The 2026 nominations stream at 5:30 a.m. PT across ABC, Hulu and the Academy’s platforms
The Academy Awards love tradition, but nomination morning is one of the only parts of awards season that still feels genuinely electric. Just names, categories and that immediate shift in the air where a handful of films become the story for the next two months. And for 2026, the Academy is giving viewers plenty of ways to tap in.
The nominees for the 98th Academy Awards will be revealed during a livestream from the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. The announcement kicks off at 5:30 a.m. PT. If you’re watching from L.A., the most familiar option will be to watch through ABC’s Good Morning America Live broadcast. But the Academy is also pushing hard into streaming, making the nominations available on Oscar.com and the Academy’s social platforms, plus ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu. There’s also an ASL stream on YouTube, which feels long overdue for an event this public.
Once nominations land, the real season begins. The ceremony is set for March 15, 2026, airing live on ABC with streaming available on Hulu. Conan O’Brien is returning as host, which signals the Academy is sticking with a safe pick that can still bring some personality to the room without turning the night into a full comedy show.
But nomination morning is never just about how to watch. It’s about what’s coming. And a few titles already feel like they’re built to show up, not because anything is guaranteed, but because they hit the Academy’s favorite pressure points.
One Battle After Another has that “event film” energy the Oscars still respect. The kind of movie that feels expensive, ambitious and serious in a way voters can point to as proof they’re rewarding real filmmaking. If it lands the way it’s expected to, it’s immediately in play for Picture, Director and craft categories, especially the ones that reward scale.
Hamnet feels like prestige in its purest form. A period storytelling, with heavy literary weight and emotional tragedy. Fitting in the lane where the Academy tends to live comfortably. Usually bringing at least one performance that becomes the serious pick everyone rallies around. For this, the gravitational force is Jessie Buckley’s performance as Willam Shakespeares wife.
And then there’s Sinners, which has the potential to be the chaos pick. The Academy has been cracking the door open for darker genre work, but only when it feels unavoidable. If Sinners hits with critics and lands culturally, it’s the type of film that can rack up nominations through craft first, cinematography, editing, sound, score, then muscle its way into bigger categories to anchor itself as the momentous force it was on the big screen.
That’s the thing about nomination morning. It isn’t just about quality. It’s timing, narrative and momentum. If these films arrive with the weight they’re carrying right now, expect to hear their names early and often when the list starts rolling.
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Devon James
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