2026 Oscar Tiers: Best Picture
Photo by Jordan Strauss from the Associated Press
Sunday is the Academy Awards.
And, despite being far from a cinephile, film critic, or knowing pretty much anything above the ground level of the filmmaking process, I just love good movies.
I watched all ten nominees for best picture, and I tiered them out in what I think from what I saw.
There are four tiers in my rankings.
Tier 1: Deserves To Win (The best of the best)
Tier 2: I’m Good With It (Not my picks, but well deserved winners)
Tier 3: Eh, Whatever (I don’t hate it winning, but I sure don’t love it)
Tier 4: Absolutely Not (If this wins, it’s a travesty)
DISCLAIMER: I don’t know about the cinematography, editing, all that stuff. I am making this list solely off of what I enjoyed performance wise and plot wise.
You’re allowed to disagree, and I’m sure you will, but remember that art is subjective, and also I’m a very sensitive boy.
ANOTHER DISCLAIMER: I’ll do my best to make this spoiler free in case you haven’t seen it, but there still may be possible spoilers.
So take that as you will.
Tier 4: Absolutely Not
Train Dreams
I liked the performance of William H. Macy and Joel Edgerton, and I think this might be one of the best shot movies of the year.
But it was just frankly kind of boring.
I kept watching and loving the shots, but I was never drawn into the plot.
It’s an artsy film, and that’s fine, but it doesn’t do anything for me.
F1
I want to be very clear here.
I loved this movie.
I liked it a hell of a lot more than the movies I have in tier 3.
But I love it for what it was meant to be, which is a fantastic summer blockbuster.
You go to the theater on a nice summer night, have some popcorn, and watch a cool “action” type movie with your friends, and this was great for that.
But Best Picture?
Really?
C’mon…
Tier 3: Eh, Whatever
The Secret Agent
The performances were good. The last third of the movie had me on the edge of my seat.
The first two thirds I just didn’t care about, really.
And the thing with the leg?
I don’t know. It was fine.
Hamnet
Jessie Buckley should win, and deserves to win best actress (no disrespect to Rose Byrne I still love you), but her performance in this movie was absolutely astounding.
She did so much in the last third of the movie without really even saying anything at all, and it was just incredible to watch.
The rest of the movie fell flat.
One amazing performance isn’t enough to save the whole film.
Frankenstein
I thought this was a good movie.
I also thought it was a Frankenstein movie.
And considering I’ve seen a bunch of Frankenstein movies, it didn’t do so much different that I was wowed and it needs to be a best picture favorite.
It’s like the 2014 Godzilla.
AWESOME movie, but I’ve seen it before.
There’s more deserving winners.
Tier 2: I’m Good With It
Bugonia
You ever been on a plane before?
You take off, it’s smooth.
The whole flight? No turbulence whatsoever. It’s smooth sailing.
And then, as you land, the pilot screws it up and needs to go around, or smacks the runway too hard.
Suddenly, when people ask how your flight was, you’re going to talk about the rough landing.
That may be too harsh of a metaphor for the ending of Bugonia, which was far from “rough”, but it did kind of make the rest of the movie, which I thought was outstanding, a little odd.
I wasn’t surprised by it, cause it’s a Yorgos Lanthimos movie, but I felt it didn’t need it.
Other than that? Fantastic, and the biggest snub of Oscar season is Jesse Plemons not getting an award for Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor.
He was phenomenal.
One Battle After Another
Everything I just said about Bugonia, applies to One Battle.
If this movie ends with the scene with Leo and Chase Infiniti (another actor award snub, in my opinion), then this might be my favorite movie of the year. I loved it.
But all of the Sean Penn nonsense at the end, while funny, just wasn’t needed in my opinion.
His story should have ended during that car chase.
But still, fantastic movie.
It will likely win Best Picture, and I have absolutely no problem with that. It was great.
Tier 1: Deserves To Win
Sinners
I know putting this right after One Battle considering the discourse online is a risky move, but I did genuinely love this movie.
I think it’s beautifully shot, I love the implementation of music throughout the film, and while vampire movies are weird, I think it was a very good way to show the assimilation of black culture as society progresses.
All in all, no complaints.
Really loved this movie.
Marty Supreme
If you know me, you know I love Jerry Maguire.
It’s one of, if not my favorite movie, ever.
Marty Supreme feels like a much more chaotic Jerry Maguire.
There’s A LOT going on in this movie, and it won’t be for everyone, but the ending is such a great payoff for a Jerry Maguire fan like myself, and a reminder that it doesn’t matter how great you are at whatever your craft is.
You need people around you that you love and someone you care about to make it all worth it.
Plus, it has the best needle drop of the year at the end.
Sentimental Value
I loved this movie so much.
Honestly? It might be my favorite of the bunch.
There’s no crazy artsy shots (even though this movie is extremely well shot) and there’s no crazy plot like Sinners or One Battle.
It’s a simple movie about two daughters and their absentee filmmaking father who is trying to rebuild that relationship.
And all of the performances are absolutely phenomenal.
Stellan Skarsgard, Renate Reinsve, Elle Fanning, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas are all so fantastic and so nuanced that it’s hard for me to even pick who was my favorite out of the bunch.
I just loved it and can’t recommend it enough.
It also taught me that “jazz hands” in Norwegian is “jazz hands.”
Isn’t that fun?
Big Award Predictions
Those are my tiers and my personal favorites.
Who do I think will actually win? That’s a little different.
Best Supporting Actress: Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas
Best Supporting Actor: Stellan Skarsgard
Best Actress: Jessie Buckley
Best Actor: Michael B. Jordan
Best Picture: One Battle After Another
