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03/12/2026 | News release | Distributed by Public on 03/12/2026 18:07
From Sinners to Hamnet to BU’s Nominees, This Year’s Oscar Race Could Offer Lots of Surprises
From Sinners to Hamnet to BU's Nominees, This Year's Oscar Race Could Offer Lots of Surprises
CFA's Harvey Young and COM's Debbie Danielpour offer predictions on who will win and who got snubbed ahead of Academy Awards Ceremony Sunday
The films nominated for this year's Academy Award for Best Picture. Photos via IMDb
OSCARS PREVIEW
From Sinners to Hamnet to BU's Nominees, This Year's Oscar Race Could Offer Lots of Surprises
CFA's Harvey Young and COM's Debbie Danielpour offer predictions on who will win and who got snubbed ahead of Sunday's Academy Awards Ceremony
Even before a single envelope has been opened at this year's Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday, March 15, this year's Oscars race is already proving to be historic. And Boston University will be well represented, too.
Ryan Coogler's supernatural horror film Sinners notched 16 nominations, 2 more than the record held by All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land. Chloé Zhao became the first person of color to be nominated twice for best director for helming Hamnet (she won in 2021 for Nomadland). And for the first time in years, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has added a new competitive category, achievement in casting.
Meanwhile, BU alum Josh Safdie (COM'07) is up for four Academy Awards-best picture, best director, best original screenplay, and best achievement in film editing for Marty Supreme. And another BU alum, Andrew E. Freedman (CAS'78), has been nominated for best animated short film for Retirement Plan.
BU Today spoke with two film experts-Harvey Young, dean of the College of Fine Arts and a College of Arts & Sciences professor of English, and Debbie Danielpour, a screenwriter and a College of Communication assistant professor of film and television and director of COM's Cinematheque series, for their insights on the awards.
Harvey Young, dean of the College of Fine Arts, and Debbie Danielpour, a College of Communication assistant professor of film and television and director of COM's Cinematheque series, offer their predictions for who will take home gold during Sunday's 2026 Academy Awards ceremony. Photo by Cydney ScottQ&A
with Harvey Young and Debbie Danielpour
BU Today: Sinners earned 16 nominations, but it's a supernatural horror film, a genre the Academy often overlooks. What was it about this film that resonated with Academy voters?
Harvey Young: It's a perfect storm of goodness: dashing lead actor, auteur director who's clearly the next Spielberg (Hon.'09), a high art film with vampires.
Debbie Danielpour: It's true, only six or seven horror films have ever been nominated for Best Picture in Academy history, and only Silence of the Lambs (1991) won. Regarding Sinners, I teach a class for screenwriting graduates about American genres and I must say I can't remember one film with this combination of genres and subjects, a blend that's been beautifully achieved: Southern Gothic horror/vampire, fantasy, supernatural, and it's even a historical thriller, set in the 1930s Jim Crow South. But it's also musician-steeped in African American blues. I think that combination is what resonated…and the fact that it's an examination of the country's original sin.
BU Today: What surprised you the most about this year's nominees?
Young: Surprisingly, the live arts are palpable. There's Jessie Buckley watching Hamlet in Hamnet; Ethan Hawke, Oklahoma! in Blue Moon; Gwyneth Paltrow, ping-pong in Marty Supreme; Michael B. Jordan watching Buddy Guy playing the blues in Sinners; and everyone watching the art and science of F1 racing in F1. The films are saying "thank you" and "we see you" to their audiences.
Danielpour: I was surprised by four things: first, the number of non-English language films, mainly in the acting categories that were nominated; two, the omission of Kelly Reichardt's The Mastermind in any category; three, the fact that Guillermo del Toro didn't score a directing nomination for Frankenstein, one of my favorite films of the year; and four, that F1 got a best picture nomination. I haven't seen it after hearing my graduate students' assessment, but I hear the climax sequence makes it all worth it. Hopefully, some of your readers can convince me to see it.
BU Today: Who, in your mind, should have been nominated but wasn't?
Young: Costume designer Paul Tazewell should have been nominated for Wicked: For Good, but it's easy to see how folks might also object to someone winning two Oscars for the same story world. Also, Margaret Qualley in Blue Note or Julia Garner in Weapons for best supporting actress.
Danielpour: Definitely Joel Edgerton in Train Dreams. He made that movie. That, and the settings. Maybe also Jesse Plemons in Bugonia. Now that was one weird film, wasn't it?
BU Today: Wicked: for Good had been forecast to win multiple nominations, including for its stars, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. What happened?
Young: Not many people want to see animal slavery and sad Munchkins in the land of Oz. Wicked: for Good is an uphill experience for the viewer.
Danielpour: Part II wasn't nearly as good as Part I. Word got around. The title of The New Yorker's review was "Wicked: For Good Is Very, Very Bad."
