Time to get ready for your 2026 Oscar Pool

 

98th Annual Academy Awards, or better known as the OSCARS.

I had a little fun with AI today and asked it to dig up which of the 2026 Academy Award–nominated films have already snagged wins this past year. It delivered a pretty impressive roundup.

I also designed the ballot above if you want to follow along and mark your picks before the show kicks off. It’s my annual ritual — and this year, I’m running behind. I still have two films to watch today: Marty Supreme and Hamnet. Oscar prep is feeling more like a sprint than a celebration.

One thing I’ve noticed: this year’s nominees are steeped in darkness. Whether it’s a reflection of the world or just a tough year for Academy voters, the tone is heavy. Laughs are few and far between in the Best Picture lineup.

The film I absolutely adored was F1. It’s not getting the love it deserves, but I found it wildly entertaining and a feat of spectacular filmmaking. That said, I’ve got two more to go — so who knows, I might change my mind.

Frankenstein was a masterpiece. Somehow, it didn’t feel like a three-hour film. It was immersive, haunting, and beautifully paced.

BEST PICTURE

• Bugonia- A CEO gets kidnapped because some crazy guy thinks she is an alien

• F1- A so called has been Formula One race car driver is talked into returning to F1 racing

• Frankenstein- Its about a misunderstood Monster who is rejected

• Hamnet- the poetic loss of a couples 11-year old son

• Marty Supreme- a greedy table-tennis genius tries to make people believe in him

• One Battle After Another- About a bunch of crazy mercenaries

• The Secret Agent- this one was plain depressing

• Sentimental Value- a strained relationship with a father and his daughters

• Sinners- twins that get entangled in crimes and vampires

• Train Dreams- A sad man who lost everything who rides and builds train tracks

 MY PREDICTIONS

I think Michael B. Jordan will finally get the recognition he deserves. He’s incredibly talented, and playing twins is no easy feat. Sinners is poised to sweep a lot of categories.

Sean Penn is almost guaranteed to win for the absolutely unhinged character he plays in One Battle After Another. It’s one of those performances you can’t look away from.

Amy Madigan also delivers a wonderfully weird turn in Weapons, and it’s great to see someone with such a long career getting this kind of spotlight. She’s my pick to win.

Emma Stone was excellent, but Bugonia was... strange. Visually stunning, but narratively offbeat.

Sorry, Timothée — you kind of stuck your foot in your mouth this year, and I don’t think it’s Oscar time for you.

I think K-Pop Demon Hunters' song "Golden" will win Best Song because it's been stuck in my head and everywhere for a long time. It will also win for Animated Feature

A new addition this year is the Casting Award, and I think One Battle After Another stands out. I hated almost every character — except the daughter — but they were all brilliantly cast and acted. Still, how do you judge casting when you don’t know who the other options were?

🎬 2026 Oscar Nominees That Have Already Won Major Awards This Season

Below is a curated list of Oscar‑nominated films for 2026 that earned significant precursor awards—a strong indicator of industry recognition ahead of the Academy Awards.

🏆 1. One Battle After Another

Major wins this past year:

• Directors Guild of America (DGA) – Best Director (Paul Thomas Anderson)

• Producers Guild of America (PGA) – Best Picture equivalent

• BAFTA Awards – Multiple wins (including major categories)

• Critics’ Choice Awards – Multiple wins

• Golden Globes – Multiple wins

Oscar nominations: 13 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and acting categories.

🏆 2. Sinners

• Major wins this past year:

  • Swept several precursor awards, creating a late‑season surge

  • Strong critical and industry recognition across multiple guilds

  Oscar nominations: A record‑breaking 16 nominations, the most in Oscar history.

🏆 3. Marty Supreme

Major wins this past year:

• Earned high critical acclaim, including the highest Metacritic rating of 2025

Oscar nominations: Multiple, including Best Actor (Timothée Chalamet).

🏆 4. Frankenstein

Major wins this past year:

• Strong awards‑season presence with multiple nominations across major categories, indicating wins at earlier festivals and guilds

• Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and more.

• 🏆 5. Sentimental Value

• Major wins this past year:

  • Significant industry support and recognition across directing, writing, and acting categories

  Oscar nominations: Multiple, including acting and supporting categories.

⭐ Summary Table

Film	Major Awards Won This Season	Oscar Nominations (2026)
One Battle After Another	DGA, PGA, BAFTA, Critics’ Choice, Golden Globes	13 nominations
Sinners	Multiple precursor sweeps	16 nominations (record)
Marty Supreme	Highest Metacritic score of 2025	Multiple incl. Best Actor
Frankenstein	Strong festival/guild wins	Multiple incl. Best Picture
Sentimental Value	Broad industry recognition	Multiple incl. acting

And to Wrap Up.....

As always, half the fun of Oscar season is the build‑up: the predictions, the debates, the last‑minute screenings squeezed into an already chaotic week. Whether your ballot matches mine or veers wildly off in another direction, I hope you have a little fun with it. That’s really what this whole cinematic circus is about.

