clooney, Adam Sandler and Laura Dern. Plot details are being kept under wraps for now, but we're expecting it to debut on Netflix sometime this autumn. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey There are high hopes for this new film from Columbus and After Yang director Kogonada, not least because of the impressive cast led up by Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell. We don't know much about the plot so far, other than the fact it's being billed as a romantic fantasy, but it's another one that's worth keeping an eye on as the director looks to add some Oscars nominations to the acclaim he's already received for his first two features. Frankenstein Any time Guillermo del Toro – whose The Shape of Water won Best Picture in 2018 – makes a new film, it's bound to at least be in the conversation around awards, and his passion project is definitely likely to have a decent shot. Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth are leading the cast for his reimagining of the Mary Shelley's iconic gothic horror story. The Bride Speaking of Frankenstein, Maggie Gyllenhaal is writing and directing this new film inspired by the 1935 classic The Bride of Frankenstein, with Jessie Buckley starring in the title role and Christian Bale playing Frankenstein's Monster. The Oscars have clearly shown that they are more open to horror stories now than ever, and coupled with the film's big-name cast and its connection to classic Hollywood history, this is another that's worth looking out for. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning It couldn't, could it? This is something of a wild card, as no previous Mission: Impossible film has been up for Best Picture, or even really been in the running. But the fact this is being tipped as Tom Cruise's last outing as Ethan Hunt – not to mention an Oscar nomination for Top Gun: Maverick a couple of years ago – means that there's every chance the Academy could put aside its reservations about action cinema on this occasion. Highest 2 Lowest Spike Lee is another director who's always worth keeping an eye on, especially when he's collaborating with Denzel Washington – and so this new film from the Do the Right Thing and BlacKkKlansman filmmaker is definitely one to watch. A "reinterpretation" of Akira Kurosawa 1963 film High and Low – which follows events before and after a kidnapping – the cast also includes Jeffrey Wright and Dean Winters. The Phoenician Scheme Although his short The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar was successful last year, it's been a while since a Wes Anderson feature really made a noise in the awards race – so perhaps this latest effort from the eccentric auteur could be the one to return him to the conversation. The typically stacked ensemble cast includes Benicio del Toro, Michael Cera, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Riz Ahmed, and Scarlett Johansson, and the film will apparently see him tackle the espionage genre. Hamnet Another previous Oscar winner with a new film out is Nomadland's Chloé Zhao who will be hoping to return to form with this adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's acclaimed novel following her misfire with Eternals. The film stars Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley and tells a fictional story about the life of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes Shakespeare, following the death of their 11-year-old son, Hamnet. If you're looking for something to watch tonight, check out our TV Guide and Streaming Guide or visit our Film hub for all the latest news. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Oscar winners 2025: Full list as Anora wins Best Picture
Other big winners on the night included Adrien Brody for Best Actor and Mikey Madison for Best Actress.
Anora was crowned the latest winner of the Best Picture trophy at last night's 97th Academy Awards in Hollywood – with the film seeing off competition from the likes of Conclave and The Brutalist to follow Oppenheimer in winning the coveted prize. Meanwhile, the film's writer and director Sean Baker also equalled a longstanding record set by Walt Disney by winning a total of four Oscars in one night, receiving the gongs for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing in what was a hugely successful night for the indie filmmaker. Perhaps the most hotly contested of the major acting categories going into the ceremony was Best Actress, with The Substance star Demi Moore and Anora's Mikey Madison battling it out for the prize – but in the end it was Madison