Which movies actually could win the best picture Oscar? Our top 5.

It's the final countdown.

For a lot of folks, figuring out what'll be namedbest pictureon March 15 at the 98thAcademy Awards(ABC and Hulu, 7 p.m. ET/4 PT) is a relatively recent conundrum. Yet while they've only been thinking about it since late January, film critics like yours truly have been thinking aboutthis slate of 10 nominated filmsfor much of the last year. That's a lot of hemming and hawing, a lot of second- and triple-guessing, and a bevy of rewatches to gauge the worthiness of being part ofa historically significant canon. (Thankfully, they're all at least pretty good – no "Bohemian Rhapsody" lurking among themto worry about possibly winning.)

So what's the best of the best amongthis year's Oscar crop? Here are my top five:

USA TODAY Movie MeterHelp select the film of the year!

1. 'Sinners'

"The Life of Chuck" might have beenthe best movie of 2025, but"Sinners"was a close second, so it makes the top of my ballot.Ryan Coogler's vampire-filled musical period epic won best ensemble at the Actor Awards, making the Oscar race downright scintillating in the last weeks.Michael B. Jordandelivers a sensational dual performance as twin gangsters staving off bloodsuckers at their juke joint's door. It's gory and bizarre but rousing and beautiful. And "Sinners" − which would bejust the second horror moviein almost a century of Oscar history to win best picture − is the one film on this list that really feels like it'll influence a generation of filmmakers.

Advertisement

2. 'Hamnet'

At the Oscars, never count out any movie that can totally wreck a viewer emotionally (see: "CODA," "Moonlight").Jessie Buckley, a runaway choice for best actress, helps put an audience through the wringer with her heartbreaking portrayal as Shakespeare's wife dealing with the tragic death of their son. Add in Paul Mescal's solid turn as an absent Bard dad who deals with the loss in his own way, plus a cathartic final act, and director Chloé Zhao'sgut-wrenching historical dramahas a good chance of placing high on a lot of Oscar voters' lists.

Oscars are here! See which actors, directors and films are nominated for the 98th Academy Awards, to be handed out live March 15 and broadcast on ABC and Hulu.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

Oscars 2026 – The top nominees in photos

Oscars are here! See which actors, directors and films are nominated for the 98th Academy Awards, to be handed out live March 15 and broadcast on ABC and Hulu.

3. 'Frankenstein'

WhileGuillermo del Torohas won the category before – with "The Shape of Water" – thisthoughtful adaptationof Mary Shelley's masterwork is his greatest hit. The "Frankenstein" mythos has been done and redone for almost as long as Hollywood has been around, but del Toro creates an all-around technical achievement – cinematography, costumes, production design, oh, my! – as his egotistical scientist (Oscar Isaac) crafts a monster.Jacob Elordi's sensational performance as the Creature is just the cherry on top of a familiar tale told exquisitely.

4. 'Sentimental Value'

Joachim Trier's wry and moving Norwegian drama smacks of the days of "Terms of Endearment" and "Ordinary People," with a well-acted family story where there needs to be some serious hugging-it-out so a dysfunctional family can come together.Stellan Skarsgårdplays an aging filmmaker whose selfish past led to an estrangement from his daughters and who wants to make a movie inspired by their mom.Renate Reinsveis the determined stage actress who's not having it, whileInga Ibsdotter Lilleaassoars as the sibling trying to mend severely broken fences.

1968: "Oliver!" | Mark Lester plays the titular orphan in the film based on Charles Dickens' novel "Oliver Twist."

