Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
Jordan's tour de force performance as the ambitious Smokestack twins in Ryan Coogler's Sinners—his fifth collaboration with the filmmaker—netted him his first Best Actor Oscar nomination.
“I love them both equally,” the 38-year-old told E! News at the Critics Choice Awards of the brooding, serious Smoke and more unpredictable Stack. “They’re both characters that are going to live with me for the rest of my life and I’m so happy that I got the honor to play both Smoke and Stack.”
Delroy Lindo, Sinners
Joining Jordan in being recognized for Coogler's tour de force is veteran actor Lindo, who turned in a deft performance as wise elder Delta Slim.
His many credits include roles in Spike Lee's 1992 classic Malcolm X and 2020’s Da 5 Bloods—which saw Lindo, 73, collect a fair amount of Oscar buzz and a handful of trophies—plus work on a thesis that explored, as he described, "historical investigation of African-descended people in the geographical location that became the United Kingdom."
So he was more than ready to dive into the Jim Crow South for Sinners. "My introduction was so dynamic and so rich, and I told Ryan that I seemed to disappear in the second act of the film," Lindo reflected to The Ankler of the initial script. "I'm much more present than I was originally in that first draft."
Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
Had Nigeria-born, England-raised Mosaku—recognized in the supporting actress category as Sinners' Hoodoo practitioner Annie, Smoke's estranged wife—not followed her acting dreams to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, her whole life "would have been different," Mosaku acknowledged in a 2021 interview with Schon Magazine.
Instead, the 39-year-old collected a 2016 BAFTA for her work on the TV film Damilola, Our Loved Boy and moved to the United States where she nabbed roles in Luther, Lovecraft Country and Loki.
And yet she recalled feeling apprehensive ahead of her first audition opposite Jordan. "It was like, 'This is Michael B. Jordan. This could feel really intimidating,'" she told W. Ultimately, though, "It was just so easy," she noted. "There was a mutual respect, exploration, and collaboration. And then they offered me the job in the room, which was crazy."
Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
The Best Actor Oscar nominee may be most familiar to North American audiences for his Golden Globe-nominated turn as Pablo Escobar in the Netflix series Narcos, but he's a major star in his native Brazil. And that made his role in The Secret Agent as widowed professor Armando, who's forced to leave one life behind for another due to his opposition to the country's 1970s military dictatorship, all the more personal.
“Regarding injustice," Moura told the Los Angeles Times, "I’m usually explosive and that reflects in the kind of characters that I play." At the same time, he noted, “I love that this is not a film about someone who’s trying to overthrow the government—he’s just a guy who sticks with his values, with who he is."
So far this year, the 49-year-old father of three picked up the Golden Globe win for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama, and is also nominated for an Actor (previously SAG) Award.
Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value
The veteran Swedish star known for Good Will Hunting, Mamma Mia!, Thor, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Dune, Chernobyl, Andor, his brooding indie collabs with Lars Von Trier and so much more had yet to have "Oscar nominee" on his CV—until now.
Skarsgård, 74, called the accolades he's been getting for his supporting turn in Joaquim Trier's Sentimental Value as Gustav Borg, a revered director who wants to make a film about his family following the death of his ex-wife, much to his estranged daughters' dismay, delightfully unexpected.
Especially since the father of eight thought he'd never act again after a stroke he suffered three years ago left him with short-term memory damage. Instead, he mastered out how to still be present in a scene while having his lines fed through an earpiece and ended up with the role of a lifetime.
"You can never tell how a film will hit,” Skarsgård, who won the 2026 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture, told the LA Times, “but this one has reached everybody, every generation, every culture. It’s obviously touched something. And it’s remarkable, because in spite of its seriousness, it’s light. It’s like a soufflé with dark specks in it.”
Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value
Sentimental Value is Reinsve's third collab with Trier after 2011's Oslo, August 31, her first film, and 2021's The Worst Person in the World.
And playing Nora, an accomplished TV and theater actress who refuses to be in a film being directed by her estranged father and resists his attempts to reconcile, has resulted in the 38-year-old's first Best Actress Oscar nomination.
The Norwegian star gives Trier a lot of credit for her growth as an actor over the years, as well as creating an environment that allows his cast to spread their wings.
"It’s not necessarily about my role and how I will do the role because that will come from the dynamic between everyone on set," Reinsve told Deadline. "And it’s never about that one performance. It’s about what we want to talk about together in that scene or in the whole movie. And then it’s less pressure that way because it’s never about you or what you bring. It’s what occurs in the scene together with the other performers and the crew."
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
The Norwegian performer, a Best Supporting Actress nominee for playing historian Agnes, Gustav's more stoic and diplomatic daughter, said she connected deeply with the role.
“I see myself in [Agnes] in the way that I have a sister and a brother," the 36-year-old, who also shares a son with actor husband Gunnar Eiriksson, told Deadline. "I know what it means to love them and be scared for them if anything were to happen to them. I know what it’s like to be in a family and want the family to work."
Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
Admitted, "I would’ve said yes to Joachim, even if it was just one tiny little line," Fanning told W of becoming obsessed with his work in The Worst Person in the World. Instead, she netted the part of Rachel, the young American who takes on the film role Reinsve's Nora turns down.
Her Actress in a Supporting Role nod comes after nominations at the Critics Choice Awards and the Golden Globes and a 10/10 filming experience.
"I was an American actress coming to Norway for the first time, much like my character," the 27-year-old detailed to W. "There were a lot of layers going on. I loved it there. It’s very clean, and everyone is riding around on their bikes. I kind of fit right in there."
Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
“There’s humor, there’s horror, there’s fear, there’s gut-wrenching, raw trauma,” the Golden Globe winner for Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical/Comedy told W of Mary Bronstein's If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, in which she plays a therapist who's dealing with a sick child on top of a seemingly endless series of calamities.
"It was daunting, it was thrilling, it was radical, and I couldn’t even begin to think where to start with Linda, my character," Byrne, who shares two children with partner Bobby Cannavale, explained. "I had a huge creative task, but it was also a great opportunity. My adrenaline was so high shooting the film. At the end, I felt very disoriented. I was scared to watch the finished film. I kept avoiding it. When I finally saw it, I was speechless."
The Academy had something to say, however, and now Byrne, 46, is an Oscar nominee for Best Actress.
Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
The Australian actor may have been aided in his quest to transform into Frankenstein's Creature by 42 prosthetics, but the pathos that shines through is all Elordi.
Hence the 28-year-old's first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, following his surprise Critics Choice Award win and Golden Globe and Actor Award nominations.
"There’s a point where you have to leave the world behind," Elordi told Netflix's Tudum of giving himself over to the role. "You have to close all the doors to your house emotionally. You close your ears off and close your eyes off and change the way that you see things—all the regular things that you would do in a day, like eating and showering. They have to take on a new life to be able to shift into something else."
Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
All's fair in love and war.
And while not every project can be a critical darling, Taylor's 20 minutes of screen time playing amorous revolutionary turned "rat" Perfidia Beverly Hills was a one-way ticket to awards season, which now includes a Golden Globe win and her first Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.
“A lot of movies that are being made right now are untouchable, and sometimes you just can’t relate,” the 35-year-old told the LA Times. “PTA’s characters are so beautifully flawed and so human and so raw that you come out of the movie and go, ‘Damn, did you go through that?’ That’s how you’re supposed to feel when you watch a movie. Shake the table. Shake the f--king table. Have the conversations. Have uncomfortable but healthy dialogue.”