So grab your snacks, settle in, and let the glamour, chaos, and inevitable surprises of Oscar night unfold. I’ll be watching with my ballot in hand — and probably yelling at the screen at least once.

Here’s to great films, bold choices, and a night of gold‑foil sparkle.

Since my Blog is FILM, FOOD STUFF, here is a list of some Oscar snacks, I am bringing some to my Oscar Party tonight.

Oscar Party Food

• Get a big block of cheese and use a little star-shaped cookie cutter to cut out stars
• You can also cut stars out of Tortillas and bake them with spices on them.
• I saw a thing online for Punny Appetizers, and one was Leonardo DiCaprese, which I thought was funny.  You can make Caprese skewers.
• If you get Gold edible glitter, you can add it to some Sprite or some sort of clear beverage and have a Golden Sparkle beverage.
• Slice up some Star Fruit
• You can also cut stars out of vegetables like carrots, cucumbers, peppers, and even something like bologna for a Charcuterie or crudite platter
• Bake some sugar cookies or any regular cut-out cookie and cut into stars, then ice them with royal icing and sprinkle with gold sprinkles or glitter.
• A bit more work, but you can make a star-shaped pizza or Oscar statue breadsticks.  
• Cheesy popcorn and add the glitter too, it will be everywhere

Who knows,  get creative, have fun, and get comfy for all the monologues and speeches, and have fun with friends and family.  It makes it a lot more fun during the boring parts.

The President’s Cake -is a cake worth a life?

 

2025 - 1hr 45 min

Director- Hasan Hadi

Trailer

https://youtu.be/rYWdP4Um6MQ?si=YouNiVgNnaVi2j9o

The President's Cake was filmed in Iraq and draws on the director’s own childhood memories of growing up under the Saddam Hussein regime in the 1990s.

Within the first five minutes, I was completely drawn in by the stunning cinematography. It immerses you so deeply in the world of the film that you feel as though you’re right there beside the characters.

During the period in which the story takes place, Iraq was under UN‑backed sanctions, leading to extreme poverty and widespread food insecurity. Saddam Hussein required Iraqis to celebrate his birthday, and schoolchildren were selected to bring various items for the festivities.

Nine‑year‑old Lamia (Baneen Ahmed Hayyef) is told by her teacher that it is a great honour to be chosen to bake a birthday cake for the class. But failure could mean punishment. Lamia prays not to be chosen—she knows her family cannot afford the ingredients. She lives with her elderly grandmother, who is dying from diabetes, and they are considered peasants by the community.

Her grandmother decides to take her father’s heirloom watch and travel with Lamia—and her beloved pet rooster, Hindi—to the city to buy the ingredients. Secretly, the trip is also meant to place Lamia with a young couple, as her grandmother can no longer care for her.

While her grandmother and the woman speak privately in the back room of a restaurant, Lamia overhears their conversation about her future. Terrified, she grabs Hindi and runs. She ends up at an amusement park, where she finds her classmate and friend Sajad Mohamad Qasem (Waheed Thabet Khreibat), who is in the city pickpocketing to support his family.

Together, they embark on a chaotic journey to sell the watch and scrape together enough money—through bargaining, hustling, and a bit of mischief—to buy the ingredients for the cake. Meanwhile, Lamia’s grandmother, Bibi, collapses and is taken to the hospital by the taxi driver who brought them to the city. Before she dies, she sends him to find Lamia and bring her back.

By the time he reaches Lamia, her grandmother has passed away. They return to their village, where Lamia’s classmate’s mother teaches her how to bake the cake. She ultimately receives her teacher’s approval, and the journey of making the cake becomes a life‑altering experience for her.

This is a beautiful yet deeply sad story—full of heart, resilience, and a clear-eyed look at the impossible choices families must make under extreme poverty.

Of note, there should be a nomination for the Rooster Hindi.

The Alabama Solution-Inside the Prison system

 

THE ALABAMA SOLUTION

The Alabama Solution
Directed & Produced by Andrew Jarecki & Charlotte Kaufman

Academy Award® Nominee
Documentary Feature Film

Trailer: https://youtu.be/xRNND_uve8I?si=KgskxOpwkaTxmKyy

Website: Film - The Alabama Solution

Watch on HBO Max

2025 - 1hr 57 min.

The Alabama Solution is an upsetting but necessary documentary that you need to watch. What begins as a routine 2019 visit to an Alabama prison by filmmakers Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman turns into something far more pressing. Off camera, incarcerated men pull them aside and tell them terrible things are happening here, and no one on the outside is supposed to know. The secret warning turns into a six‑year investigation into one of the most horrifying and neglected prison systems in the United States.

The film’s strength comes from its unprecedented access and the raw footage captured on contraband cell phones. Through these recordings, the filmmakers uncover a suspicious and brutal death. This death is not the exception, as they soon find out. As they investigate, what emerges is a picture of a system of brutality, corruption, and institutional collapse.

