2025 has been a great year for film with many legendary filmmakers adding to their filmographies plus up and comers bursting into the scene.
We got installments from the likes of Steven Soderbergh, Ryan Coogler, Kathryn Bigelow, Darren Aronofsky, and Ari Aster. We’ve also seen newcomers like Mark Anthony Green and Alex Russell put the film world on notice.
2025 gave us so many great films, including tons of exciting thrillers. How many of these films will matter when the Academy Awards roll around on March 15, 2026?
We might see quite a few mentioned among the Best Actor contenders over the next few months, while the below the line crafts should be chock full of awesome thrillers from this year.
Best Picture/Best Director
Sinners
On March 15th, 2026 we’re going to hear the name Sinners quite often. It’s almost a foregone conclusion that Michael B. Jordan gets Best Actor considerations. How many of the remaining nineteen acting nominations can Sinners snag though?
There’s a world where Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo, and Miles Caton find themselves in the supporting categories.
Bugonia
If there’s one thing you can count on with the Academy, it’s their adoration for Emma Stone. A similar relationship could bloom between the Academy and Jesse Plemmons.
It’s highly likely these two young Hollywood darlings find themselves nominated for acting awards.
One Battle After Another
One Battle After Another is the most interesting title when it comes to acting. There are so many impactful performances. How many of them can find their way into the races next March? It could be anywhere from zero to five nominees.
The most likely nominee is Sean Penn in Best Supporting Actor. Chase Infiniti, Teyana Taylor, and Benicio Del Toro also have outside chances in this category.
Obviously one can never count out Leo in Lead Actor.
Black Bag
Black Bag is the dark horse candidate here. With brilliant lead performances from heavyweights Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett, acting nominations would certainly be deserving.
In a crowded field and only five nominations to go around it is highly unlikely but worth keeping an eye on.
Below the Line Nominees
When it comes to the below the line crafts, there have been some amazing displays this year. The editing work in Sinners will most likely be recognized, but it’s the brilliant use of editing in Warfare that still has many people buzzing.
Movies like Opus and Lurker tackle the concepts of fame and music so deftly. They both wrote original pop songs for their movies. These songs were so good and so believable it would be a travesty to ignore them in Oscar nominations.
Much like on actual Oscars night, this article is going to mention Sinners quite a bit because it has a pretty strong chance to be among both the Score and Original Song nominees.
Categories like Hair/Makeup and Costume Design will likely be dominated by big budget titles like (surprise!) Sinners, 28 Years Later, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Dune: Part Three, and even Bugonia.
The same goes for production design. However F1: The Movie and Warfare have genuine chances to throw their hats in the ring here. It would also be unwise to ignore Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning in production design.
Last but not least, when it comes to Sound Design, very few movies used sound as effectively as Warfare. In a film that relied on realism in terms of photography, timing, and dialogue, the sound was no different. Seeing Warfare in theaters felt as close to being in real combat as most of us will ever get. It would really be a shame if Warfare doesn’t just get a nomination, but actually win this award.
Few movies used sound quite like Warfare, however, F1: The Movie, Sinners, and lesser known thrillers like Opus and Lurker should also be recognized come Oscar nomination day!
Thrillers can often go underappreciated come awards season. However, the 98th Academy Awards should have plenty of representation from the wide array of thrillers we got in 2025!
Featured still via Universal Pictures/Focus Features.
