Winners, Sinners and record breakers: 17 fun facts about this year's Oscars
When Sinners director Ryan Coogler went to the movies as a child, he would smuggle in some snacks - and get particularly creative with the cinema's drinks machine.
"I'm not a big soda person, but when they started to let you mix and match the drinks, I got involved with that," he told Amy Poehler's Good Hang podcast recently.
Decades later, Coogler's taste for combining a wide variety of flavours can be seen in his genre-defying best picture contender, which blends vampire horror with blues music against the backdrop of the 1930s Mississippi Delta.
- Oscars 2026: The nominations list in full
- 12 things we spotted in the Oscars class photo
- How to watch the Oscar-nominated films
Sinners could take several statuettes at this weekend's Oscars, but it faces tough competition from co-frontrunner One Battle After Another, in a genuinely exciting year for the awards race where several categories are too close to call.
Here are 17 fun facts to sink your vampire fangs into ahead of the Academy Awards this Sunday.
1. Zootopia 2 is this year's highest-grossing nominated film, having taken a staggering $1.86bn (£1.39bn) worldwide.
But the animated franchise has a different title in Europe - Zootropolis. That's because of Givskud Zoo in Denmark, which registered the trademark "Zootopia" in the EU in 2009, seven years before the first movie was released.
Other box office smashes nominated this year include Avatar threequel Fire & Ash, which has taken $1.48bn (£1.11bn), while the highest-grossing film in the best picture category is racing thriller F1, which made $632m (£472m).
2. Emma Stone has broken two records this year.
Aged 37, the Bugonia star is the youngest woman ever to earn seven Oscar nominations, overtaking Meryl Streep, who was 38.
Stone has also become the only actress whose first five Oscar nominations are all for films that were also nominated for best picture.
In the space of 11 years, she has been recognised for her roles in Birdman, The Favourite, Bugonia, La La Land and Poor Things - winning for the latter two.
3. Frankenstein has been two centuries in the making.
There is a 207-year gap between Mary Shelley's 1818 novel and Guillermo del Toro's 2025 film adaptation for Netflix.
That's one of the biggest gaps between source material and film adaptation in Oscars history. Those ahead of it include:
- Tom Jones (1963), based on the original 1749 novel - a 214-year gap
- Hamlet (1996), based on the 1601 play - a 395-year gap
- O Brother Where Art Thou (2000), based on Greek poem The Odyssey, written around 700 BC - a 2,700-year gap
4. Chase Infiniti has cinema in her blood.
The breakout star of One Battle After Another has been destined for a film career since the day she was born.
The 25-year-old was named after Nicole Kidman's character in 1995's Batman Forever, Chase Meridian, and Buzz Lightyear's catchphrase in Toy Story: "To infinity and beyond."
5. Miriam Margolyes is getting some long overdue Oscars recognition.
The British actress stars as the titular character in A Friend of Dorothy, nominated for best live action short. But Margolyes has never been nominated as an actress, much to her annoyance.
"I should have been nominated but I wasn't," she told Graham Norton with characteristic candour. "I was very angry about it."
Margolyes said she should have been recognised for her role in Martin Scorsese's 1993 period drama The Age of Innocence. "I was marvellous in it," she reflected. "And the reason I wasn't nominated was because of Winona Ryder.
"What happened was, [Ryder] was nominated as a supporting actress instead of a leading actress. And if she'd jolly well kept herself to herself and been nominated as a leading actress they would have nominated me in supporting. I was livid."
6. Several nominees are very loyal to their directors.
Four of this year's lead acting nominees have been recognised for films that are directed by their long-term collaborator. The four inseparable pairs are:
- Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater (who have made nine films together)
- Michael B Jordan and Ryan Coogler (five)
- Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos (five)
- Renate Reinsve and Joachim Trier (three)
7. Jessie Buckley could become the first Irish winner of best actress.
Previous nominees from Ireland include Saoirse Ronan and Ruth Negga, while Brenda Fricker won best supporting actress in 1989. But no Irish star has yet won the leading actress category.
Having already scored best actress at the Critics Choice, Golden Globe, Bafta and Actor Awards, Buckley is likely to become the first actress to sweep the category at all five ceremonies since Renée Zellweger for Judy in 2020.
8. Brad Pitt has broken a 35-year trend.
The US actor's racing thriller F1 appears in several technical categories, but also scored a surprise best picture nomination.
The film made it into the top category despite not having any corresponding nods for directing, screenplay or acting at the Oscars or any major precursor ceremony.
The last film to do this was Beauty and the Beast in 1991.
9. KPop Demon Hunters are going for (double) gold.
The Netflix smash hit is the favourite to win two categories - best animated feature and best original song for Golden, performed by the movie's girl group Huntr/x.
Two other films have previously pulled off this double - 2010's Toy Story 3 with its song We Belong Together, and 2013's Frozen with its inescapable earworm Let It Go.
10. Rose Byrne, Kate Hudson and Amy Madigan are flying solo.