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 1999: "American Beauty" | Kevin Spacey, with Mena Suvari, won the best-actor Oscar.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 2000: "Gladiator" | Russell Crowe won the best-actor Oscar.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 2003: "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" | Ian McKellen helped complete the Middle-earth trilogy. This is the third film to win the all-time high of 11 Oscars, and the only fantasy film ever to win the Academy's top prize.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 2006: "The Departed" | Leonardo DiCaprio, left, and Jack Nicholson star in this film that also won Martin Scorsese a directing Oscar.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 2008: "Slumdog Millionaire" | The movie set in India, with Dev Patel and Freida Pinto, won eight Oscars, none in acting categories.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 2009: "The Hurt Locker" | Jeremy Renner received a best-actor nomination but did not win. The film, however, won six Oscars, and Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Oscar for directing.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 2011: "The Artist" | Jean Dujardin won the Oscar for best actor while Bérénice Bejo received a best-supporting actress nomination. The (mostly) silent film won five Academy Awards.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 2012: "Argo" | Ben Affleck produced, directed and starred in this best picture based on the real-life rescue of American embassy workers in Iran in 1980.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 2016: "Moonlight" | In the wildest Oscars ending ever, "La La Land" was erroneously announced as best picture. But in reality, the vote went to "Moonlight," the coming-of-age drama starring Mahershala Ali, right, and Alex Hibbert. The film won three Oscars, including best supporting actor for Ali and screenplay for director Barry Jenkins.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 2017: "The Shape of Water" | A voiceless janitor, played by Sally Hawkins, and her co-worker, Octavia Spencer, work in a secret government laboratory in 1960s Baltimore. The romantic fantasy earned 13 Oscar nominations and won four.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 2018: "Green Book" | Mahershala Ali stars as classical and jazz pianist Don Shirley and Viggo Mortensen is Frank "Tony Lip" Vallelonga, his driver and bodyguard in the 1960s Deep South. Ali won the Oscar for best supporting actor.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 2020: "Nomadland" | Frances McDormand stars as a nomad who lives out of her van after she loses her husband and her home when their Nevada mining town is wiped out in an economic collapse. The film won three Oscars, including best actress for McDormand and best director for Chloé Zhao, who made Oscar history as first woman of color to win the category.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 2024: "Anora" | A Brooklyn sex worker (Mikey Madison) elopes with a Russian oligarch's son (Mark Eydelshteyn). The film won five Oscars, including best actress for Madison and best director (Sean Baker).

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

Every Oscar best-picture winner, ever

5. 'One Battle After Another'

People who love Paul Thomas Anderson'spolitically charged action dramedyadore it, which has given it a lot of momentum throughout awards season. And it's definitely got the resume – with top prizes fromBritish Academy Film Awards,Golden Globes, plus theproducers'anddirectors' guilds– to go all the way.Leonardo DiCapriois back in Oscar-ready form as a stoner former revolutionary who is left by his spirited love (Teyana Taylor) and struggles to save his daughter (fabulous newcomerChase Infiniti) from a dastardly nemesis (Sean Penn). It's an inspired film built to meet an angry moment.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Oscar best picture 2026 nominees – 5 movies that could win

byCustos Caelorum

in

March 08, 2026

Which movies actually could win the best picture Oscar? Our top 5.

It's the final countdown. For a lot of folks, figuring out what'll be namedbest pictureon March 15 at...

Read More

Steve Carell's slip filming ‘Rooster’ - ‘Everyone broke instantly’

Appropriately, the idea forHBO's new comedy "Rooster"hatched from an emptying chicken coop, creatorsBill Lawrence("Scrubs," "Shrinking") and Matt Tarses ("Bad Monkey," "Sports Night") squawk – er, say.

They, along with starSteve Carell"all have daughters that are about the same age, in their early 20s," Tarses says. "And are all faced with the same issue of trying to be involved slash control their lives and them not being interested in that anymore."

Lawrence adds, "because if you held a gun to our head, we'd have to admit we're not really doing it to protect them. We're doing it for ourselves and to try and stay in their lives as they kind of pull away, as they should, because they're adults."

In "Rooster" (Sundays, 10 ET/PT and streaming on HBO Max) Greg Russo (Carell) is a divorced, successful novelist with a series of books starring a character named Rooster, who accepts an offer from Ludlow College's president (John C. McGinley) to be the school's writer in residence, where his daughter Katie (Charly Clive) also teaches. Greg hopes to comfort Katie her amid a separation from her husband Archie (Phil Dunster), who's become involved with a graduate student (Lauren Tsai).

Dunster and Lawrence worked together on "Ted Lasso," in which the actor embodied the self-centered striker Jamie Tartt, who softened over time.

"We say he's an Eddie Haskell" from "Leave It to Beaver," says Lawrence, executive producer of the Apple TV comedyslated to kick off Season 4 this summer. "He can say and do things that are reprehensible and yet part of you, even though you hate yourself for it, the back of your head still goes, 'Ah, that guy.'"

"Archie gets in a real spot of bother," UK-born Dunster teases. "And he uses varying tactics to varying degrees of success to get him outside of that sticky patch, and we'll see whether he learns from that and becomes a better person or not."

Meanwhile Katie's "coming apart at the seams," Clive says. "Her well-meaning but sometimes overbearing father has come into her sort of sacred space to lift her out of a funk. And I think the tip of the iceberg looks bad, and what's under the water is worse."

