Entertainment

The 2026 Academy Awards ceremony is Sunday, and this year there are many first-time nominees up for trophies. Here’s a look at some of the stars who are nominated for their first-ever Oscar at the 98th annual awards show.

Eleven of the performers nominated in the acting categories at this year’s ceremony are up for their first Oscars.

Michael B. Jordan is nominated for his first Oscar for portraying the twin brothers Smoke and Stack in Sinners. The only other first-time nominee in the actor in a leading role category is Wagner Moura, the Brazilian actor who is nominated for his work in The Secret Agent.

Meanwhile, the actor in a supporting role category has three first-time nominees: Jacob Elordi in Frankenstein, Delroy Lindo in Sinners and Stellan Skarsgård in Sentimental Value.

The actress in a leading role category has two first-time nominees. Renate Reinsve is up for her performance in Sentimental Value, while Rose Byrne has received a nomination for her role in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.

It’s the actress in a supporting role category that has the most first-time nominees this year. Both Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas are nominated for their performances in Sentimental Value; Wunmi Mosaku was nominated for Sinners; and Teyana Taylor received a nomination for One Battle After Another.

Additionally, two of the directors competing for best director are first-time nominees in the category: Ryan Coogler, the director of Sinners, and Josh Safdie, who helmed Marty Supreme.

The Oscars will take place on Sunday at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood. The show will air live on ABC and will also stream live on Hulu.

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Yara Shahidi, Nyambi Nyambi and Larry Wilmore have joined the cast of director Kay Cannon’s Netflix crypto comedy One Attempt Remaining, according to Deadline.

They are three of seven people recently added to the cast, although details about their characters are under wraps. Previously announced stars include leads Jennifer Garner and John Cena, as well as Kate McKinnon and Aimee Carrero.

According to Netflix, One Attempt Remaining will follow a divorced couple who have three days to remember the password to their cryptocurrency, which is now worth millions. In the process of retracing their steps, they not only try to find the password but also the reason they initially fell in love.

The film, written by Joe Boothe, Alexa Alemanni and Cannon, has begun production in LA.

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Kathryn Hahn has been mother, but now she’s officially Mother Gothel.

Walt Disney Studios has announced that Hahn will star as the villainous Mother Gothel in its live-action film adaptation of the animated movie-musical Tangled.

The news was shared in a video posted to Instagram on Tuesday, which Hahn collaborated on with Walt Disney Studios. In the video, Hahn wears a black T-shirt that has many images of the animated character Mother Gothel adorned on it.

“OOTD, Mother Gothel,” the caption of the video reads.

Additionally, Hahn has changed her Instagram bio. It now reads “mother knows best,” alongside a mirror emoji, a reference to her character’s song in the musical, called “Mother Knows Best.”

Australian actress Teagan Croft will lead the film as the Disney Princess Rapunzel, while Milo Manheim, star of Disney Channel’s Zombies franchise, will take on the role of the dashing rogue Flynn Rider. 

The Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey will helm the film from a script by Do Revenge writer and director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. Kristin Burr of Cruella and Freakier Friday will produce.

Croft and Manheim will take on the characters that were originated by Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi in the 2010 animated feature. Donna Murphy was the voice of Mother Gothel in the original film.

The original Tangled was directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, with a screenplay by Dan Fogelman. It earned more than $582 million at the worldwide box office, according to The Numbers. Additionally, the film won a Grammy for the song “I See the Light,” which also earned a best original song nomination at the Academy Awards.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Team Whark It is back together, but this time on the Broadway stage.

Dancing with the Stars professional dancer Mark Ballas is making his return to Broadway by joining his partner from season 34, Whitney Leavitt, in the Tony-winning revival of Chicago.

Ballas will take on the role of Billy Flynn in a four-week limited engagement that runs from April 6 to May 3. Leavitt will extend her time in the production once again and continue to play Roxie Hart throughout Ballas’ run in the show. The pair danced an Argentine tango to “Cell Block Tango,” one of the most popular songs in Chicago, during season 34 of Dancing with the Stars.

“This is a full-circle moment for me. One of the first shows I auditioned for after graduating musical theatre college was for the ensemble of Chicago in the West End in London,” Ballas wrote on Instagram. “I was 19 years old, new to the industry, learning how to pay my dues, accept rejection, and be told no. Twenty years later, I’m making my return to Broadway as Billy Flynn.”

Ballas previously made his Broadway debut in a production of Jersey Boys in 2016, staying with the show until it closed in January 2017. He then went on to star in Kinky Boots on Broadway in 2018.

