‘Sinners’ and ‘One Battle After Another’ poised for an all-Warner Bros. showdown at Academy Awards

6 hours ago

Associated Press,

Academy Awards host Conan O’Brien poses atop a roll of red carpet during the annual Oscars red carpet roll out on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

NEW YORK (AP) — Hollywood will convene Sunday night for a nail-biter Academy Awards that’s steering toward a coronation for either Paul Thomas Anderson or Ryan Coogler. Most would call that a win-win.

Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” is the favorite heading into the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. But Coogler’s “Sinners” comes in the lead nominee with a record 16 nominations. Both filmmakers are poised to leave with their first Oscar.

But little else is assured at an Academy Awards where Michael B. Jordan or Timothée Chalamet (despite the ballet diss heard ‘round the world) could win their first Academy Award in a too-close-to-call best actor race.

How to watch and stream the Oscars and red carpet

The telecast will air live on ABC and stream on Hulu beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern. (YouTube will be the new home of the Oscars beginning in 2029.) The official red carpet preshow begins on ABC and Hulu at 6:30 p.m. EDT, while E! will kick off its red-carpet broadcast at 4 p.m.

The Associated Press will have a livestream of fashion arrivals from noon to 3:30 p.m. Pacific on APNews.com and YouTube.

What to expect from the 2026 Oscars

Conan O’Brien is returning as host for the second year in a row. Despite the war in Iran and expanding geopolitical turmoil, O’Brien has pledged an entertaining show in the mold of hosts like Bob Hope and Johnny Carson. “Let’s have fun with it, is my attitude,” O’Brien told reporters earlier in the week.

Still, the already high security will be even greater this year at an Oscars, taking place two weeks after the United States and President Donald Trump launched the war with Iran.

“Of course, every year we monitor what’s going on in the world,” Raj Kapoor, executive producer of the show, said earlier in the week. “We have the support of the FBI and the LAPD, and it’s a close collaboration.”

Two of the five best song nominees will be performed: “I Lied to You,” from “Sinners,” with Miles Caton, Raphael Saadiq and others; and “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters.”

Theatrical looks to best streaming, again

“KPop Demon Hunters,” a Sony Pictures production that was sold to Netflix, was the most-watched movie of 2025. (It has 325 million views and counting, making it Netflix’s most-streamed movie ever.) But it seems all but certain that the night’s final award won’t go to a streaming release; Apple’s “CODA” remains the only to achieve that. Instead best picture is likely to go to an anomaly in today’s movie industry: big-budget original films from a personal vision.

“Sinners” and “One Battle After Another” were both theatrical releases shot on film. And both came from Warner Bros., the legacy studio that’s agreed to merge with David Ellison’s new media colossus, Paramount Skydance. The $111 billion deal, which awaits regulatory approval, has rattled an industry already reconciling itself to the acquisitions of MGM (by Amazon) and 20th Century Fox (by The Walt Disney Co.).

Elegy may mark Sunday’s Oscars. The in memoriam segment is expected to include, among many others, remembrances of Robert Redford, Diane Keaton and Robert Duvall. O’Brien, who had hosted a party attended by Rob and Michele Reiner the night before their deaths, has promised a “very powerful” tribute.

New this year is a best casting category. Another innovation is a requirement that Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members watch all nominees before voting. On the academy’s streaming platform — even Oscar voting is streamed — voters had to check a box attesting to having watched each nominee before voting in a category.

Few sure things in the acting categories

Whether those changes will have any effect on some of the night’s closest races remains to be seen. Coming into the show, best actor is one of the most hard-to-call categories. Chalamet had been seen as the front-runner for his performance in “Marty Supreme.” But a swaggering meta campaign, that drew headlines, of all things, a perceived slight of ballet and opera, may have helped put Jordan into the lead. (In Chalamet’s favor, the uproar only started as voting was ending.)

While Jessie Buckley (“Hamnet”) is widely expecting to win best actress, a first for Irish performers, the supporting categories are highly competitive. Amy Madigan (“Weapons”) is the slight favorite in best supporting actress, but Teyana Taylor (“One Battle After Another”) and Wunmi Mosaku (“Sinners”) are in the mix, too.

Despite almost no campaigning, Penn is viewed as the best supporting actor favorite. That award, could easily also go to Stellan Skarsgård (“Sentimental Value”) or Delroy Lindo (“Sinners”).

Though the Oscars often feel largely removed from their times, a crop of nominees that explicitly grapple with the current political moment will be center stage. That includes not just “One Battle After Another,” which opens with a raid on an immigration detention facility, but movies like Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Brazilian political thriller “The Secret Agent” and Jafar Panahi’s Iranian revenge drama “It Was Just an Accident.”

The war in Iran has particular meaning to Panahi, whose film is nominated for best international feature and for best screenplay. The esteemed Iranian filmmaker and last year’s Palme d’Or winner has made films clandestinely in his native Iran despite repeated imprisonment, travel ban and even home arrest. While promoting the film, Panahi was sentenced to a year in prison. At least one of his cowriter nominees, Mehdi Mahmoudian, was unable to leave Iran to attend Sunday’s awards.

Twenty three years ago, the Academy Awards were also held amid war in the Middle East. The 2003 Oscars took place just three days before the Iraq War began. Many in Hollywood protested the war. “Chicago” won best picture.