"When you're lateral with your child… you are being humbled," Danielle Deadwyler, who portrays Professor Dylan Shepherd, says of the comedy at play. "The horribly assumed hierarchies are collapsed," and the relationship is morphing into something new.

Advertisement

Carell and his wife Nancy exchanged vows in 1995 and share two children: Elisabeth Anne, 24, and John, 21. Carell says he relates to Greg's enormous love for family.

It's hard to say goodbye, but fans of these TV shows will have to do just that in 2026. From fantasy epics like Starz's "Outlander" (starring Sam Heughan, left, and Caitriona Balfe, pictured) to talk shows like "The Kelly Clarkson Show" and "Late Night With Stephen Colbert," these 20 shows are ending this year.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Jeff Daniels, left, and Stephen Colbert on CBS's "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert." The show is set to end in May 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Homelander (Antony Starr, left) and Ryan (Cameron Crovetti) in "The Boys." The Prime Video comic book adaptation will conclude with the fifth and final season.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Jeremy Renner, left, as Mike McLusky and Edie Falco as Nina Hobbs in "Mayor of Kingstown." The show will end with its fifth season.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> CBS's "The Neighborhood" will end at Season 8.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Football drama "All American" will end on the CW after eight seasons.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Robson Green, left, as Geordie Keating and Tom Brittney as Will Davenport in "Grantchester." The PBS mainstay will end after 11 seasons.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> David Tennant (as Crowley) and Michael Sheen (Aziraphale) in "Good Omens." The Prime Video series will return for a 90-minute concluding film in 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Netflix's fantasy juggernaut "The Witcher" will have one final season in 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Andie MacDowell in "The Way Home" on Hallmark, which has a fourth and final season in 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Netflix teen drama "Outer Banks" will end after a fifth season this year.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Wanda Sykes speaks to Sherri Shepherd on "Sherri." It's another talk show taking a final bow in 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Showtime's long-running drama "The Chi" will have one last hurrah in Season 8 this year.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Netflix's celebrated "Queer Eye" has its 10th and final season of makeovers in 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> After a dramatic third season, Hulu's twisty "Tell Me Lies" announced its ending.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Wanda Sykes' Netflix sitcom "The Upshaws" is ending after a Part 7 on the streaming service.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Kiawentiio as Katara, Gordon Cormier as Aang and Ian Ousley as Sokka in "Avatar: The Last Airbender." The adaptation of the Nickelodeon animated series will end after its 2026 third season.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> The teens of "Yellowjackets" will say goodbye to the Wilderness after 2026's fourth season.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Tommy and Tariq reunite in the series finale of "Power Book IV: Force." Starz's spinoff of "Power" is set to end with its third season.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

Say it isn't so! These TV shows are ending in 2026

It's hard to say goodbye, but fans of these TV shows will have to do just that in 2026. From fantasy epics like Starz's "Outlander" (starring Sam Heughan, left, andCaitriona Balfe, pictured) to talk shows like "The Kelly Clarkson Show" and "Late Night With Stephen Colbert," these 20 shows are ending this year.

"There's a line where my character says, 'I would do anything for Katie,'" Carell says, "and on one take, I actually said my daughter's name instead. And she was on set."

"It was very sweet," Clive remembers. "Everyone broke instantly just to say, 'Oh!' It was so cute."

Carell's wife Nancy also visited the set, in a working capacity. She appears in Episode 3 as the wife of the dean of faculty (Alan Ruck), an idea dreamt up by Lawrence and Tarses.

"I knew and Matt knew Nancy is a talented comedienne in her own right," Lawrence says. "And I just loved that kind of intimacy between two people that shouldn't have that level of intimacy right away."

Carell says Nancy, who's also appeared on "The Office," "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Bridesmaids," thought the gig sounded fun.

"I love it," he says of their collaboration. "She's the funniest person I know. She's way funnier than I am, honestly."

"That's true," Clive interjects playfully. "I've met her."

"I think we have very similar senses of humor," Carell adds, still obviously smitten after more than 30 years of marriage, "but hers is just better."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Steve Carell's new show 'Rooster' features cameo by wife Nancy

byCustos Caelorum

in

March 08, 2026

Steve Carell's slip filming ‘Rooster’ - ‘Everyone broke instantly’

Appropriately, the idea forHBO's new comedy "Rooster"hatched from an emptying chicken coop, creatorsBill L...

Read More