The 2026 Oscars take place on Sunday, March 15th at 7:00 p.m. ET. It has been a great awards season so far, and all of the nominated directors are worthy of winning this award.
Here is a full breakdown of the Best Director category at the 2026 Oscars, including nominees, odds and a prediction for who will win.
Check out some of our other Oscars content here.
Find our predictions for other major 2026 Oscars categories here!
- Best Picture
- Best Actor
- Best Actress
- Best Supporting Actor
- Best Supporting Actress
- Best Original Screenplay
- Best Adapted Screenplay
2026 Oscars Best Director Nominees
Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another)
Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme)
Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value)
Ryan Coogler (Sinners)
Chloe Zhao (Hamnet)
2026 Best Director Oscars Odds
- Paul Thomas Anderson (-2500)
- Ryan Coogler (+800)
- Chloe Zhao (+1600)
- Josh Safdie (+3500)
- Joachim Trier (+4000)
Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook
Who will win Best Director at the 2026 Oscars?
Here are the five nominees for Best Director, ranked from most likely to least likely to win the Oscar.
Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another)
Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the great 21st-century filmmakers. However, he has never won an Academy Award, despite receiving 11 nominations in the past. It is shocking that PTA has never won an Oscar, when he has made some of the most impactful films of the past 30 years, including There Will Be Blood and Boogie Nights. Anderson has been more than worthy of winning multiple Oscars in the past, but One Battle After Another has a chance to be the crowning achievement of his career. The film has a great chance to win Best Picture, and Anderson is a heavy favorite to win Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. He could stack three Academy Awards in one night, after going 0/11 prior to this year.
Ryan Coogler (Sinners)
The only real competition for Paul Thomas Anderson is Ryan Coogler. Coogler has become one of the great filmmakers of this new generation. His debut feature, Fruitvale Station, was an incredible debut film and launched his relationship with Michael B. Jordan. The only knock on Coogler has been the amount of franchise work he has done with Creed and Black Panther. That is why Sinners is such a special film for Coogler. He proved that he can come up with an original idea, write the screenplay and shoot the movie with his own team. It was both a beautiful film and performed great at the box office, making a massive cultural impact. While it seems like PTA’s year, Coogler would be more than worthy to win this award.
Chloe Zhao (Hamnet)
Chloe Zhao is the only former Best Director winner to be nominated this year. Zhao became the second woman in history to win Best Director at the Oscars for Nomadland. Zhao now has her second nomination and has been honored throughout this awards cycle. She has not been able to beat out PTA and Coogler at most of the precursors, but Hamnet has won plenty of awards, including Best Picture- Drama at the Golden Globes.
Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme)
In his first film as a solo director, Josh Safdie is nominated for Best Director. That is a great feat, and Marty Supreme was as culturally important as any film that came out in 2025. However, Safdie has no real shot at winning this Oscar. This is a big step in his career, just to be a nominee, and all of Safdie’s films going forward will garner massive attention.
Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value)
While he won’t win, this nomination is also huge for Joachim Trier. It is very difficult to get a nomination for Best Director for a non-English language film. After his 2021 film, The Worst Person in the World, garnered massive acclaim, people were more ready for Sentimental Value. The additions of Stellan Skarsgard and Elle Fanning also helped American audiences gain interest in the film. Trier is now among this great class of filmmakers, where everything he makes is must-watch.