who was crowned winner, bringing Anora's total to five awards. And although Timothée Chalamet's win at last week's SAG Awards had seen the Best Actor race thrown wide open again, in the end The Brutalist star Adrien Brody was crowned winner, while Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldaña both completed their hugely successful awards campaigns in Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively. Elsewhere, there were also wins for the likes of Flow for Best Animated Feature, I'm Still Here for Best International Film, and No Other Land for Best Documentary Feature. Read below for the full list of nominees and winners. Sponsored by Vue Save up to 30% on the latest releases at Vue in 2025 Are you a movie lover who always wants to be up to date with the latest releases? Then you're in luck, as RadioTimes.com readers can enjoy new films at Vue Cinemas for less. Customers will receive up to 30% off films with Vue Pass, as long as they have a RadioTimes.com account. It's a great time for new releases, with films such as Wicked, Nosferatu, The Brutalist and Moana 2 taking UK cinemas by storm. Head to your nearest Vue to catch these movies and more for up to 30% less if you're signed up as a RadioTimes.com member. Save up to 30% with Vue Pass Oscar nominations 2025: Full list of Academy Awards winners Best Picture Anora – WINNER The Brutalist A Complete Unknown Conclave Dune: Part Two Emilia Pérez I'm Still Here Nickel Boys The Substance Wicked Best Director Jacques Audiard – Emilia Pérez Sean Baker – Anora – WINNER Brady Corbet – The Brutalist Coralie Fargeat – The Substance James Mangold – A Complete Unknown Best Actor Adrien Brody – The Brutalist – WINNER Timothée Chalamet – A Complete Unknown Colman Domingo – Sing Sing Ralph Fiennes – Conclave Sebastian Stan – The Apprentice Best Actress Cynthia Erivo – Wicked Karla Sofía Gascón – Emilia Pérez Mikey Madison – Anora – WINNER Demi Moore – The Substance Fernanda Torres – I'm Still Here Best Supporting Actor Yura Borisov – Anora Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain – WINNER Edward Norton – A Complete Unknown Guy Pearce – The Brutalist Jeremy Strong – The Apprentice Best Supporting Actress Monica Barbaro – A Complete Unknown Ariana Grande – Wicked Felicity Jones – The Brutalist Isabella Rossellini – Conclave Zoe Saldaña – Emilia Pérez – WINNER Best Original Screenplay Anora – WINNER The Brutalist A Real Pain September 5 The Substance Best Adapted Screenplay A Complete Unknown Conclave – WINNER Emilia Pérez Nickel Boys Sing Sing Best Animated Feature Flow – WINNER Inside Out 2 Memoir of a Snail Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl The Wild Robot Best International Film Emilia Pérez Flow I'm Still Here – WINNER The Girl with the Needle The Seed of the Sacred Fig Best Original Score The Brutalist – WINNER Conclave Emilia Pérez Wicked The Wild Robot Best Original Song El Mal from Emilia Pérez – WINNER Like A Bird from Sing Sing The Journey from The Six Triple Eight Mi Camino from Emilia Pérez Never Too Late from Elton John: Never Too Late Best Costume Design A Complete Unknown Conclave Gladiator II Nosferatu Wicked – WINNER Best Cinematography The Brutalist – WINNER Dune: Part Two Emilia Pérez Maria Nosferatu Best Documentary Feature Black Box Diaries No Other Land – WINNER Porcelain War Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat Sugarcane Best Editing Anora – WINNER The Brutalist Conclave Emilia Pérez Wicked Best Production Design The Brutalist Conclave Dune: Part Two Nosferatu Wicked – WINNER Best Makeup and Hairstyling A Different Man Emilia Pérez Nosferatu The Substance – WINNER Wicked Best Sound A Complete Unknown Dune: Part Two – WINNER Emilia Pérez Wicked The Wild Robot Best Visual Effects Alien: Romulus Better Man Dune: Part Two – WINNER Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Wicked Best Short Documentary Death by Numbers I Am Ready, Warden Incident Instruments of a Beating Heart The Only Girl in the Orchestra – WINNER Best Short Film (Animation) Beautiful Men In The Shadow of the Cypress – WINNER Magic Candies Wander to Wonder Yuck! Best Short Film (Live Action) A Lien Anuja I’m Not a Robot – WINNER The Last Ranger The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent The Academy Awards took place on Sunday 2nd March. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Oscars 2025 presenters: Which stars are presenting awards at the ceremony?
As ever, an impressive line-up of Hollywood royalty and former winners will be taking to the stage at the Dolby Theatre alongside host Conan O'Brien.
