The Best Picture Nominees, Ranked

I watched all the BP noms so you didn't have to.

With the Oscars coming up on Sunday, now seems like no better time than to review the best picture nominees, and of course, rank them. Because I had some free time and a movie theater within walking distance of my house, I was (mostly) fortunate enough to have seen every Best Picture-nominated film for the 2026 Oscars. I feel comfortable recommending all of these films except the number 10 entry, for the reasons stated. 2025 was a remarkably fruitful year for Cinema and felt like one of the best years since 2019 (not a crazy statement considering the crop has been less than stellar since COVID, mostly).

Starting with #10…

#10. One Battle After Another (Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Director (PTA), Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), Best Actress (Teyana Taylor), Best Supporting Actor (Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro), Best Adapted Screenplay (PTA), Best Original Score (Jonny Greenwood), Best Cinematography (Michael Bauman), Best Sound, Best Production Design, Best Film Editing, Best Casting

Easily the worst of the Best Picture nominees and the worst Paul Thomas Anderson film, One Battle After Another is a snapshot in history of everything wrong with 2020s American politics and filmmaking. As I do not feel like writing “One Review After Another” on this unenjoyable “relevant social commentary”, I will link to the full review I wrote upon its release.

#9: Sinners (dir. Ryan Coogler)

Nominated for: Pretty much everything (broke the record for nominations with 16).

Coogler’s follow-up to his Black Panther saga was definitely a step in the right direction. The box office hit of 2025 has a lot going for it. Quality performances, a fantastic score, a fascinating setting, and perhaps the best post-credit scene to ever be featured in a film, Coogler demonstrated that he will be around in the Hollywood scene for a long time.

Sinners’ strongest aspects are its music and performances for sure. Michael B Jordan revives the twin act that has been seen in films such as Adaptation (an Oscar-worthy double performance from Nic Cage) to tell the story of two criminal brothers running away from a wretched past. The story is told from the somewhat pedestrian standpoint of an aspiring guitarist who bears a striking resemblance to the mythical and legendary Delta blues guitarist Robert Johnson. The Blues has been one of my favorite genres of music since I was a child, and I was welcome to seeing it treated with reverence. The noteworthy post-credit scene features beloved legendary musician Buddy Guy and was a delightful way to sound off a pretty over-the-top film.

Sinners’ largest problem is that, despite its best efforts to appear original, at the end of the day it’s a borderline remake of Robert Rodriguez’s 1996 cult classic From Dusk Till Dawn. It uses the same “two criminal brothers getting trapped in a vampire trap/nightclub that have to survive the night with others” premise to explore racial injustice of the Prohibition era. It struggles with taking itself super seriously despite its obvious camp, and does not shy away from vulgarity.

Sinners is an overall enjoyable and raunchy homage to the genre that defined music in the 20th century and shaped the heart of America. It definitely is worth checking out and will be considered a horror classic from this point on.

Available to stream on HBO Max

#8: Frankenstein (dir. Guillermo del Toro)

Frankenstein was an oddly beautiful film that felt like a return to form for Del Toro. Perhaps his best work since Pan’s Labyrinth, del Toro tells a heartwarming and beautiful story about parenthood (which happens to be the most recurring theme amongst the nominees). Del Toro, despite some flaws, is able to ultimately pay respect to a classic novel that has been adapted many times with a fresh perspective.

Oscar Isaac and the rising star Jacob Elordi stand at the center of this beautiful and haunting tale of father-son relationships. Having only seen Elordi in the Kissing Booth films (absolutely dreadful Netflix movies), I was highly skeptical of him as the creature, but I was pleasantly blown away. Elordi was fantastic and vanished under many hours of makeup and prosthetics into the role of Frankenstein’s monster. Oscar Isaac finally returns to roles outside of the horrendous Disney Star Wars sequel trilogy in a more dramatic role that he is better suited for. Isaac plays an obsessed and twisted man who will do anything to achieve fame and validation with ease. Many montages of dismembering deceased bodies into the harvesting of limbs really drive home one of the most crucial questions that lie at the center of the movie: who is the real monster? The answer most certainly seems to be Dr. Frankenstein for most of it, until we are given the option that neither has to be the monster, or maybe there is none at all.

