With the Golden Globes having come and gone, as fans and critics are wont to do year after year, there was much speculation as to how the Academy Awards nominations would shake out, and we finally had our answer last Thursday, January 22nd. While this year has its usual mix of snubs and surprise nominations (perhaps even less than usual), it’s an admirably strong year for Canadians in the filmmaking industry, with ten citizens of the Great White North having secured nominations in a variety of categories, and all the while Timothée Chalamet and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners etched their own names into the annals of Oscars history.
Although there are no Canadian nominees in what some would call the ‘sexy’ categories – namely for acting, directing, or screenwriting – but it cannot be overstated just how significant it is for Canadian talent to land ten nominations at the world’s premiere awards show for cinema, especially in categories that draw less attention than others, but are no less pivotal in the process of filmmaking. 2026’s Canadian Oscar nominees are as follows:
- Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, writers and directors of The Girl Who Cried Pearls – Best Animated Short
- Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel and Cliona Furey, Frankenstein – Best Makeup and Hairstyling
- Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau, production designer and set decorator respectively of Frankenstein – Best Production Design
- Maggie Kang, co-writer and co-director of K-Pop Demon Hunters – Best Animated Feature
- Domee Shi, co-director and co-story writer of Elio – Best Animated Feature
- J. Miles Dale, co-producer of Frankenstein – Best Picture
What’s as exciting as it is impressive is that most of these nominees are considered to be amongst the favourites in their categories, if not the heavily favoured winner altogether. Of these Canadian nominees, by all accounts it is Maggie Kang who is the closest thing to a lock for her world-dominating work on K-Pop Demon Hunters as a writer and director. Anything less than a win for the animated feature would be considered an upset.
This, of course, leaves little room for Domee Shi, who is also nominated in the Best Animated Feature category, as her movie Elio is thought to be one of the ‘weaker’ contenders. However, that should not take away from her immensely impressive body of work at only 36 years old, which includes two feature length Disney features she wrote and directed, 2022’s Turning Red and Elio, not to mention she won the Oscar for Best Animated Short for Bao in 2019. Something tells this will not be the last time we see her nominated in this category.
Another Canadian Oscar winner with admittedly little hope in their category is J. Miles Dale, who is nominated for Best Picture for co-producing Frankenstein, directed by his frequent collaborator Guillermo del Toro. Still, the pair won statues for their work on 2017’s The Shape of Water, so it is surely one of those, “It’s an honour just to be nominated” moments for both he an del Toro, as One Battle After Another and Sinners are the betting favourites in this coveted category.
However, the rest of the nominees are heavily favoured in their respective categories. The Montreal-based filmmaking duo Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski were last nominated for their debut short, 2007’s Madame Tutli-Putli, and now they are strong contenders for their first statues in the Best Animated Short category.
Meanwhile, despite J. Miles Dale having as much of a chance of winning Best Picture as he does at reanimating the dead, Frankenstein’s makeup and hair department, led by Canadians Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel, and Cliona Furey, are generally considered shoe-ins for the award, but not necessarily locks, as the team from The Smashing Machine could also potentially come away with it. Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau are in a similar position in the Best Production Design category, as they are favoured to win, but there is a chance that Sinners nabs the award in their stead, especially if it goes on a run.
This is entirely possible, as Sinners, which is written and directed by the Hollywood wunderkind Ryan Coogler, surprised many by landing a record of 16 nominations at this year’s Academy Awards, beating the previous record of 14 nominations held by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2016). And speaking of records, last Thursday Timothée Chalamet became the youngest actor ever to receive 3 Oscar nominations. While he is unquestionably the favourite to win Best Actor at this ceremony, Chalamet, who just turned 30 on December 27th, wouldn’t be the youngest ever winner of the award, as Adrien Brody barely has him beat, having won his first Best Actor award at the age of 29 for 2002’s The Pianist.
The 2026 Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, March 15th, 7pm – 10pm, and will be hosted once again by the infallible Conan O’Brien.