After months of debate, campaigning and controversy, the 97th Academy Awards are finally here to announce what Hollywood believes to be the greatest films and performances of the past year. In a shake-up to recent editions, Jimmy Kimmel has exited the long-running ceremony, with former late night host and The Simpsons golden age legend Conan O'Brien stepping up to fill the risky role of Oscar host. The glamorous event has been prone to unexpected moments in recent years, from the Will Smith slap to the mistaken announcement of La La Land as Best Picture, meaning O'Brien needs to be ready for near enough anything. Luckily, he'll have plenty of back-up from some of Hollywood's most prominent names, with recent winners Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr, Emma Stone and Da'Vine Joy Randolph among the line-up enlisted to present the individual categories. Alas, a previously confirmed name has had to drop out at the last moment, with Variety reporting that Captain America: Brave New World star Harrison Ford will no longer be appearing at the Oscars after developing shingles. He is recovering at home. Read on for the full list of Oscars 2025 presenters, ahead of the starry broadcast tonight (also, check out our full guide on how to watch the Oscars in the UK if you're hoping to tune in). Oscars presenters 2025 – full list The full list of Oscars 2025 presenters are listed in alphabetical order below: Joe Alwyn Dave Bautista Halle Berry Sterling K Brown Penélope Cruz Willem Dafoe Ana de Armas Lily-Rose Depp Robert Downey Jr Elle Fanning Gal Gadot Andrew Garfield Whoopi Goldberg Selena Gomez Goldie Hawn Samuel L Jackson Scarlett Johansson John Lithgow Cillian Murphy Connie Nielsen Amy Poehler Margaret Qualley Da'Vine Joy Randolph Alba Rohrwacher Zoe Saldaña June Squibb Ben Stiller Emma Stone Oprah Winfrey Bowen Yang Rachel Zegler Who is hosting the Oscars 2025? The man in charge of presiding over the ceremony is comedian and legendary talk show host Conan O'Brien – who was announced as the host back in November 2024. It will be O'Brien's first time as host, and he replaces his fellow talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who had fronted the previous two Oscars nights but reportedly turned down the chance to return for his third consecutive year (and his fifth time in total). <a id="menur6fm" class="fui-Link ___1q1shib f2hkw1w f3rmtva f1ewtqcl fyind8e f1k6fduh f1w7gpdv fk6fouc fjoy568 figsok6 f1s184ao f1mk8lai fnbmjn9 f1o700av f13mvf36 f1cmlufx f9n3di6 f1ids18y f1tx3yz7 f1deo86v f1eh06m1 f1iescvh fhgqx19 f1olyrje f1p93eir f1nev41a f1h8hb77 f1lqvz6u f10aw75t fsle3fq f17ae5zn" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Link Download the Radio Times app">Download the Radio Times app for more Oscars 2025 coverage – including interviews with the stars and exclusive features. Speaking to ABC News ahead of the ceremony, O'Brien revealed that he hoped to strike the right tone between humour and respect – as well as honouring those affected by the LA fires earlier in the year. View Green Video on the source website "The Oscars is a show that is very much a hometown show. It's a Los Angeles show, so what's happened here needs to be addressed," he said. "It's a celebration of hard work that's been done by many people." He added: "There's a needle to thread, there's a line to walk, and I'm determined to do that correctly. But I want to make sure there's humour, that we have some fun, and that we have some joy." Sponsored by Vue Save up to 30% on the latest releases at Vue in 2025 Are you a movie lover who always wants to be up to date with the latest releases? Then you're in luck, as RadioTimes.com readers can enjoy new films at Vue Cinemas for less. Customers will receive up to 30% off films with Vue Pass, as long as they have a RadioTimes.com account. It's a great time for new releases, with films such as Wicked, Nosferatu, The Brutalist and Moana 2 taking UK cinemas by storm. Head to your nearest Vue to catch these movies and more for up to 30% less if you're signed up as a RadioTimes.com member. Save up to 30% with Vue Pass The Academy Awards will take place on Sunday 2nd March. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
It's almost time to crown a new Best Picture winner.
The biggest night in showbiz has finally arrived, with the Academy Awards now mere hours away as Hollywood veterans and rising stars alike converge on Los Angeles for the glamorous ceremony. It's been a truly rollercoaster awards season with lots of surprises along the way, from the heated discourse surrounding Emilia Pérez to the AI debate triggered by The Brutalist, and the usual snubs for titles once considered top contenders. As it stands, the Best Picture race and lead actor categories remain open to speculation, with The Brutalist, Anora and Conclave deemed frontrunners, while fans are split on whether Mikey Madison or The Substance's Demi Moore will walk home with the gold. The lead actor category was thought to be going in Adrien Brody's direction, until a last minute win for Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown) at the SAG Awards opened the possibility of an upset. In addition to the usual mix of gags, gaffes and hit-and-miss speeches, the Oscars will also be paying tribute to brave emergency response workers who fought the recent Los Angeles wildfires, which caused enormous damage and claimed several lives. Deadline reports that the ceremony will "honour Los Angeles as the city of dreams" and "reflect on the recent events while highlighting the strength, creativity and optimism that defines Los Angeles and our industry". If you're excited to see what the night has in store, read on for everything you need to know about how to watch the Oscars 2025 in the