The only major glaring flaw of this film is the bizarre romance between Mia Goth’s character and the creature. As well-made and intricately constructed as the rest of the relationships are in this tale, this strange deviation from the book feels more closely akin to an internet fanfic than it does to a major screenplay. It feels forced and uncharacteristic for the world in which it takes place, and the borders on cringe at times. Aside from this minor gripe, Frankenstein is a great addition to del Toro’s incredible filmography.

Available to stream on Netflix

#7: The Secret Agent (dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho)

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best International Feature, Best Actor (Wagner Moura, pictured above), Best Casting

The last film that I had to complete for this list, The Secret Agent, is a quality film that has just enough flaws to prevent it from being upgraded from a good to a great film. Similar to the Brazilian masterpiece City of God, The Secret Agent is a fictitious story that takes place against the backdrop of a real historical setting. Wagner Moura plays a technology specialist who has fled for unknown reasons to a different part of Brazil, trying to establish a new life. As the film unfolds, we learn more about his mysterious life actively through watching his story and passively through historians listening to audio tapes about him during our time.

The Secret Agent’s strengths lie in its presentation and its acting. Director Kleber Mendonça Filho shot the film using Panavision lenses and on vintage film equipment to bring 1977 Brazil to life with vibrant color. A small army of vintage Volkswagen Beetles and excellent set design throws the viewer right back in time. Never once did this film feel out of place, cheap, or tacky. Sometimes I found myself wondering if I was watching a film and thinking that I was watching something more of a documentary, which was aided by the excellent performance from Wagner Moura.

Wagner Moura is the definitive star of this film. His Golden Globe win was well-earned and offers steep competition to Jordan and Chalamet for best actor. Moura plays several characters without being obvious about it with masterful restraint. He does not rely on yelling and shouting and crying, but rather emphasizes the mastery of his craft through the subtlety of his actions. Music, editing and cinematography all complement his performance , delivering a solid entry from the international scene.

The only major flaw of the secret agent is its pacing. At 161 minutes, it is the second-longest film on this list by a minute, only behind the worst film on this list. Unfortunately, this 2-hour and 40-minute run time feels, if not a little longer than this. Some scenes could have definitely been trimmed down a bit, especially with the random bits of sexual content that seem to serve no purpose to the story. While they aren’t enough to ruin the film or are frequent enough to warrant not watching it, they definitely don’t help it.

Available to stream on Hulu

#6: Bugonia (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos)

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actress (Emma Stone), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score (Jersin Fendrix)

When the phrase “relevant social commentary” is ever associated with a film, it generates an eye roll and a vague feeling of dread in me. Too many films in the modern era strive for this and end up saying the same things every other film for the last decade has said. Yorgos Lanthimos has also thrown his two bits in for social commentary throughout his bizarre filmography. As someone who did not care too much for the content and subject matter of The Favourite and Poor Things, it was nice to see something from Lanthimos that sparked my interest without all the problematic content. Bugonia is much more in line with films like The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Lobster (both of which are fantastic Greek Weird Wave films in their own right), offering a dense, disturbing, and satirical view of the terminally online “blackpilled” world we currently live in.

Bugonia is a remake of the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet, maintaining the core premise. Two conspiracy theory-obsessed young men kidnap a wealthy executive under the firm belief that he is an alien sent here to destroy the planet. While the premise may seem straightforward, Yorgos Lanthimos can create a tense and nightmarish scenario that keeps you guessing at every corner up until the very end, and expertly never lets us, the audience, see the full hand until the very end. It is also able to maintain a politically neutral stance and condemns the shallow activism that most corporations tend to participate in nowadays.

The word “Bugonia” comes from Greek and refers to an ancient Mediterranean myth that bees are spontaneously born from the carcasses of dead oxen. This title is rather unique but offers a unique insight into the film. Bugonia heavily focuses on bees, their nature, and their role within the natural order. While the film clearly uses bees as an allegory for humanity, their importance within the ecosystem is always at the core of every discussion around them. Humanity in this microcosm of a film is shown as deeply flawed and sometimes even beyond mad, but this is not by default. The environment in which mankind deteriorates and grows resentful is in isolation, where resentment and anger are left to fester and inevitably explode at the cost of others. Bugonia teaches that you can either choose to doom yourself about everything (in which case you might as well die since there’s no point in moving forward), or you can live out your life and do the things that make us human and connect with others. There are aspects of humanity that are not great, as seen in the film and in the ending montage, but there is never a reason to give up on mankind. To give up on it is to die, and the world along with it. While Jesse Plemons’ character is sick and twisted, there is a part of him that is extremely empathetic and calling out desperately for something more and searching for a higher calling, which is unique to humans.

