Oscars 2026
The 2026 Oscars: How to Watch, Who’s Hosting, and What to Expect
Conan O'Brien hosting the 2025 Academy Awards.Frank Micelotta/Disney/Getty Images
Everything you need to know about who is hosting, who is nominated, and how to watch the Oscars 2026.
We're just a few days away from the 98th Academy Awards. Ahead of this year's Oscars celebrating 2025 in film, we're here to share how you can watch, plus break down the nominees, host, presenters and performers, and what's new for the 2026 ceremony.
Read on below for everything else you need to know about the Oscars.
When are the Oscars?
The Oscars will take place on March 15, 2026, from the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles at the new time of 7pm ET/4pm PT/11pm GMT. The broadcast is expected to run for three hours, but you can almost certainly count on it going long.
How can I watch the Oscars?
The Oscars will be be televised on your local ABC station. It will also be streaming live on Hulu. (We're still a few years out from the Oscars on YouTube.) If you're interested in the pre-show arrivals and red carpet interviews, ABC's coverage will begin at 3:30pm ET/12:30pm PT and E!'s will kick off at 4pm ET/1pm PT.
Who is hosting the Oscars?
Conan O'Brien – who also starred in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You alongside Best Actress nominee Rose Byrne – is hosting the Oscars for the second year in a row. O'Brien was announced as the 2026 host two weeks after the 2025 Oscars, saying in a statement, "The only reason I’m hosting the Oscars next year is that I want to hear Adrien Brody finish his speech.” To refresh your memory, Brody dragged on for nearly six minutes accepting the award for Best Actor for his role in The Brutalist.
"There'll be some explosions, CGI will be used," O'Brien told ABC News about Round 2. "I see this second Oscars as an opportunity to take things up a notch," especially now that he's well-informed on crucial standards and practices, like always keeping an Oscar statuette upright.
What's new at the Oscars this year?
The Academy Awards are rolling out a new category for the first time since 2001's addition of Best Animated Feature Film: Achievement in Casting will get its debut after being announced in 2024. The award will go to a casting director, but the criteria for winning sounds unexpectedly more complicated than someone who can put together a list of top-notch actors. The first-ever nominees are:
Nina Gold, Hamnet
Jennifer Venditti, Marty Supreme
Cassandra Kulukundis, One Battle after Another
Gabriel Domingues, The Secret Agent
Francine Maisler, Sinners
Who is presenting at the 2026 Oscars?
The official voice of the 2026 will be none other than Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows), who was apparently pitched by Team Coco. "My team and I are massive Matt Berry fans, and have been for quite a while," O'Brien said during a press conference Wednesday morning. "I think he’s one of the funniest people alive, and I’m a regular consumer of his internet madness, his social media madness and the different shows that he’s worked on, and I just think he’s a delight. So we had the idea, could we have Matt participate?"
In the same press conference, the producers confirmed a Bridesmaids reunion with Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and this year's nominee Rose Byrne, and teased a Marvel reunion. "We’re gonna have superstar superheroes, and there is also going to be an extraterrestrial on the stage," executive producer Katy Mullan said. "So you can figure that one out.”
Nicole Kidman, Jimmy Kimmel, Delroy Lindo (a Supporting Actor nominee), Ewan McGregor, Wagner Moura (a Best Actor nominee), Pedro Pascal, Bill Pullman, Lewis Pullman, Channing Tatum, and Sigourney Weaver were also confirmed on Wednesday.
Previously announced presenters include: Will Arnett, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Robert Downey Jr., Anne Hathaway, Paul Mescal, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Evans, and Kumail Nanjiani. Last year's winners Adrien Brody, Kieran Culkin, Mikey Madison, and Zoe Saldaña, as well as 2025 nominee Demi Moore, are also among the group of presenters. Javier Bardem and Chase Infiniti, who starred respectively in F1 and One Battle After Another but did not receive individual nominations, will also present. (Infiniti's omission in the Supporting Actress race is considered one of the big snubs of this year's awards.)
What are this year's Oscars nominees?
Best Picture:
Bugonia
F1
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle after Another
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Train Dreams
Best Actor:
Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme
Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle after Another
Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Best Actress:
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
Best Director:
Chloé Zhao, Hamnet
Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle after Another
Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
Ryan Coogler, Sinners
SOURCE: IGN