UK. You can also remind yourself of the 2025 Oscars nominations ahead of the main event. When are the Oscars 2025? Date and time The Oscars are scheduled to take place on Sunday 2nd March 2025 at their usual home in Hollywood's Dolby Theatre, where they have been held since 2001 (with the exception of 2021, when the ceremony was significantly downsized due to the pandemic). The three-hour ceremony will begin at 4pm PST. The delayed nominations announcement will now take place on Thursday 23rd January, with the week-long final voting period for Academy members lasting from Tuesday 11th February to 18th February. Download the Radio Times app for more Oscars 2025 coverage – including interviews with the stars and exclusive features. How can I watch the Oscars 2025 in the UK? For the second year in a row, the ceremony will be shown in full by ITV – so it couldn't be easier for UK fans to watch it (if you can get past the late night, that is). There will be free-to-air coverage across both ITV1 and ITVX – including red carpet footage and analysis from a host of celebrity guests and film experts, while Jonathan Ross is returning to front the programme. For UK viewers, the three-hour event is set to begin at midnight, meaning film fans on this side of the Atlantic will therefore have to prepare for a very late night if they plan to watch the ceremony live. Who is hosting the Oscars 2025? It was revealed back in November 2024 that the ceremony would this year be presided over by comedian and legendary talk show host Conan O'Brien – his first time as presenter. Announcing the news, Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy president Janet Yang said they were "thrilled and honoured" that the "incomparable" O'Brien would be taking on the gig. They added: "He is the perfect person to help lead our global celebration of film with his brilliant humour, his love of movies, and his live TV expertise. "His remarkable ability to connect with audiences will bring viewers together to do what the Oscars do best – honour the spectacular films and filmmakers of this year." O'Brien takes over from Jimmy Kimmel, who has hosted the last two ceremonies but reportedly turned down the chance to return for his third consecutive year (and his fifth time in total.) Meanwhile, according to Variety, popular comedian John Mulaney – who struck a chord with viewers during a hilarious skit at last year's event – also passed on the chance to host. As ever, the ceremony will see a bunch of A-listers, including numerous previous winners, presenting awards over the course of the night – although at this stage it remains to be seen exactly which big names will be called upon this time. Which musical acts will perform at the Oscars 2025? Musical acts confirmed to be performing at the Oscars 2025 include Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, Blackpink's Lisa, Doja Cat and RAYE, plus Queen Latifah in a tribute to the late Quincy Jones. In January, the Academy announced the surprise news that they'd be breaking from tradition when it came to the ceremony's musical performances: unlike previous years, there would not be a live version of each of the numbers nominated in the Best Original Song category. According to Variety, the ceremony will instead "spotlight the songwriters through personal reflections and behind-the-scenes insights from the creative teams behind the music". It has also been reported that music from the James Bond films will be honoured during the ceremony, with numerous themes earning Oscar nods over the franchise's long history (via Variety). The segment will also pay tribute to veteran producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who were recently confirmed to be parting ways with the property as Amazon MGM Studios takes control. Who is presenting awards at the Oscars 2025? Oscars host Conan O'Brien will have plenty of star-studded back-up at the event, with Oprah Winfrey, Andrew Garfield, Samuel L Jackson, Robert Downey Jr, Whoopi Goldberg, Scarlett Johansson, Cillian Murphy and Emma Stone among the most famous faces. Other award presenters include Emilia Pérez stars Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña, Snow White's Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, plus The Substance co-star Margaret Qualley, Nosferatu's Willem Dafoe and Lily-Rose Depp, and Conclave's John Lithgow. Dave Bautista, Alba Rohrwacher, Joe Alwyn, Halle Berry, Sterling K Brown, Penélope Cruz, Ana de Armas, Elle Fanning, Goldie Hawn, Connie Nielsen, Amy Poehler, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, June Squibb, Ben Stiller and Bowen Yang round out the line-up. Captain America: Brave New World star Harrison Ford was previously expected to present at the ceremony, but has been forced to pull out of the gig after developing shingles (as reported by Variety). The Academy Awards are scheduled for Sunday 2nd March 2025. Sponsored by Vue Save up to 30% on the latest releases at Vue in 2025 Are you a movie lover who always wants to be up to date with the latest releases? Then you're in luck, as RadioTimes.com readers can enjoy new films at Vue for less. Customers will receive up to 30% off films with Vue Pass, as long as they have a RadioTimes.com account. It's a great time for new releases, with films such as Wicked, Nosferatu, The Brutalist and Moana 2 taking UK cinemas by storm. Head to your nearest Vue to catch these movies and more for up to 30% less if you're signed up as a RadioTimes.com member. Save up to 30% with Vue Pass Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Oscars 2025: The case for Emilia Pérez to win Best Picture
The crime drama and musical from Frenchman Jacques Audiard has been marred by controversy, but remains a fearless adrenaline shot.