Jesse Plemons gives one of the greatest performances of the year in this film. Despite sharing many scenes with the brilliant Emma Stone, he often steals the show and is nothing short of captivating. Within a single scene, you can witness him physically, psychologically, and spiritually deteriorate when confronted with old trauma that threatens his worldview. At the same time, you have Emma Stone giving one of her more enigmatic performances, which keeps the audience on the edge of their seats, wondering if what Plemons’ character says is true or not. Stone brings a physicality to this role that is somewhat disturbing at times (in a good way), while adding enough nuance to her emotional performance to draw us in deeper to her own turmoil and struggles with the situation that she’s been put in. It is worth noting that producer Ari Aster requested that the role of the rich bureaucrat be changed from a male to a female, and while normally this would just be seen as a lazy attempt to Westernize a story, this change gave us Emma Stone (who shaved her head for the role) in one of her more intense roles, and I am incredibly thankful for it.

The other parts that really excel within this film are the cinematography and the score. Bugonia marks the fourth collaboration between Yorgos Lanthimos and Robbie Ryan, who decided to shoot the film on 8-perf 35mm film stock using VistaVision cameras. The film’s shot composition is as enigmatic as it is captivating, pulling us deeper and deeper into this maddening Tale of isolation and disdain. Ryan can shoot in dark environments and capture the grittiness of the environment as well as the rawness of intense emotions. This, paired with my personal favorite score of the year so far, creates a nightmarish and surreal piece of art that will stay with me for a very long time. The score by Jerskin Fendrix feels like a blend between the classical era and a more contemporary Stravinsky piece. Fendrix is able to capture the bipolar nature of this film within his intense and sometimes beautiful score, and we genuinely hope we get to hear more of this artist as time passes.

Bugonia is up there with Weapons (unfairly snubbed from this list) for one of the best films of the year, and is very much cut from the same cloth. It is a dense and disturbing look into the damage of isolation from others and how dangerous the era of information can be. Lanthimos is able to bounce back from his previous dud and reestablish himself as one of the more unique voices working in the industry currently, and I can’t wait to see what he has in store next.

Available to stream on Peacock

#5: F1 (dir. Joseph Kosinski)

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing

If you enjoyed Top Gun: Maverick, you will absolutely love F1. It is also quite similar to the excellent and riveting Grand Prix (1966), but it differentiates itself substantially through its era and messaging.

F1 is driven by its high-quality characters, all of whom feel complex. Brad Pitt gives an excellent portrayal of a faded race car driver motivated by the thrill of racing, alongside Damson Idris as his young and cocky counterpart. The conflict between these two is key to the film, and despite the ease with which other characters could have been neglected for this drama, Kosinski decided to flesh them out as well. F1 gives the space needed to allow all characters to go on the journey that shapes the film, and it is quite frankly wholesome to watch. With such great characters, this film manages to keep things light-hearted and approachable for the masses, but does know when to get serious and sentimental in all the right places.

The pacing in this film is nothing short of fantastic, perfectly blending action and drama without making it feel like the “slow parts” are unnecessary. They are quite essential and add some much-needed depth and stakes to the story. While some racing films struggle with feeling boring when they are not on the track, F1 never feels boring and, quite frankly, flies by.

Apple spared no expense in actually having the actors work with modified F2 cars and classic filming techniques to capture awe-inspiring racing footage. Kosinski’s focus on using as many practical effects as possible and blending them with minimal CG is the way things should be done. This is not a film to watch on a phone or small TV, but the largest IMAX or Dolby format you can possibly see it on, as it is easily one of the most intense racing films ever made. Spectacular sets, incredible sound design, and wonderful cinematography all create what will easily be the most immersive theatrical experience of 2025 that MUST be seen on a large screen.