“Hard work, persistence, dedication to the craft, and relentlessness really do pay off. Thank you to my musical theatre teachers for instilling this in me, and for the years of tough love,” Ballas wrote.

Leavitt also took to Instagram to share her excitement over Ballas’ casting.

“This secret was way too hard to keep! The incredible @markballas & I will be performing TOGETHER in @chicagomusical,” Leavitt wrote. “Can’t wait to perform on stage together again.”

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It’s-a me, Donald Glover!

The final trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has arrived, and it shows off that Glover voices one of the most-anticipated characters to join the animated film universe — the green dinosaur Yoshi.

Other newly announced voice cast members include Luis Guzman, who plays Wart, as well as Issa Rae, who plays Honey Queen.

This final trailer for the Illumination and Nintendo film finds Bowser Jr. attacking Mario and Luigi and demanding the release of his father, Bowser.

“The Bowser name shall be feared once more,” Bowser Jr. says in the trailer.

This new film is inspired by the Super Mario Galaxy video games, which find Mario and friends in the cosmos.

The voice actors from the previous film returned to voice the roles they originated. Chris Pratt is back as Mario, Charlie Day returns to play Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy voices Princess Peach, Jack Black voices Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key is back as Toad and Kevin Michael Richardson voices Kamek.

Additionally, Brie Larson was tapped to voice Princess Rosalina, while Benny Safdie portrays Bowser Jr.

Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic directed The Super Mario Galaxy Movie from a screenplay by Matthew Fogel.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie arrives in theaters on April 1.

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The 98th annual Academy Awards air Sunday night, and KPop Demon Hunters has been nominated for best animated feature and best original song for “Golden.” If it wins in either category, it will be a record-setting moment for South Korean creatives.

Arden Cho, who voices the movie’s main character, Rumi, told ABC Audio, “I feel like it would be such an honor and what an incredible history-making moment if we were to win an Oscar.”

“I think there’s … so many Koreans involved in this project and it is sort of the first animation set in Korea,” she added. “I just feel like it’d be really groundbreaking.”

If KPop Demon Hunters wins best animated feature, director Maggie Kang and producer Michelle Wong would be the first individuals of South Korean descent to win in that category. And if “Golden” is named best original song, four of the song’s five co-writers — including EJAE, who provides Rumi’s singing voice — would be the first South Koreans to win in that category.

KPop Demon Hunters has been a cultural phenomenon ever since it debuted on Netflix in 2025, while its soundtrack has topped the charts and spun off a series of top-10 hits. Kevin Woo, who provides the singing voice of Mystery Saja in the film, attempted to explain the project’s global appeal.

“I think it’s a culmination of different elements. It’s the storyline of finding your own voice and identity,” he told ABC Audio. “And also, the music really spoke to a lot of people around the world. And it transcends culture and genre and film and music and everything all at once. So I really think it is something special that the world needed at this moment.” 

The 2026 Oscars will air on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on ABC and stream on Hulu.

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With less than a week to go before the 2026 Oscars, Timothée Chalamet is facing backlash for comments he made about opera and ballet in a recent interview.

The actor has specifically been criticized by some in the arts community for saying “no one cares” about ballet and opera, suggesting they are dying arts.

“I admire people — and I’ve done it myself — [who] go on a talk show and go, ‘Hey, we gotta keep movie theaters alive, you know, we gotta keep this genre alive,'” Chalamet said during a town hall with Matthew McConaughey in late February, presented by CNN and Variety. “And I don’t wanna be working in ballet or opera or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive,’ even though it’s like, no one cares about this anymore.”

Chalamet quickly added, “All respect to the ballet and opera people out there,” as the crowd laughed.

“I just lost 14 cents in viewership,” he said.

Megan Fairchild, a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, responded to Chalamet’s comments on Instagram last week, sharing a video of herself alongside a caption that read in part, “Artists supporting artists matters. None of these paths are easy, and there’s no need to put ballet or opera down along the way.”

“Ballet and opera aren’t niche hobbies people opt out of for fame,” Fairchild said in the video. “They’re disciplines you can only enter if you have the rare ability for them in the first place.”

Conductor Alondra de la Parra also joined the chorus of pushback in a viral Instagram video in which she walks out of a prop coffin, saying jokingly, “I’m coming out of my coffin, because… we’re dead.”

The Seattle Opera, meanwhile, seized on Chalamet’s comments as an opportunity to promote its production of “Carmen,” giving operagoers 14% off tickets with the promo code “TIMOTHEE.”

“Timmy, you’re welcome to use it too,” the company wrote in the caption of an Instagram post Friday.

