Oscars 2026 live updates: Red carpet arrivals, top nominees and Conan O'Brien's return

The Committee for the First Amendment, a free speech advocacy group formed by Hollywood creatives during 1940s McCarthyism, warned of “escalating attacks” on free speech.

"Today is not a normal Oscars," the group wrote, highlighting recent comments from President Donald Trump and administration officials.

Including, most recently: FCC chair Brendan Carr's threats to revoke TV broadcasters’ licenses over their Iran war coverage, War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s call for CNN to be bought by Trump ally David Ellison, and Trump’s recent post touting plans to “reshape the media.”

“Make no mistake about it: These are direct attacks on the First Amendment and part of a deliberate march toward authoritarianism,” the Committee wrote in a social media statement. “In that world, journalists are punished for telling the truth, media companies are expected to fall in line, and dissent is treated as a threat.”

But that future “is not inevitable," the group wrote. “Do not obey in advance. Speak loudly, stand with journalists, and defend the very freedoms that make moments like today possible.”

NBC News entertainment correspondent Chloe Melas takes us behind-the-scenes at the Los Angeles museum, which is devoted to all things movies.

Inside the Academy Museum ahead of the 2026 Oscars

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The museum will also play host to Official Oscars Watch Party tonight, which is sold out. Guests will get to enjoy "themed photo opportunities and light hors d’oeuvres from Wolfgang Puck Catering," according to the academy's news release.

2025 was a memorable year in cinema with a slew of daring films like "One Battle After Another" and "Sinners," which holds the record as the most Oscar-nominated film of all time.

But Oscar snubs are inevitable when the academy is limited to recognizing only five nominees per category (except best picture, which includes 10 nominees). For fans online, the most noticeable was "Wicked: For Good," which did not get any nominations after Part 1 got 10 noms and two wins last year.

Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba and Ariana Grande is Glinda in "Wicked: For Good." Giles Keyte / Universal Pictures

"The Testament of Ann Lee" starring Amanda Seyfried and "Jay Kelly" with George Clooney and Adam Sandler also landed zero nominations.

Memorable performances from Jesse Plemons in "Bugonia" and Joel Edgerton in "Train Dreams" were left out of the highly competitive best actor category this year. To the surprise of many, Paul Mescal's interpretation of William Shakespeare in "Hamnet" and Miles Caton's mesmerizing performance in his "Sinners" breakout role also went unrecognized in the best supporting actor category.

Paul Mescal stars as William Shakespeare in "Hamnet." Agata Grzybowska / Focus Features

Newcomer Chase Infiniti and Oscar darling Jennifer Lawrence were also snubbed for best actress for their performances in “One Battle After Another" and "Die My Love," respectively. Fans were also shocked when Odessa A’zion was not nominated for best supporting actress for her role in "Marty Supreme."

Filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Guillermo Del Toro were surprisingly left out of the best director category despite helming ambitious films recognized in other high-profile categories. Panahi's “It Was Just an Accident” is nominated for best international film and Del Toro's "Frankenstein" is up for best picture.

Here’s a list of which actors received nods from the academy for their work for the first time.

• Rose Byrne, for “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”
• Jacob Elordi, for “Frankenstein”
• Elle Fanning, for “Sentimental Value”
• Michael B. Jordan, for “Sinners”
• Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, for “Sentimental Value”
• Delroy Lindo, for “Sinners”
• Wunmi Mosaku, for “Sinners”
• Wagner Moura, for “The Secret Agent”
• Renate Reinsve, for “Sentimental Value”
• Stellan Skarsgård, for “Sentimental Value”
• Teyana Taylor, for “One Battle After Another”

Tonight, I’ll be reporting from inside the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, covering my 15th show, miraculously carrying the same handbag from my first (thank you, Michael Kors).

Rebecca Keegan / NBC News

The trick to packing for the Oscars as a journalist is bringing as little as possible while still packing the bare necessities. That includes:

• My notebook and pen
• A portable charger
• A mini microphone (to shoot content)
• My phone
• Altoids
• Advil
• Makeup (my go-tos: Charlotte Tilbury compact powder, Make-Up by Mario lipstick) and Q-tips for touch-ups.
• A mini ziplock bag with macadamia nuts and dried cherries (you never know when you're going to eat at these events).

When director Josh Safdie first approached him to help with “Marty Supreme,” Diego Schaaf genuinely couldn’t “put a face to the name” of the film’s star, he said.

“Do you know who Timothée Chalamet is?” Schaaf wrote in a text to his 20-year-old niece. “We’re going to be working on a movie with him.” Her response was just three letters: “O.M.G.”