BU Today: Who do you think will win Best Picture and who should win?
Young: One Battle After Another feels timely and speaks to this moment. It should and will win. F1 was keyed to my demographic-folks of a certain age who love late '80s and early '90s action movies. It's not going to win and shouldn't win. However, I'd secretly vote for it.
Danielpour: This is tough because there are many great films nominated this year. I think the films that could win Best Picture, in order of probability, are: Sinners, One Battle After Another, and Frankenstein. Given my political biases and soft heart, the films I think should win, in order are: Sinners, One Battle, and Frankenstein.
BU Today: In the best director category, Paul Thomas Anderson seems like the likely front-runner, having won the Directors Guild of America, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and LA Film Critics Awards. He's been nominated for 14 Oscars, but has never won. Is this his year to be honored?
Young: I'd line up any day to see films directed by Coogler, Anderson, Zhao, or Safdie. This category feels like a toss-up between Paul Thomas Anderson and Ryan Coogler, with Anderson having the edge.
Danielpour: It would make sense that Anderson would win it. The Los Angeles Times wrote: "Oscar voters seem to have been waiting for frogs to rain from the sky to give him an award." It's been 28 years between Anderson's first nomination, for writing Boogie Nights. That's a storied career.
BU Today: Turning to Best Actor, this is one of the most competitive categories this year. Who do you think will take home the statuette?
Young: Timothee Chalamet really, really wants an Oscar-and the film industry desperately needs movie stars who want to be movie stars. His ambition-to be remembered, to be seen as the best-fits like a glove for this Oscar-worthy role. He will win. Michael B. Jordan could be a surprise winner here if enough voters aren't ready to forevermore hear the phrase "Oscar winner Timothee Chalamet."
Danielpour: Michael B. Jordan for Sinners. Really, he played two characters. Second place: DiCaprio for One Battle. Third place, Chalamet. I think most people are voting for Chalamet to take the Oscar. The Jiminy Cricket character in my head says I should press for Chalamet because our very own Film and Television alum, Josh Safdie [COM'07], directed Marty Supreme.
BU Today: In the best actress category, Jessie Buckley is the front-runner. Will she win for her performance in Hamnet?
Young: There's no surer bet than Jessie Buckley. If she weren't in the running then Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value) would be the one having a triumphant day.
Danielpour: I agree, Buckley is the front-runner. I mean, did you see the birth scene?
BU Today: Who do you predict will win Best Supporting Actor?
Young: Stellan Skarsgard (Sentimental Value) should win. A giant voting bloc will cast their ballots for Sean Penn (One Battle After Another), who somehow succeeds in giving a sense of humanity to an extraordinary caricature.
Danielpour: Stellan Skarsgard will win, even though I hated him as a character. I'm wishing Jacob Elordi would win for Frankenstein or maybe Sean Penn. He was phenomenal. Pressed, let's say Sean Penn would be my choice.
BU Today: And Best Supporting Actress?
Young: Teyana Taylor is the star of the first 20 minutes of One Battle. She dominates-swaggers, then disappears. She's the contender. Amy Madigan, almost as memorable and more central in Weapons, is a potential spoiler.
Danielpour: Teyanna Taylor.
BU Today: Are there other categories you're going to be paying particular attention to Sunday night?
Young: I'm curious to see if The Perfect Neighbor-a captivating, yet bleak film-will win Best Documentary. In a world in which seemingly everything is recorded, I love the possibilities of found footage-police body cameras in this case-filmmaking.
Danielpour: Adapted Screenplay, because I'm interested in adaptations. I teach our MFA graduates their Adaptations course. I haven't read the source material for Bugonia, but have read the others and given that, would predict that Paul Thomas Anderson will win for One Battle After Another, even though I think Frankenstein should win.
BU Today: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences recently announced that starting in 2029, the annual Oscars telecast will move to YouTube. What did you make of the news? Is this likely to improve ratings for the ceremony, which last year was watched by 19.7 million people, less than half of what the broadcast used to attract.
Young: As a person who used to adjust TV antennae and marvel at the magic of broadcast television, I'm still grappling with the fact that it is infinitely easier to watch a show on YouTube than on network television. The move to YouTube will be a ratings booster.
Danielpour: Fewer people are watching broadcast or cable TV, especially Gen Z-ers. So the Academy will cash in on what will be a much larger viewing public if they can move to a free streaming platform. And they need to. Feature films are facing a crisis on many levels and this will help secure renewed interest.
The 98th Annual Academy Awards will be broadcast live from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 15, starting at 7 pm ET. The show will also stream live on Hulu, YouTubeTV, FuboTV, and AT&T TV. Find a complete list of this year's nominees here.
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