The 2026 Oscar nominations are officially out, narrowing the field for who could take home hardware at the 98th Academy Awards. The show will air live from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 15. One of the more anticipated races will be for Best Actor, which is very much up for grabs. Here’s a breakdown of who made the cut in the Best Actor category.
Check out our coverage of other Oscar nominations here:
- Best Picture
- Best Actress
- Best Supporting Actor
- Best Supporting Actress
- Best Director
- Best Original Screenplay
2026 Oscars Best Actor Nominees
Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme)
Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another)
Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent)
Michael B. Jordan (Sinners)
Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon)
All five of the Oscar nominees were also nominated at the Golden Globes, although that awards show splits the lead acting and best picture categories between Drama and Musical/Comedy. Moura won for Drama, while Chalamet won for Musical/Comedy. Chalamet, DiCaprio, Moura, Jordan, Hawke and Joel Edgerton were the nominees for the Critics Choice Awards, with Chalamet coming out on top in that race. Chalamet, DiCaprio, Moura, Jordan and Jesse Plemons are the five nominees at the SAG-AFTRA Actor Awards.
The Oscars have tended to overlook younger stars for Best Actor, with the honor usually going to more established veterans. Chalamet couldn’t pull it out against Adrien Brody last year, while Austin Butler lost to Brendan Fraser in 2023. Back in 2021, Sir Anthony Hopkins beat out Chadwick Boseman, Riz Ahmed and Steven Yeun. And yet, Chalamet just turned 30 years old, so he would no longer be the youngest Best Actor winner ever. Richard Dreyfuss was 30 when he won for The Goodbye Girl in 1978, as was Marlon Brando when he won for On the Waterfront in 1955. Nicholas Cage, Jimmy Stewart and Daniel Day-Lewis were all 32 when they won their first Oscars, while Eddie Redmayne was 33. Chalamet’s stiffest competition is DiCaprio, who has a long history of coming up short at the Oscars. He was also somewhat overshadowed by his co-stars in One Battle After Another, compared to how central Chalamet is to virtually every scene of Marty Supreme. Moura, meanwhile, is a serious dark horse with a potentially massive international support base, especially with The Secret Agent nabbing a surprise Best Picture nomination.
Per DraftKings Sportsbook, Chalamet is the favorite with -500 odds. DiCaprio is running in second at +550, followed by Moura at +800, Jordan at +1600 and Hawke at +2500.