The violence isn't sensationalized; instead, it reveals the everyday reality of people trapped inside a structure that doesn't care about them. The contrast between the state’s PR statements and the inmates’ lived experiences is striking.

What makes this film compelling is that, beyond the exposé, it centers the people who refuse to be ignored or erased. Despite the risks, incarcerated men organize, document, and speak out, building a grassroots campaign for survival and accountability. Their courage becomes the emotional core of the film, shifting it from a story of suffering to one of resistance.

This is not just a film about a broken prison system—it’s a film about the cost of indifference. It forces viewers to take a hard look at the human consequences of neglect and corruption, and it challenges the idea that what happens behind prison walls is somehow separate from the rest of society.

The Alabama Solution is a difficult watch, but an essential one. It exposes a hidden crisis with clarity, compassion, and urgency, giving voice to people who have been systematically silenced and forcing viewers to confront a reality that can no longer be ignored.

Participants:  Melvin Ray, Robert Earl Council, Ricardo Poole and Sandy Ray

ANDRE IS AN IDIOT or is he?

ANDRE IS AN IDIOT

Directed by Tony Benna

Produced by André Ricciardi
Tory Tunnell
Stelio Kitrilakis
Joshua Altman
Ben Cotner

Runtime: 88 minutes    Language: English

Instagram: @andreisanidiotfilm

Website: https://andre.ajointventure.com/

How do you make Cancer look funny?  You view it through Andre Ricciardi's eyes.

This is Andre Ricciardi's story, beginning after he received a Cancer diagnosis and looking back to the choices he made that led him to this life-altering news.

Andre’s career was in advertising, so he built a life around looking at things from odd angles to sell products. This time, though, he’s turning that lens on himself.

Andre’s best friend, Lee, suggested they get partner colonoscopies—an idea Andre immediately dismissed as weird. Lee went ahead on his own and got the all‑clear. Cut to a year later: Andre finally books his colonoscopy, expecting it to be routine so he can get on with his life. But life has a way of redirecting everything. He receives a colon cancer diagnosis and realizes that if he had listened to his friend a year earlier, he might have caught it at a much earlier stage. That’s when it hits him: he’d been an idiot.

Andre is eccentric, darkly funny, and a little warped in the best way. He collects random objects, reads voraciously, and is constantly filled with creative ideas. When he’s faced with his diagnosis, he decides to document his own decline—with Lee joining him on every ridiculous, heartfelt, and chaotic adventure along the way.

Andre's hair is almost a character in this story as you witness it go from crazy to normal to wtf?

This is the best film I’ve seen about what it’s actually like to go through terminal cancer because it’s both painfully real and genuinely hilarious. Andre is brutally honest and somehow manages to hold onto hope, even in the hardest moments.

He’s an oddball paired with a wonderfully normal, deeply supportive wife and family. His wife originally married him as a joke to get citizenship, but she stayed—and together they built a life that’s as unconventional as it is loving.

Cancer is everywhere these days, and stories like this matter. This film shows that even in the midst of treatment, fear, and uncertainty, it’s still possible to live fully, love deeply, and keep your relationships strong.

Release Date: March 6th in Theatres

Threshold-Resilience and Fragility

 THRESHOLD

Directed by: Lars Brinkema and Torsten Brinkema
Featuring: Olympic Gold medalist cross-country skier Jessie Diggins

Executive Producer: Torsten Brinkema, Patrick Dempsey
Producer: Mark Steele, Samantha Taylor

Music by: Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore

THRESHOLD follows Olympic gold medalist Jessie Diggins—the most decorated American cross‑country skier in history—as she confronts the struggle behind her perfect smile: an invisible eating disorder that begins to take over her life at the height of her career.

This feature documentary is not a traditional sports film. It’s an intimate, behind‑the‑scenes look at the pressure to be the best, the stigma surrounding eating disorders, and the long, nonlinear road to recovery. The access is so personal that you feel as though you’re standing inside her support circle, witnessing the emotional weight carried by Jessie and the people who care for her. The film exposes the complexity of a disorder that hides behind a polished façade yet remains widely misunderstood and underrepresented on screen.

Set over the course of a single peak season, THRESHOLD moves fluidly between past and present to uncover the roots of Jessie’s struggle. Present‑day footage with Jessie and the U.S. Ski Team is interwoven with formative moments from her early career, tracing her relentless pursuit of perfection—and the belief that controlling her body was essential to success.

As the season intensifies, the harder she pushes, the sicker she becomes. A serious injury forces Jessie to confront the ways she has been trying to control her life, and she must fight to regain her health if she hopes to continue competing in the sport she loves.

This is ultimately a story about the pursuit of perfection and the sacrifices made along the way. By revealing her vulnerability, Jessie offers a lifeline to others who face the same daily battle. Many people with this disorder suffer in silence; her story shows that relapse is not failure and that asking for help is an act of strength. Through the difficult work of recovery, she reclaims her health and her dreams, continuing in the sport she loves while advocating for mental health, athlete well‑being, and a more holistic culture within elite athletics.

Where to watch:  Peacock, Prime Video and Apple TV