The 98th Academy Awards, known as the Oscars, will celebrate some of the top films released in 2025 on Sunday.
The ceremony will take place in Los Angeles with actors, directors and filmmakers from around the world competing for Hollywood’s most prestigious prizes.
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But this year’s ceremony comes at a time of global tension, with the ongoing war in Iran serving as a sombre backdrop to Hollywood’s annual celebration.
“My job is always to try to walk a very thin line between entertaining people and also acknowledging some of the realities,” host Conan O’Brien said during a Wednesday news conference with the Oscars creative team.
Here is what we know about the upcoming ceremony:
Where will the Oscars be held?
The 98th Academy Awards will take place at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles on March 15.
The ceremony will start at 4pm West Coast time in the United States (23:00 GMT), with official red carpet coverage beginning at 3:30pm (22:30 GMT).
Where can I watch the ceremony?
The 2026 Oscars will be broadcast in the US on the TV channel ABC. Viewers with a cable subscription can also watch online by signing in through the ABC app or ABC.com.
The ceremony will also be streamed live on the video platform Hulu.
Those without traditional cable can access the broadcast through live TV streaming services that carry ABC, including Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, AT&T TV and FuboTV.
But the Oscars’ ties with ABC may soon be at an end. Last year, the Academy announced that, beginning in 2029, the Oscars will sever its decades-long relationship with ABC and stream exclusively on YouTube.
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The shift to an online-only platform is a big shake-up for the Academy Awards, ending a tradition more than half a century old.
ABC began broadcasting the Oscars in 1976, and before that, it aired on a rival channel, NBC, starting in 1953.
Who is hosting the Academy Awards?
O’Brien is hosting the 98th Academy Awards, marking his second consecutive year emceeing the ceremony.
“This year, I know where the doughnuts are. I know my way around a little bit, and so, I think that’s going to be fun,” Conan said.
In remarks this week, the comedian explained he believes the key to success on the Oscar stage is having a good time and staying in the moment.
He added that he and his writing team are still refining the material ahead of the show, to keep it as current as possible.
“What’s happening in the world will be reflected in the show,” he said.
How can I watch the red carpet?
The Oscars red carpet is broadcast several hours before the ceremony, as filmmakers and other celebrities arrive for the ceremony.
The red carpet has long served as a stage for Hollywood’s best fashions, and actors often pause for interviews with social media and television hosts to discuss the awards and what they’re wearing.
Several shows will broadcast from the red carpet:
- The official Oscars red carpet (“On the Red Carpet at the Oscars”): 20:30 GMT, hosted by Tamron Hall and Jesse Palmer
- Streaming services: Viewers without cable can watch through platforms that carry ABC, including Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, fuboTV and Sling TV.
- E! Live from the Red Carpet: 21:00 GMT
- Streaming services: The E! network will carry the live coverage, as will the streaming platform Peacock and live TV service providers like Roku, Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV and more.
British comedian Amelia Dimoldenberg also returns for the third year as the official Oscars social media correspondent.
Who is presenting?
As is tradition, last year’s acting winners will return to present awards at the ceremony. They include Adrien Brody (The Brutalist), Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain), Mikey Madison (Anora) and Zoe Saldana (Emilia Perez).
They will be joined by a wide range of actors and filmmakers presenting throughout the night, including Javier Bardem, Chris Evans, Chase Infiniti, Demi Moore, Kumail Nanjiani, Maya Rudolph, Will Arnett, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Robert Downey Jr, Anne Hathaway, Paul Mescal, Gwyneth Paltrow, Rose Byrne, Nicole Kidman, Jimmy Kimmel, Delroy Lindo, Ewan McGregor, Wagner Moura, Pedro Pascal, Bill Pullman, Lewis Pullman, Channing Tatum and Sigourney Weaver.
Who is performing at the Oscars?
This year’s show will feature two musical performances tied to the Best Original Song nominees.
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Rei Ami, EJAE and Audrey Nuna are set to perform the hit single Golden from the animated film KPop Demon Hunters, and actor Miles Caton will reprise the song he sang in the movie Sinners, called I Lied to You, alongside songwriter Raphael Saadiq.
