Oscars 2026: Sinners to Sentimental Value - Our critics on the films up for Best Picture

Dan Morris takes a look at Sinners, Train Dreams, Sentimental Value, Bugonia and One Battle After Another:

Could this be the year when my boy Leo finally picks up that much-deserved second gong? 

Lauded black comedy One Battle After Another exploded onto the silver screen last September and saw Leonardo DiCaprio give a typically excellent turn in an emotionally complex role.

Starring an ensemble cast also including Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn, this tale of an ex-revolutionary forced back into his former combative lifestyle was nothing less than a five-star masterpiece and has justly garnered an impressive total of 13 noms at tomorrow night’s awards.

Will it take the big one? Not usually the type of flick that walks away with Best Picture, but I do have high hopes that DiCaprio will claim the Best Actor prize - an honour he has only received once before when he should have done so at least a billion times by now.

Hot on his heels however is Michael B. Jordan for his dual performance in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners.

This flick has already made Academy history with a record 16 Oscar noms, and is certainly the one to beat this weekend.

Again universally praised by critics, this wonderful mash-up of vampire yarn and Jim Crow commentary represents Coogler’s finest work to date, and it could well be time for him to lift the Best Picture gong having missed out a few years ago with Judas and the Black Messiah. And if Leo is denied the Best Actor statuette, Jordan would be a more than worthy recipient.

Flying the flag for Norway this year is the impressive Sentimental Value, which has garnered nine noms in total including a nod for the big one.

Starring top-drawer talent in the form of Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Marvel alumnus Stellan Skarsgård, this one tells the tale of an emotional and troubled reunion of two sisters with their estranged father.

Being much more, shall we say, the type of flick that the Academy would typically honour with the top prize, this one is a strong contender for Best Pic, and it would be a deserving winner. 

I would rather see either of the above take the top gong home, but there have certainly been worse results than the likes of Sentimental Value doing so.

Joining Sinners in flying the period piece flag - though, admittedly, without the fangs - is star-spangled drama Train Dreams.

For me, this one snuck in under the woodwork with one of the most impressive ensemble casts ever put together and was a shining-light release of 2025.

With Joel Edgerton and Felicity Jones front-and-centre, the talents of Will Patton, Kerry Condon and William H. Macy are used to full effect in a story of love, loss and logging.

Possessing more shades of The Revenant than DiCaprio’s latest offering does, Train Dreams falls more into line with traditional ‘Oscar bait’ than One Battle After Another, and may therefore stand a better chance of lifting Best Picture.

Edgerton and Jones’ chemistry alone would merit such a result. 

An outside runner that also showcases leading lad and lady chemistry by the boatload, however, is Bugonia.

A bizarre-yet-brilliant bit of black comedy by Yorgos Lanthimos, this one puts Oscars queen Emma Stone opposite the eerie talent of Jesse Plemons in a strange-yet-spellbinding alien conspiracy yarn.

Already having bagged two Best Actress gongs during her short and sensational career, Stone is up for another here and stands a very good chance of claiming it. Her last was for another collaboration with Lanthimos - 2023’s Poor Things. If it’s not broken, why fix it?

Plemons was nominated for Best Supporting Actor with The Power of the Dog, and has collaborated with both Stone and Lanthimos together before with Kinds of Kindness.

With Bugonia, this triumvirate has produced peak work, and the Best Picture gong could well be within its grasp. 

Carl Jones on Hamnet, The Secret Agent, F1, Frankenstein and Marty Supreme:

I’ll admit I wasn’t much looking forward to Hamnet, quietly fearing it would turn out to be one of those reverential literary adaptations that mistakes slow pace for emotional depth. How wrong was I?

Shot not too many miles from the south Shropshire border, in the beautiful black and white timbered village of Weobley, it moves with a kind of dreamy logic — half memory, half mourning — as Shakespeare’s wife navigates the unbearable loss of her son while the world insists on carrying on.

It’s intimate, moving, and at times really raw, and the brilliant Jessie Buckley deserves her place as front‑runner for the Best Actress Oscar. I’ve loved her on screen ever since her irreverent turn in Wild Rose.

This is exactly the sort of film that Academy voters like to pretend they discovered, so I’m sure it won’t be going home empty‑handed.

Changing gear, we come to F1, which couldn’t be further from the candlelit melancholy of Tudor England. This thing moves. From the moment the engines start snarling, you feel it in your ribcage — like Top Gun on terra firma.

But what surprised me most wasn’t the spectacle; it was the emotional torque. Beneath the helmets and the telemetry is a story about obsession, sacrifice, and the kind of tunnel vision that burns through relationships like rubber on asphalt.

It’s slick, muscular filmmaking, and while it may not sweep the Oscars, it surely has a great chance of hoovering up the technical categories.

The Secret Agent was my biggest curveball. I went in expecting a straight espionage thriller — something taut and shadowy. What I got instead was a slow‑burn psychological study set in 1970s Brazil, wrapped in a cloak‑and‑dagger shell.

It’s all paranoia, moral stench, and the creeping dread of watching someone unravel from the inside out. The performances are immaculate, and the tone is deliberately chilly. It’s one of those films you’ll probably admire more than you enjoy, if you know what I mean.

The Oscar for original screenplay certainly wouldn’t go to Frankenstein, because this is a story that has been told in over 400 film adaptations.

So what makes Guillermo del Toro’s retread a cut above? This gothic reimagining of Mary Shelley’s novel is a bold, almost operatic production — part fever dream, part philosophical provocation.

The film asks big, uncomfortable questions about creation, responsibility, and the arrogance of playing god, and Jacob Elordi is mesmerising as the monster.

Like several of del Toro’s pieces, the film has divided audiences straight down the middle, but the craft on display here is undeniable.

Last but certainly not least, we come to Marty Supreme, the wildcard that’s been quietly gathering momentum like a cult favourite suddenly finding itself in the mainstream.

On paper, it shouldn’t be particularly remarkable: a fairly one‑dimensional tale of a young man pursuing his dream of becoming a table‑tennis champion, facing a series of challenges and obstacles along the way.

But Timothée Chalamet elevates it to greatness. I thought he deserved the Best Actor award last year for his incredible singing‑and‑acting turn as Bob Dylan… surely it’s second time lucky.

He makes us connect with — almost come to like — his no‑good New York hustler, who lies, cajoles, and smarms his way through life, refusing to take accountability for the consequences of his actions.

But if the Academy only gave awards to actors who played nice men, would Cillian Murphy have lifted the statuette for Oppenheimer, Brendan Fraser for The Whale, Will Smith for King Richard, or Anthony Hopkins for The Father.

So there you have it: my latest attempt to predict the unpredictable. Hamnet has the emotional heft. F1 has the spectacle. The Secret Agent has the critics. Frankenstein has the audacity. And Marty Supreme has the heart.

One thing’s for sure… each and every one of them has a case.

Carl Jones presents ‘Films At Four’ on Shropshire Live radio every Sunday afternoon, and also reviews new releases on BBC Shropshire every Monday

The Academy Awards will be hosted by Conan O’Brien in Hollywood on March 15.

The ceremony will air on ITV, ITVX, STV and STV Player in the UK.