Maggie Shannon for NBC News

Few are likely to pick Schaaf, 71, out of a crowd, either. But since 1993, he and his wife, Wei Wang, 64, have built a name for themselves in Hollywood helping A-list stars like Chalamet become table tennis pros.

The duo, who run Alpha Productions out of Pasadena, work as consultants for films, shows, commercials and music videos involving table tennis. Their credits include “Forrest Gump,” “Friends” and “Balls of Fury,” among other projects.

A24’s “Marty Supreme,” which is nominated for nine Oscars, depicts a fictionalized version of the career of midcentury table tennis champ Marty Reisman. To transform into the character Marty Mauser, a U.S. table tennis star whose dream is to win the world title, Chalamet had to pass as a world-class player.

Read the full story here.

From Ryan Coogler's exploration of Black American life in the Jim Crow era and the cultural legacy of blues music in "Sinners" to Paul Thomas Anderson's epic tale of resistance and extremist politics in "One Battle After Another," many of the Oscar-nominated films tackle political themes in a way that resonated with audiences.

The Brazilian film "The Secret Agent" takes viewers back to the South American country's military dictatorship of the 1970s. Filmmaker Jafar Panahi secretly shot “It Was Just an Accident” in Iran, where a war broke out on Feb. 28 when the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on the Middle Eastern nation.

But will the Oscar telecast have any political moments? That remains to be seen.

"The Bear" actor Liza Colon-Zayas wears an ICE OUT pin as she attends the 32nd annual Actor Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on March 1. Michael Tran / AFP via Getty Images

Previous film award shows such as the Golden Globes and the Actor Awards saw stars sporting "ICE Out" pins in protest of the aggressive tactics being used for immigration enforcement across the country.

While some actors and filmmakers used their red carpet interviews to speak up about issues they care about, the awards telecasts have largely remained void of attention-grabbing political statements.

"Chicken Shop Date" creator Amelia Dimoldenberg will once again hit the carpet as the Oscars’ official social media ambassador and red carpet correspondent.

Amelia Dimoldenberg attends the 98th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday.  Angela Weiss / AFP - Getty Images

The comedian, now in her third year taking on the role, has often created viral moments on the carpet through her quippy, deadpan interviews with celebrities.

Known best for her YouTube interview show “Chicken Shop Date,” Dimoldenberg has also reported on other red carpets, including the Brit Awards and the Golden Globe Awards.

The media conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery, home of the legendary film studio behind "Casablanca" and the Batman saga, goes into tonight with an eye-popping 33 total nominations.

Ryan Coogler's genre-twisting vampire tale "Sinners" has 16 total nods — the most for a single film in the 98-year history of the Oscars. Paul Thomas Anderson's seriocomic "One Battle After Another" is close behind with 13 nominations. They're both up for the best picture prize.

In a memo to WBD staff on the morning the nominations were announced, CEO David Zaslav said the company's "legacy shines brighter than ever."

"This is a truly golden moment for our company and also a powerful validation of our strategy: to believe in movies, to believe in original storytelling, and to believe in the theatrical experience," Zaslav said.

The other reason WBD is in the news these days: It's preparing to merge with Paramount Skydance, the media company owned by David Ellison.

Timothée Chalamet caught criticism for his recent comments about ballet and opera, in which the Oscar nominee said that “no one cares” about those art forms.

In an onstage conversation with Variety, Chalamet and actor Matthew McConaughey discussed people’s shortened attention spans and whether audiences need action upfront in film. The “Dune” and “Marty Supreme” star said he’s “right in the middle” on the issue, before slamming opera and ballet.

“I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera,” Chalamet said. “Things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this anymore.’”

Timothée Chalamet. Michael Tran / AFP via Getty Images

“All respect to the ballet and opera people out there,” he said, seeming to realize the potential blowback to his remarks. “Damn, I just took shots for no reason.”

The actor’s comments have invited an onslaught of online heat from the ballet and opera community.

He's nominated in the best actor category tonight.

Read the full story here.

In honor of Oscar Sunday, tune in to a special edition of NBC News' "Here's the Scoop" podcast, where we break down what to expect tonight.

Oscar voters got some extra homework this awards season. An email obtained by NBC News in November shows that Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members must confirm that they have watched all the movies nominated in each category to be allowed to vote.

Obtained by NBC News

The email provided guidance about what steps the more than 10,000 voting academy members need to take ahead of the final Oscar ballot deadline, which was March 5.

