The Academy has selected the top 10 outstanding films of the past year.
On March 15, the 2026 Academy Awards for Best Picture will be presented to the project that best embraces on-screen representation, creative leadership, industry access and audience development. Celebrating an impressively diverse plethora of films – from heartfelt dramas and gut-wrenching blockbusters to genre-bending triumphs – the high-stakes, top-tier Oscar trophy could go to any of the acclaimed nominees.
Read on for the Daily Bruin’s provoking predictions for the Best Picture Academy Award winner.
“F1: The Movie” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
“F1: The Movie” is on track to receive the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Released June 27 by Apple Original Films, “F1: The Movie” stars Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem and Damson Idris as they work together to revitalize a Formula 1 team on the brink of collapse. The film follows two drivers – one a retired “racer-for-hire,” Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), and the other a young budding driver, Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) – as they compete for their last chance at saving Ruben Cervantes’s (Javier Bardem) team. The leads complement each other well, with industry veterans Pitt and Bardem bringing charisma and emotional depth to their performances, and Idris contrasting them with an inexperienced, youthful persona. The film has been nominated for four Academy Awards and received seven nominations and two wins at the 31st Annual Critics’ Choice Awards, along with two Golden Globe nominations.
“F1: The Movie” appeals to both die-hard Formula 1 fans and movie-goers alike – staying true to the sport’s energy by filming at real Formula 1 races throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Ferrari driver and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton produced the film, alongside director Joseph Kosinski, who is known for directing “Top Gun: Maverick” in 2022. For this project, Kosinski collaborated closely with Sony to develop a camera system capable of being mounted to a race car driving at performance speeds, drawing on his experience of filming fighter jets in action for “Top Gun: Maverick.” He also prioritized an authentic sound design, joining forces with Skywalker Sound and production sound mixer Gareth John to strategically place microphones around the cars and throughout the race stadiums to give audiences the feel of a race.
With standout performances and a unique creative approach, “F1: The Movie” will cross the Oscars finish line Sunday and take home the gold.
– Kai Echeverria
“Hamnet” (Focus Features)
An Oscars snub for “Hamnet” would be a Shakespearean tragedy.
Chloé Zhao’s most recent feature film stars Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal as Agnes and William Shakespeare in 16th-century England, respectively. Buckley and Mescal deftly portray grieving parents, as the pair struggles with the death of their son Hamnet to the plague. While Agnes raises their surviving children, William pens his masterpiece, “Hamlet.” Following a theatrical release Dec. 5, Zhao’s film has gone on to receive both cultural and critical acclaim. “Hamnet,” with its emotional resonance and cinematic excellence, is nominated for eight Academy Awards and six Golden Globes.
The film is based on Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 historical fiction novel of the same name. Inspired by the real-life story about Shakespeare’s loss of his 11-year-old son, and the publication of his “Hamlet” only a handful of years later, O’Farrell combined imagination and academic research into her National Book Critics Circle Award-winning book. Collaborating with O’Farrell in screenwriting, Zhao’s directorial vision elevates the original text to heartbreaking heights. While all leads deliver stunning performances, Buckley’s is the clear standout – her raw and visceral depiction of maternal grief and anguish provides a through-line of the film’s poignant exploration of loss. Breathtaking acting is paired with gorgeous cinematography and color grading, as Zhao effectively transports the audience back hundreds of years in time. “Hamnet” is a film unrivaled in moving performance and technical mastery by its fellow nominees.
Harrowing and haunting in equal measure, “Hamnet” is a standout choice for the Academy this March.
– Julia Kinion
[Related: Film review: Pick your battles, including this one – “One Battle After Another’ is a lively romp]
“One Battle After Another” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Sometimes the film that wins Best Picture is not the film that most deserves it. This year, that distinction likely belongs to “One Battle After Another.”
By almost every measurable industry indicator, Paul Thomas Anderson’s sprawling political thriller has the inside track to take home the top prize at the 2026 Academy Awards on Sunday, March 15. The film – starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro – follows a group of aging revolutionaries forced back into action when an old enemy resurfaces and kidnaps one of their daughters, a premise Anderson renders with restless style and epic ambition. Throughout awards season, “One Battle After Another” has steadily accumulated the honors that traditionally forecast a Best Picture win. Its victory at the Producers Guild Awards – historically one of the strongest predictors of the Academy’s top prize – solidified its status as the industry favorite, especially given the overlap between the guild’s preferential ballot system and the Oscars’ own voting method. Even in a crowded field, the film’s momentum has proved difficult to slow.