I was pleasantly surprised and immersed by the world-building present throughout. F1 does an excellent job of explaining certain rules and incidents to the audience without ever belittling us, and instead invites us to enjoy and appreciate the story on a more technical level. Even when its rules and incidents already make sense to racing enthusiasts, the movie finds a way to inform without babysitting.

F1 is an absolute triumph of the 90s summer blockbuster that many viewers have longed for the return of. It’s a film that retreads some familiar ground, but goes its own way to tell something fresh. With a fantastic cast to give us great characters, intense action, and quality storytelling, this film is something special to be experienced not just once but several times in the theater with friends.

Available to stream on Apple TV

#4: Hamnet (dir. Chloe Zhao)

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actress (Jessie Buckley), Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Casting, Best Production Design, Best Original Score (Max Richter), Best Costume Design

Hamnet is absolutely worth the hype. Chloe Zhao stepped up to the plate to give an incredibly moving tale of love and loss that knows precisely how to play its cards. It is a master class in emotional storytelling and a wonderfully immersive experience.

I have been following Jesse Buckley’s career since her supporting role in Chernobyl and her starring role in Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things. She was sensational in both of those, and I figured it was only a matter of time until she would get Academy recognition. I would be genuinely shocked if she does not win the best lead actress Academy Award this Sunday, seeing as her role as Agnes was magnificent. Buckley displays the full range of human emotion with both intensity and subtlety, firmly cementing her as one of the finest actresses in the business today.

Paul Mescal and Emily Watson are able to carry their own weight with brilliant performances of their own. Perhaps the largest snub at the Academy Awards this year was none other than Jacobi Jupe for Best Supporting Actor. Rare is it that a child actor can be good, let alone great, in a role, even in a major Hollywood film. Jupe was phenomenal and has gotten practically no award recognition for perhaps the best child performance since Sean Baker’s The Florida Project. The costumes and the marvelously reconstructed Globe Theater help complement this masterful acting extravaganza.

The film addresses the use of art as a love language and a way to venerate those whom we love, as well as the crucial role parents play in their children’s lives. Zhao (and many other filmmakers in the past few years) drifts into the spiritual realm not with the coldness that many films of the earlier 21st century have had. She does not say “There is nothing out there” but rather asks, “I know there is something out there, but what is it?” Fortunately, Catholicism has this answer, and it’s nice to see others are starting to open up a little about it.

Available to stream on Peacock

#3: Train Dreams (dir. Clint Bentley)

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Song (“Train Dreams” by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner)

We now hit the part of the list where we begin discussing the excellent films.

These are the must-sees of 2025, beginning with Clint Bentley’s incredibly moving Train Dreams. While its inspiration from Terrence Malick is undeniable, Bentley avoids the “diet Malick” accusations by telling a truly compelling story.

Train Dreams most reminds me of the life of Saint Joseph. A humble and quiet man living a humble and quiet life. The film is a love letter to the unsung workers and heroes of the American frontier. And homage to an era and a generation of men who lived ordinary lives to build an extraordinary nation. It is more than just a period piece, but rather a recognition of what we have taken for granted. Joel Edgerton is perhaps the most-snubbed actor from the Best Actor category. He melts into the role of Robert Grainier to be a standard for all of the hard-working men who sacrificed so much to live ordinary lives, pursue the American dream, and to strive for the simple life of a wife, kid, and land.

Train Dreams is a lifetime lived in 102 minutes. One isn’t the same when they finished it, but merely invited to reflect on a world that seems so far away, yet all around us now. The truth of the matter is that most people are not exceptional. Most of us will not be world famous or do incredible feats of athleticism, scientific discovery, or inventions that change the world. When talking about Train Dreams and reflecting on it, I believe the quote from the late great GK Chesterton is what lies at this film’s heart:

The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.

I assure you that Train Dreams is well worth the time it takes to watch it and then some. It may seem boring to some at first, but in reality, it is easily one of the most beneficial films to see out of this list. I have every intention of revisiting this marvelous and simple film regularly.

