Oscars 2026: Every Geeky Movie That Won

Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another dominated the 98th Academy Awards, claiming six trophies including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn, Best Film Editing, and Best Casting—the Academy’s newly introduced competitive category, the first added since Best Animated Feature in 2002. Away from that film’s sweep, Jessie Buckley took Best Actress for Hamnet, delivering a performance widely considered one of the more devastating acting turns of the awards season. These victories reinforced the Oscars’ traditions, as prestige drama from established auteurs remained the Academy’s preferred default at the top of the ballot.

Yet the 98th ceremony still distributed some awards to geeky movies outside the Best Picture race. The horror genre alone accounted for a historic share of the nominations, with Sinners rewriting the record books before the first award was handed out. Sinners wasn’t alone, as both Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and Zach Cregger’s Weapons also received multiple nominations. Finally, thanks to Netflix’s clever pivot towards theaters, 2026’s biggest hit, KPop Demon Hunters, was also able to participate in this year’s Oscars.

5) Avatar: Fire and Ash

James Cameron’s third Avatar film entered the ceremony with two nominations—Best Visual Effects and Best Costume Design—and won the former, with Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, and Daniel Barrett accepting the trophy. The victory means all three Cameron Avatar films have now won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, a clean franchise sweep unmatched by any other series in the category’s history. In addition, the win makes Avatar: Fire and Ash only the second film to claim the Visual Effects prize against multiple Best Picture nominees. Beyond the Oscars, Avatar: Fire and Ash‘s commercial performance confirmed the franchise’s financial dominance. The movie crossed $1.47 billion at the global box office, adding to a combined franchise total that surpasses $6 billion.

4) Frankenstein

Guillermo del Toro has described Mary Shelley’s novel as his personal bible, and the Netflix adaptation he spent the better part of two decades trying to make reflected that level of obsession. Frankenstein stars Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as the Creature, and del Toro’s dedication to visual excellence earned the film nine nominations across the technical categories, ultimately converting three of them into wins. The film’s Production Design trophies went to Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau, their first Oscar wins after a prior nomination for Nightmare Alley, while costume designer Kate Hawley secured her first win on her debut nomination. Finally, Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel, and Cliona Furey won the Makeup and Hairstyling award, also a first nomination for each. The $120 million Netflix production was praised for its lavish gothic sets and Elordi’s standout performance, and its three technical wins lifted del Toro’s career Oscar total to eleven.

3) Weapons

Zach Cregger’s Weapons arrived at the ceremony with a single nomination, but it got a win. Amy Madigan took home Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Aunt Gladys, a child-devouring witch who torments a small town in what became one of the most celebrated horror performances of the year. The broader success of Weapons extends well beyond Oscar night, as the film became one of the most profitable horror releases of 2025, and Cregger has publicly discussed a prequel centered on the Aunt Gladys character. Cregger’s film also opened the ceremony, as host Conan O’Brien parodied Madigan’s character in the show’s opening bit, acknowledging how far Weapons had become a pop culture hit.

2) KPop Demon Hunters

KPop Demon Hunters, produced by Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix, became the most culturally dominant entertainment product of 2025 before a single Oscar was handed out. It surpassed 500 million views on Netflix, becoming the most-watched original title in the platform’s history, and its soundtrack broke multiple Billboard records. At the ceremony, it won two awards: Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for “Golden.” Thanks to these trophies, co-director Maggie Kang and producer Michelle Wong became the first people of South Korean descent to win in the Animated Feature category, and Kang dedicated the award to Korea in a speech that drew a standing ovation. The Original Song victory for “Golden” added to Grammy and Golden Globe victories to complete a dominant sweep across every major awards body.

1) Sinners

The 16 nominations received by Sinners surpassed the previous record of 14 shared by All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land. Ryan Coogler’s vampire period film, set in the 1930s Mississippi Delta, converted four of those nominations into wins. The favorite Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor for his dual performance as twins Smoke and Stack, Coogler took Best Original Screenplay, Autumn Durald Arkapaw won Best Cinematography to become the first woman in history to claim that prize, and Ludwig Göransson won Best Original Score. The screenplay win made Coogler only the second Black writer to win in that category, after Jordan Peele for Get Out in 2018. Sinners ultimately lost Best Picture and Best Director to One Battle After Another, a result that unfortunately robbed us of a horror film claiming the top prize for the first time since The Silence of the Lambs in 1992. That loss aside, four wins from a record-breaking 16 nominations remains the most significant single-night achievement by a genre film in Academy history.

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Oscars 2026: Every Best Picture Nominee, Ranked From Worst to Best