Like the film itself, the Sinners musical performance at the Oscars will serve as a tribute to Black artistry across generations and genres.
As such, it will include an array of artists, from ballerina Misty Copeland to rocker Brittany Howard to blues and jazz musicians like Eric Gales, Bobby Rush and Alice Smith, among others.
What movies have the most nominations?
Sinners is the most-nominated film in Academy Award history with 16 nominations.
That tally broke the previous record of 14 nominations, which was held by three films: All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997) and La La Land (2016).
Ryan Coogler’s feature mixes supernatural horror, romance and blues culture. Set in 1932 Clarksdale, Mississippi, the story centres on a community opening a juke joint that soon finds itself under siege by vampires.
“I wrote this script for my uncle who passed away 11 years ago,” Ryan Coogler said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I got to imagine that he’s listening to some blues music right now to celebrate.”
One Battle After Another follows with 13 nods at this year’s Oscars, while Frankenstein, Marty Supreme and Sentimental Value each secured nine nominations.
The Academy also continued its tilt towards international films with this year’s lineup of nominees. Every major acting category, for instance, included at least one international nominee.
Is there any Arab representation at this year’s Oscars?
Arab cinema had a strong presence during the awards season. Several films from the region were shortlisted for Best International Feature Film, including:
- The Voice of Hind Rajab (Tunisia)
- Palestine 36 (Palestine)
- All That’s Left of You (Jordan)
- The President’s Cake (Iraq)
One of them, The Voice of Hind Rajab, ultimately secured an Oscar nomination, marking a significant moment for Arab cinema.
What is the Voice of Hind Rajab?
The Voice of Hind Rajab is a 2025 docudrama directed by Kaouther Ben Hania.
It dramatises the final hours in the life of five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in 2024. But the film weaves in real-life recordings of Rajab’s desperate phone calls to emergency personnel from the Red Crescent group.
“The arrival of Hind Rajab’s voice to these platforms — and its ability to break through the indifference that exists there — is in itself something extremely valuable,” Gaza-based filmmaker Mohammed al-Sawwaf told Al Jazeera’s journalist Maram Humaid.
To al-Sawwaf, the film’s Oscar nomination means that Rajab’s death is no longer a passing news item or a single tally in a growing death toll. It is a cultural event, a memorial that forces viewers to confront the horrors facing Gaza’s young children.
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“A story of a human being from Gaza has been presented as the story of a person with a life and meaning, rather than the image of a Palestinian appearing as a number on news screens,” he said.
“Palestinians have tried for many years to tell their stories and to be visible, but they were often met with rejection, doubt, or barriers placed in front of them.”
Al-Sawwaf believes Hind Rajab’s story can help illuminate the humanitarian crisis facing thousands of other Palestinians suffering in Gaza.
“A story like Hind Rajab’s represents a symbol of thousands of other stories,” he said. “There are thousands of women and men who had full lives, details, and dreams that are no less human than hers.”
Why was an Iranian film submitted by France?
It Was Just an Accident, directed by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, is also among the nominees on Sunday night, competing in two categories: Best International Film and Best Original Screenplay.
Though It Was Just an Accident was a co-production from several countries, France ultimately submitted the film as its entry in the Best International Feature competition.
Panahi’s work is often critical of the Iranian government, and in the past, he faced prison time and a ban on his filmmaking as a result. It was not considered as Iran’s entry.
France instead has championed the film as evidence that the country is a safe haven for “singular and courageous cinema”.
But Panahi said his thoughts remain focused on those back home in Iran.
“I am constantly thinking about them,” he told Bloomberg from New York, four days after the US and Israel launched their offensive against Iran.
Panahi shot the film clandestinely in Iran without government approval.
What are the best picture nominees?
Ten films are in competition in the Best Picture category:
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- Bugonia: A science-fiction story about two men who kidnap a powerful executive, believing she is an alien threatening Earth.
- F1: A sports drama starring Brad Pitt as a veteran Formula One driver who returns to racing to mentor a promising young teammate.