The academy has long required members who vote in certain preliminary rounds, such as those who determine the short list for international films, to confirm that they have watched a group of assigned movies. In April, it revised that policy to note that academy members must watch every Oscar-nominated film in order to vote.

To be eligible to vote, members must watch all five films in each Oscar category and all 10 in the best picture category, the academy said.

Read the full story here.

Tonight, the Oscars will present the award for achievement in casting, the first-ever category to honor casting directors directly.

Nominees in the category’s inaugural year include Nina Gold for “Hamnet,” Jennifer Venditti for “Marty Supreme,” Cassandra Kulukundis for “One Battle After Another,” Gabriel Domingues for “The Secret Agent” and Francine Maisler for “Sinners.”

“Casting directors play an essential role in filmmaking, and as the Academy evolves, we are proud to add casting to the disciplines that we recognize and celebrate,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang said in the 2024 announcement.

In some years, the presentation of the best picture prize in the final minutes of the Oscars telecast feels like a fait accompli. Nobody was shocked when front-runners like "Everything Everywhere All at Once" and "Oppenheimer" took home the top honor, for example.

This year, however, the outcome of the best picture race is somewhat hazier.

Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another," a portrait of faded leftist revolutionaries on the run, won big at the Golden Globes, the Critics' Choice Awards and the British Academy Film Awards. It seemed unstoppable.

2026 Oscars: What Movie Is Expected to Win Best Picture?

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But earlier this month, Ryan Coogler's "Sinners," a horror epic set in the Jim Crow-era Mississippi Delta, nabbed the best ensemble trophy at the Actors Awards, the Screen Actors Guild's answer to best picture. The surprise victory scrambled the Oscar race at the last minute, giving last-minute momentum to Coogler's commercial and critical smash.

What happens at the end of tonight's ceremony is anyone's guess.

Conan O’Brien is back for his second consecutive year as emcee of the Oscars. The TV host and comedian was confirmed to return just weeks after last year’s awards show wrapped.

Host Conan O'Brien lies on the carpet on Tuesday ahead of the Academy Awards. Frederic J. Brown / AFP - Getty Images

Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang announced the decision last March, calling O’Brien “the perfect host — skillfully guiding us through the evening with humor, warmth and reverence.”

The awards show, which takes place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, begins at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. 

It will air live on ABC and stream on Hulu.

An unfiltered Conan O’Brien, a K-pop takeover and absolutely no awards for Tilly Norwood.

This year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is “leaning into big cultural moments,” in the words of CEO Bill Kramer.

Oscars 2026 Preview: What to Expect of Hollywood’s Biggest Night

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Tonight's Oscars ceremony comes at a period of transition for the academy, which has recently signed a groundbreaking deal with YouTube and is grappling — like the rest of the world — with the impact of AI.

Kramer and academy President Lynette Howell Taylor said in a recent interview with NBC News that they are mindful of the challenges the Oscars face in an ever-changing media landscape and in a year when often bleak headlines have dominated the news cycle.

Read the full story here.

Oscar-winning stars Adrien Brody, Kieran Culkin, Mikey Madison and Zoe Saldaña are returning as presenters a year after they won in their respective acting categories.

Other stars taking the stage to present:

• Javier Bardem
• Chris Evans
• Chase Infiniti
• Demi Moore
• Kumail Nanjiani
• Maya Rudolph
• Will Arnett
• Priyanka Chopra Jonas
• Robert Downey Jr.
• Anne Hathaway
• Paul Mescal
• Gwyneth Paltrow

Best picture:

• “Bugonia”
• “F1”
• “Frankenstein”
• “Hamnet”
• “Marty Supreme”
• “One Battle After Another”
• “The Secret Agent”
• “Sentimental Value”
• “Sinners”
• “Train Dreams”

Actress in a leading role:

• Jessie Buckley, “Hamnet”
• Rose Byrne, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”
• Kate Hudson, “Song Sung Blue”
• Renate Reinsve, “Sentimental Value”
• Emma Stone, “Bugonia”

Actor in a leading role:

• Timothée Chalamet, “Marty Supreme”
• Leonardo DiCaprio, “One Battle After Another”
• Ethan Hawke, “Blue Moon”
• Michael B. Jordan, “Sinners”
• Wagner Moura, “The Secret Agent”

Actress in a supporting role:

• Elle Fanning, “Sentimental Value”
• Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, “Sentimental Value”
• Amy Madigan, “Weapons”
• Wunmi Mosaku, “Sinners”
• Teyana Taylor, “One Battle After Another”