Available to stream on Netflix

#2: Sentimental Value (dir. Joachim Trier)

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best International Feature, Best Director, Best Actress (Renata Reinsve), Best Actor (Stellan Skarsgård), Best Supporting Actress (Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing

One of only two five-star ratings I gave this entire year was to Joachim Trier’s outstanding Sentimental Value. Trier’s follow-up to The Worst Person in the World is a masterful homage to European Masters such as Bergman and Tarkovsky. Telling the story of a fictitious well-renowned film director trying to reconnect with his estranged daughters, sentimental value offers an in-depth and mature look at the traumas of divorce, the importance of fatherhood, and the importance of forgiveness.

Sentimental Value feels like a late-stage Bergman film, such as Scenes from a Marriage or Fanny and Alexander. The hard cuts between some segments of the film give it an almost episodic feel, and add a layer of rawness. Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve, and every other member of the cast bring their absolute best in a bona fide Scandinavian classic. Emphasis is placed on every emotional beat, every facial twitch, every body movement, and every word. I found myself utterly lost in this maze of characters and wanting to know everything I possibly could about all the characters.

The cinematography was flat-out amazing. Frequently, I recognized homages to other classics of European Cinema without it completely taking me out of the film. Scenes are shot in a complementary fashion to help draw as much meaning out of a scene as possible. There are multiple extraordinarily long takes, with one lasting maybe around five or six minutes, that I didn’t realize hadn’t been cut until the very end of it, where I was left speechless.

Too often do films focus on the short-term effects and fallout of divorce and broken homes, but almost never do we see the true long-term effects reflected upon with such maturity. It is not viewed as an “Oh well, it’s probably for the best” perspective, but from the very real and ugly truth that it does extreme long-term harm to everyone, especially children. I can damage their ability to form meaningful and in-depth relationships with others, to open up and be vulnerable. The importance of fatherhood and the trauma that its absence can cause lies at the core of Trier’s empathetic tale of reconciliation. Yes, some may hurt us, but it is important to forgive as Christ calls us to.

#1: Marty Supreme (dir. Josh Safdie)

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Timothée Chalamet), Best Original Screenplay, Best Casting, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design

Timothée Chalamet steals the show in the best film of the 2026 Best Picture race. Josh Safdie has proven once again the incredibly captivating power that cinema can have. Marty Supreme is chaotic, charming, stressful, and above all, heartfelt. It is one of those films that has hit me at the precise moment in my life when I needed to hear it most.

Marty Supreme is first and foremost about growing up. It perfectly encapsulates all of the different aspects from every film on this list into one singular message: that what truly matters to a man is becoming a father. Being there for a significant other and child and taking this burden upon yourself is the highest honor any man can take on. It takes the entire length of the film for Marty to realize this, but as is the case in Brideshead Revisited, he comes to his senses in the end. Seeing Chalamet’s moving moment at the end while “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” is blaring was my favorite movie moment of 2025, and it lives rent-free in my mind since seeing it. Another positive side note was the respect for life in this film. When a character has an unexpected pregnancy, there is never the discussion of whether the baby should be “kept” or not, but instead that the baby simply is. Too often, films treat 1950s America as if every time someone was pregnant, the abortion question was asked. It’s simply not even discussed as an option, and it’s quite reassuring to see.

Chalamet gives my personal recommendation for the best actor performance for the Oscars this year. He became this character who is sort of fictitious. Every member of the star-studded cast does an amazing job, but Timothée truly does steal the show. Marty Supreme is a little raunchy at times, and no doubt has its fair share of colorful language, but it is able to capture that chaotic style that the Safdie Brothers have become notorious for. This was the most engrossing I felt in a film all year, and time absolutely flew by. The sets and costumes allowed me to be utterly lost in a post WWII world in a way I haven’t been in a long time. The score and soundtrack brilliantly complement this chaotic and convoluted tale of immaturity. I’m a personal massive fan of the Tears for Fears vibe that is present throughout, and it works shockingly well with the setting.

If I had to pin the theme of Marty Supreme down with a single quote, it would absolutely be 1st Corinthians 13:11:

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

Judging by Timothée Chalamet’s recent rhetoric about him wanting to settle down and be a dad, I do not doubt that he and Josh both want to convey this in this rather unorthodox, incredibly organized chaos. It is my personal favorite of the 2026 Best Picture Oscar race, and will be rewatched in the future for sure.