Chalamet has previously spoken about his family’s own history in the arts, particularly his mother’s, grandmother’s and sister’s ballet careers.

“I grew up backstage at the New York City Ballet. My grandmother danced in the New York City Ballet, my mother danced in the New York City Ballet, my sister danced in the New York City Ballet,” he said in an interview last December promoting Marty Supreme, which has since resurfaced online.

The pushback comes just days ahead of the 98th Academy Awards, which take place Sunday at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Chalamet has been on a roll this award season, winning best actor statuettes at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards and more.

Chalamet started off award season as the Oscar favorite for lead actor, though in recent weeks Sinners star Michael B. Jordan has emerged as another strong contender.

Kelley Carter, ABC News entertainment contributor, pointed to the timing of the backlash to Chalamet’s February town hall remarks, saying it is important to keep in mind that “awards season is a political campaign.”

“While you’re not going to see outright smear campaigns, you are going to see people resurfacing maybe unfavorable interviews at times,” she said.

ABC News has reached out to Chalamet’s representatives for comment.

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Elijah Wood doesn’t want anyone else to play Frodo.

The actor, who portrayed the hobbit Frodo Baggins in all three of The Lord of the Rings films, recently told The Sunday Times he does not want his iconic part to be recast in the future.

“I certainly wouldn’t want anybody else to play Frodo,” Wood said, continuing, “as long as I’m alive and able.”

While it is still unconfirmed if Wood will return as Frodo in the 2027 Lord of the Rings film The Hunt for Gollum, Ian McKellen has said he will come back to play the role of Gandalf.

When asked if he will appear in the upcoming Andy Serkis-directed movie, Wood played coy.

“It hasn’t been officially announced, but at a convention last August, Ian sort of let the cat out of the bag,” Wood said. “So there is a good chance. I’m not able to officially say anything until it’s announced, but I will say I’m thrilled with the prospect of another film.”

Wood continued, saying it is “always a little nerve-racking when people talk about new movies for a world like Middle-earth.”

“Everyone gets a little protective and hopes it retains its level of integrity, but this story is fun, thrilling,” Wood said. “There is a genuine feeling of getting the band back together.”

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It’s time to roll out the red carpet and butter the popcorn.

If you can believe it, the 2026 Oscars ceremony will be held Sunday. Perhaps the awards season has flown by and you’ve found yourself needing to catch up on this year’s Oscar-nominated films. With that in mind, here’s a guide to where you can watch the films nominated for best picture at the 98th annual Oscars.

Bugonia, the Emma Stone-starring black comedy thriller from director Yorgos Lanthimos, is available to stream on Peacock. Stone is also nominated for best actress, an award she has won two other times. Also streaming on Peacock is the Chloé Zhao-directed film adaption of Hamnet. The movie is up for eight awards at the ceremony, including best actress, best director and best adapted screenplay.

You can drive on to Apple TV to watch the Brad Pitt-starring film F1, while the Netflix original films Frankenstein and Train Dreams are available to screen on that streaming service.

Marty Supreme is still playing in select movie theaters, but it’s also available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video. The film, which follows a young man who dreams of becoming a table tennis champion, is up for nine nominations at the awards ceremony, including best actor for Timothée Chalamet.

The Secret Agent is currently streaming on Hulu, and while Sentimental Value is set to appear on that service on March 23, it is currently only available to rent or buy on Apple TV or Prime Video.

Finally, two of the biggest films of this year’s awards race are both available to watch on HBO Max. The Paul Thomas Anderson film One Battle After Another, which is up for 13 nods, is streaming on the service, as is Ryan Coogler’s action-horror film Sinners, which has more nominations than any other film this year with 16.

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Miley Cyrus knows how to get to Sesame Street.

The singer is the special guest for volume two of the reimagined Sesame Street, which drops Monday on Netflix and PBS KIDS.

She appears in the “Elmo’s Toy Swap” episode as Elmo learns there’s “no wrong way to play.” In a clip posted to Instagram, we see Miley singing a song about imagination with Elmo and friends.

“We can be whatever we can dream/ When we imagine, anything can happen,” they sing as they imagine themselves in a submarine underwater.

The scene then cuts back to the toy swap, where Miley holds up a sparkly high heel. “Let’s imagine what we can do with this!” she says.

“We loved imagining with you, @mileycyrus!” the show wrote on its Instagram account. “Thanks for stopping by Sesame Street to sing and dance with us. We love you!”

Season 56 of Sesame Street is airing in three volumes. The first volume debuted last November.

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