- Frankenstein: Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel, following scientist Victor Frankenstein and the tragic creature he brings to life.
- Hamnet: A historical drama focusing on the grief of Agnes and William Shakespeare following the death of their 11-year-old son, Hamnet.
- Marty Supreme: A sports drama starring Timothee Chalamet as an ambitious table tennis player determined to prove he is the greatest at his sport.
- One Battle After Another: A dark action-comedy directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, following a father and daughter on the run from a racist military leader intent on tracking them down.
- The Secret Agent: A political thriller about a widowed college professor on the run from a vengeful government minister during Brazil’s dictatorship in the 1970s.
- Sentimental Value: A drama exploring grief, memory and complicated relationships in a family of artists in modern-day Oslo.
- Sinners: A supernatural thriller about twin brothers who return to their hometown to found a juke joint, only to be confronted by past relationships, racism and a gang of vampires.
<li”>Train Dreams: A portrait of a railroad worker on the Idaho frontier at the start of the 20th century, questioning whether his past decisions may have doomed him to a life of heartbreak.
- Chloe Zhao for Hamnet
- Josh Safdie for Marty Supreme
- Paul Thomas Anderson for One Battle After Another
- Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value
- Ryan Coogler for Sinners
Who are the nominees for best actor?
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- Timothee Chalamet for Marty Supreme
- Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another
- Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon
- Michael B Jordan for Sinners
- Wagner Moura for The Secret Agent
Who are the nominees for Best Actress?
- Jessie Buckley for Hamnet
- Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
- Kate Hudson for Song Sung Blue
- Renate Reinsve for Sentimental Value
- Emma Stone for Bugonia
What are the biggest surprises and snubs?
This year’s nominations included several unexpected picks and notable omissions.
Among the biggest surprises was Delroy Lindo’s first-ever Oscar nomination for his supporting role in Sinners, a recognition many felt was long overdue.
“The best part of this process has been that people are so genuinely happy for me,” Lindo, 73, told The New York Times.
“It’s not an ego thing. It’s nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with affirmation.”
Another unexpected nod came in the Best Picture category for the racing drama F1, an action-packed summer blockbuster.
In an interview with the racing tournament Formula 1, director Joseph Kosinski explained that the team created an entirely new filming system to capture the kind of visuals he had imagined.
“We had to develop a new camera system, taking everything we learned on Top Gun: Maverick and pushing it much further,” Kosinski said.
Actress Kate Hudson was also a surprise in the highly competitive Best Actress category, earning her first Oscar nod in 25 years for the musical drama Song Sung Blue.
She said the film offered a rare opportunity to portray a mature female character with depth and ambition. Her role is based on the real-life story of Claire Sardina, who performed as part of a Neil Diamond cover band.
“I got to play the comedy, some sense of humour. I got to play the love story, the desire. I got to play being a mother, and then I got to go into a place of where my life force is taken out of me,” Hudson said in an interview with NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
Among the most notable snubs was the sequel Wicked: For Good, which received no nominations amid mixed reviews. The first Wicked film earned a whopping 10 nominations last year, winning two Oscars, for Best Costumes and Best Production Design.
Actor Paul Mescal also missed out on a nomination for his performance as William Shakespeare in Hamnet, while director Guillermo del Toro was overlooked in the Best Director category for Frankenstein.
Other notable omissions included Chase Infiniti (One Battle After Another) and Jesse Plemons (Bugonia).
What are the predictions for the winners?
For months, One Battle After Another was considered the clear favourite for Best Picture and Best Director. But in the final stretch of the awards season, the competition has tightened, with Sinners gaining momentum.
Jessie Buckley is widely expected to win Best Actress for Hamnet. Michael B Jordan, meanwhile, is predicted to win Best Actor for Sinners, overtaking stiff competition from Timothee Chalamet, star of the film Marty Supreme.
In the supporting actor categories, Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another) is considered a strong contender for Best Supporting Actress, and Sean Penn (One Battle After Another) is favoured for Best Supporting Actor.
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