And yet, the likely winner is not the most remarkable film in the race. That honor arguably belongs to “Sinners,” the electrifying genre epic from Ryan Coogler that blends blues mythology, Black Southern history and supernatural horror into a singular cinematic vision. The film has already made history with a record-breaking sixteen Academy Award nominations – more than any film before it – and has been celebrated for its audacity, cultural resonance and emotional sweep. Yet Oscars history has often favored the film with the broadest industry consensus rather than the boldest artistic leap. “One Battle After Another” fits this pattern perfectly: a large-scale studio production anchored by major stars and a revered auteur who, despite more than a decade of nominations, has yet to win the Academy’s top prize. Rewarding Anderson now would feel less like a discovery than a long-awaited coronation.
Such a dynamic – career recognition, guild momentum and widespread but measured admiration – is precisely what makes “One Battle After Another” the most probable Best Picture winner this year. It may not be the film that defines the cinematic moment, but it is the one most likely to collect the most Academy votes.
When the envelope opens March 15, “One Battle After Another” will collect its spoils, even if the year’s most daring film watches from the trenches.
– Eleanor Meyers
“Sentimental Value” (Neon)
There is more value than just the sentimental in “Sentimental Value” winning Best Picture.
Danish-Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier’s seventh feature film racked up nine nominations for this year’s Academy Awards, including one for Best Picture. The nods are not just recognition for the film’s incredible production, performances, screenplay and editing – they are also a testament to the momentum this Norwegian film has harnessed since it took home the coveted Grand Prix prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Featuring a cast of stellar performances, all of which are nominated this year as well, “Sentimental Value” is a thoughtful, weaving epic exploring generational trauma, self-discovery and the convergence of one’s art and life. It is a tender story of what it means to be human and part of a family, one that is simultaneously timely and timeless. Told with a wit and affection that will carry “Sentimental Value” through for generations, it is arguably the best picture of this year, and one of the best films of the past decade.
“Sentimental Value” follows sisters Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) as they navigate their relationship with their estranged director father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård) after their mother’s death, as he directs a film, casting American actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) as his protagonist – a role initially meant for Nora. This meta-cinematic premise becomes proof of the film’s audacity and control: Trier orchestrates performance and confession with such precision that every scene feels both intimate and monumental. Few contenders this year balance formal ambition with emotional clarity so seamlessly – or trust audiences to sit with discomfort and contradiction. The result is a work that expands the scope of what a Best Picture winner can be – international, literate, formally daring and deeply felt.
If the Academy hopes to reward filmmaking at its most rigorous and resonant, the choice is clear.
– Abby Shewmaker
[Related: Film review: ‘Blue Moon’ composes focused, emphathetic biopic on legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart]
“Sinners” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Since vampires do not mess with silver, “Sinners” is sure to take home gold.
Director, writer and producer Ryan Coogler’s film hit theaters April 3, a fairly early release for awards consideration. This, along with its categorization as a horror movie, may indicate to many long-time Oscar fans that the film will be automatically discounted, but “Sinners” is simply too holistically excellent to be anything less than an exception.
The film follows twin brothers, Smoke and Stack – both played by Michael B. Jordan – and their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) over the course of one day as they prepare for the opening night of their juke joint. The racial setbacks of 1932 Mississippi are not all the characters face, though, as the villainous Irish vampire, Remmick (Jack O’Connell) comes for Sammie’s musical talents. Between the compelling story, powerful performances, complex characters, incredible soundtrack and a deep trust in its audience with its cinematography and writing, “Sinners” has all the elements of a Best Picture winner.
While there has only been one prior horror film to win best picture – “The Silence of the Lambs” in 1992, which was another early-season movie release – the use of the genre in “Sinners” is both politically relevant and a new staple for vampire pictures. Coogler’s work is also far from the typical frightening works of its kind, landing somewhere closer to a thriller than a traditional horror movie. The film can be equally enjoyed by die-hard horror fans or viewers completely new to the genre, making it a perfect pick for Best Picture.
It is certainly time for the Academy Awards to honor another horror film, and “Sinners” is the perfect choice.
– Caitlin Brockenbrow
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