A joyous and daring musical, Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez started its public journey in Cannes last May, where critics were overwhelmingly positive and the film saw the four female leads – Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz – take a share of the Best Actress prize. Since then, until recently at least, this Mexican-set tale of a cartel boss named Manitas who undergoes gender reassignment has been a hot favourite in the awards season. Bought by Netflix, the film won four Golden Globes, including Best Picture in the musical or comedy category. Better still, it gained 13 Oscar nominations, the most ever by a non-English language film. But then came the backlash, from Mexican commentators complaining the film is an inauthentic representation of their country to LGBTQ+ advocates claiming it’s not a good representation of the trans community. View oEmbed on the source website Worse was to come as old social media posts by Gascón – the first ever trans performer to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar – were unearthed. To put it mildly, Gascón’s opinions were deeply problematic, ranging from offensive comments about Islam to police brutality victim George Floyd. Although she later apologised, such comments threw Emilia Pérez’s campaign into chaos, as Audiard and others backed away from Gascón. What harm Gascón’s spectacular self-sabotage has fully done to her and Emilia Pérez’s chances at the Oscars will only become clearer after the ceremony has unfolded. At the recent BAFTAs, the film took the prize for Best Foreign Film while Best Supporting Actress was won by Saldaña, whose terrific work as the campaign lawyer Rita deserves to be recognised. But without doubt, Emilia Pérez also deserves to win Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2025/02/Emilia-Perez-Karla-Sofia-Gascon-Zoe-Saldana-2dcbfec.jpg" width="7200" height="4800" alt="Karla Sofía Gascón as Emilia Pérez looking at the camera with a soft smile, and Zoe Saldaña as Rita Moro Castro out of focus in the background." title="Karla Sofía Gascón as Emilia Pérez and Zoe Saldaña as Rita Moro Castro in Emilia Pérez" /> When I first saw the film in Cannes last year, long before controversies swirled, it was at an 8:30am screening halfway through the festival (usually when journalists are truly flagging). But it felt like an adrenaline shot; here was a film that felt fresh and unusual, especially coming from Audiard. The French director has engaged with the crime genre before, with more traditional films like prison drama A Prophet (2009) and The Beat My Heart Skipped, his 2005 remake of James Toback’s Fingers (1978). But this was different. <a id="menur1gc" class="fui-Link ___1q1shib f2hkw1w f3rmtva f1ewtqcl fyind8e f1k6fduh f1w7gpdv fk6fouc fjoy568 figsok6 f1s184ao f1mk8lai fnbmjn9 f1o700av f13mvf36 f1cmlufx f9n3di6 f1ids18y f1tx3yz7 f1deo86v f1eh06m1 f1iescvh fhgqx19 f1olyrje f1p93eir f1nev41a f1h8hb77 f1lqvz6u f10aw75t fsle3fq f17ae5zn" title="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/" href="https://www.radiotimes.com/download-the-app/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Link Download the Radio Times app">Download the Radio Times app for more Oscars 2025 coverage – including interviews with the stars and exclusive features. Here was a genre-bending film that felt unclassifiable; a cartel story, a transgender tale, a full-blown musical, and a social-political drama all rolled into one. That takes some serious chutzpah on the part of Audiard and his co-writers. Art should be about taking risks and, more than the other nominees this year, Emilia Pérez is a high-wire act that should be applauded for its bravery, shining a spotlight on everything from trans issues to the troubling violence at the heart of Mexican society. View Green Video on the source website The performances are as vivid as Damien Jalet’s choreography and the memorable songs by Clément Ducol and Camille. Whatever the controversy around her, it shouldn’t be forgotten that Gascón pulls off the near-impossible, playing both Manitas and the woman he transitions to, Emilia Pérez. Likewise, Saldaña’s spiky, energetic turn has spotlighted an actress who has too often been a cog in CGI spectacles like Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy. If Emilia Pérez were to claim Best Picture, it would offer further proof to Hollywood that subtitled films can draw in audiences. Moreover, it shows that transgender stories are there to be told (and that trans actors deserve more leading roles). Above all, it’s a film that pushes the form. Taking the song-and-dance genre in a new direction, the movie musical will never be the same again. Sponsored by Vue Save up to 30% on the latest releases at Vue in 2025 Are you a movie lover who always wants to be up to date with the latest releases? Then you're in luck, as RadioTimes.com readers can enjoy new films at Vue Cinemas for less. Customers will receive up to 30% off films with Vue Pass, as long as they have a RadioTimes.com account. It's a great time for new releases, with films such as Wicked, Nosferatu, The Brutalist and Moana 2 taking UK cinemas by storm. Head to your nearest Vue to catch these movies and more for up to 30% less if you're signed up as a RadioTimes.com member. Save up to 30% with Vue Pass The Academy Awards will take place on Sunday 2nd March. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.