Jessie Buckley lead British and Irish hopes at the Oscars as nominations are announced but there are shock snubs for Paul Mescal and Cynthia Erivo

Jessie Buckley leads hopes for the Brits and Irish at the 2026 Academy Awards as the nominations were announced on Thursday.

The Irish actress has earned an Actress in a Leading Role nomination for her role in Hamnet.

After bagging a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice award this month, Jessie will go into the March 16 ceremony in Los Angeles as a nominee, four years after she earned a nod for The Lost Daughter. 

Actress in a Leading Role will be a highly competitive field as Jessie goes up against Rose Byrne - If I Had Legs I would Kick You, Kate Hudson - Song Sung Blue, Renate Reinsve - Sentimental Value, and Emma Stone - Bugonia.

Jessie's Hamnet co-star Paul Mescal was amongst the biggest snubs during Thursday's nominations, failing to receive a nod in the Actor in a Supporting Role field.

Irish actor Paul received nods in that category at the Golden Globes and SAGs but the Academy Awards instead features Brit actor Delroy Lindo, for his role in Sinners. 

Delroy is up against Benecio Del Toro - One Battle After Another, Jacob Elordi - Frankenstein, Sean Penn - One Battle After Another, and Stellan Skarsgard - Sentimental Value.

In another notable snub Wicked For Good star Cynthia Erivo missed out on an acting nomination, shocking fans who expected her to be be up after her nod a year ago for the first Wicked movie.

In fact the Wicked sequel, including its other leading lady Ariana Grande, was completely shut out of the 2026 Oscar race a year after its predecessor collected 10 nominations, including Best Picture.

British-Nigerian actress Wunmi Mosaku has also earned a nomination, earning a nod in the Best Supporting Actress field for her role as Hoodoo priestess Annie in Sinners.

It is Mosaku’s first Academy Award nod, but she also has nominations at the Critics’ Choice Awards and Actors Awards.

It was a record-breaking morning as Ryan Coogler's Sinners made history as it earned most Academy Awards nominations ever with 16 including biggest prize of the night Best Picture. It had broken the record previously shared by 1950’s All About Eve, 1997’s Titanic and 2016’s La La Land.

The horror flick is one of the ten films up for the honor as the field is rounded out by: Bugonia, F1, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, and Train Dreams.

The main battle come March 16 will be Timothee Chalamet vs Leonardo DiCaprio who face off in coveted Best Actor category.

Timothee, 30, received a nod for Marty Supreme while Leo, 51, earned it for One Battle Another as the A-listers will face off against Ethan Hawke - Blue Moon, Michael B. Jordan, and Wagner Moura - The Secret Agent.

The 98th annual Academy Awards will take place just under two months from now at its home The Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on March 15.

Danielle Brooks and Lewis Pullman announced the nominees in all 24 categories, including the new casting award, as it could be viewed in a livestream from the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

There are just over 11,000 members of the Academy with individuals split into 19 branches.

Those branches are split between directors, writers, costume designers, hair and make-up teams, publicists, and the biggest one of all: actors.

Of those 11,000 members, just under 10,000 end up voting for the Academy Awards as members who don't vote have emeritus status.

The Academy has massively increased its membership over the past 14 years as a Los Angeles Times report published in 2012 revealed the Academy had about 5,800 members at that time.

Nominees were chosen through a ranked-choice ballot, AKA a preferential ballot, as each voter listed their nominees in order of preference.

Then when the ballots are counted, nominees were selected based on the number of votes over a particular threshold as well as the number of overall nominees in that category.

However, for those contenders that didn’t hit the required threshold, the ranked-choice balloting takes effect.

At the biggest night in film, 24 categories will be awarded as each category features five nominees, except for Best Picture, which has ten.

Best Picture nominations are determined by eligible members from all 19 Academy branches.

All rounds of Oscars voting are conducted by secret online ballot, tabulated by the independent accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers

Oscar viewers will be seeing a familiar face as Conan O'Brien will be returning to host a year after he helped last year's ceremony draw the biggest audience in five years.

The 98th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 15, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide.