The nominations for the 98th Academy Awards were announced on Thursday, January 22. Fans of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were left disappointed as the Wicked: For Good stars were not included in the Best
Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories for the 2026 Oscar.
Despite grossing $524 million at the worldwide box office, Wicked: For Good failed to receive a single nomination at the prestigious awards. This comes after the first part of the Braodway musical – Wicked – bagged 10 nominations at last year’s ceremony and ended up winning two trophies.
Later year, both Grande and Erivo were nominated for their performances in Wicked. While Erivo lost the Best Actress award to Mikey Madison (Anora), the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress was taken by Zoe Saldaña for her work in Emilia Pérez.
Earlier this month, Erivo got snubbed from the Critics Choice Awards as well. Grande, meanwhile, managed to receive a nomination in the Best Supporting Actress honour, which ultimately went to Amy Madigan for Weapons.
Before that, both the stars were nominated for their performances at the Golden Globe Awards. At the event, Rose Byrne received the Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy over Erivo for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, while Teyana Taylor won in the Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role category over Grande for One Battle After Another, People magazine reported.
Oscar 2026: Sinners Dominates With Record-Breaking 16 Nods
The biggest highlight this time is Ryan Coogler’s critically and commercially acclaimed supernatural thriller film, Sinners. It has emerged as the first film ever to be nominated across 16 categories.
Sinners has now surpassed the previous record of 14, which was held by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997) and La La Land (2016). Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn-starrer One Battle After Another, which has heavily dominated the awards season this time, closely trails Sinners, with 13 nominations.
Starring Michael B Jordan as twin brothers, Sinners narrates their journey in setting up a blues club in 1930s Mississippi, while they have to battle racism and vampires. The film has minted $368 million worldwide so far.
Sinners has been nominated in categories like best picture, director, leading actor, supporting actor, supporting actress as well as the Academy’s inaugural casting prize.
Ryan Coogler, the film’s director, told Deadline that he was surprised to see several of his family members on his Los Angeles doorstep ahead of the announcement.
Coogler shared that his father was “keeping count next to me”.
“And when he said (it was 16), I was like, ‘Dad, you got it wrong. There’s no way it’s that many’,” the filmmaker added.
Keywords: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, wicked for good, 2026 Oscar, 2026 Oscar nominations, 98th Academy Awards
