As fall comes to fill the space left behind by the summer film festivals — and the New York Film Festival kicking off this weekend — Oscar contention starts to warm up. While we won’t know which actors and films are nominated until the new year, International Feature Film submissions have been rolling in since mid-summer.
Over a month after the 2025 ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced some new rules and campaign regulations ahead of the 98th ceremony. One of the most notable is that voters must now watch all the nominated films in each category in order to have eligibility in the final voting round.
Another key change involves all designated nominees having their names on the final ballot. Previously for many categories, rather than the person nominated, it was just the name of the film as an option to select.A new category at next year’s ceremony will be Achievement in Casting, though the timing of its announcement isn’t yet known between the ceremony or Governor’s Awards.
For everything else we know about the 2026 Oscars, read on.
When Are the 2026 Oscars?
The 98th ceremony will take place Sunday, March 15, 2026.
Who Is Hosting the 2026 Oscars?
Conan O’Brien will return to host after doing so in 2025.
Producers Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan will return to helm the ceremony for a third consecutive year. O’Brien partners Jeff Ross and Mike Sweeney will produce for the second time with Sweeney also writing.
Will the Oscars be streaming again next year?
ABC’s exclusive negotiating window with the Academy came to an end with the 2025 ceremony, so the organization will shop the show with other networks and plaforms. ABC struck an eight-year agreement with ABC in August 2016, but if the ceremony streams again, it likely won’t be on Hulu as in the past.
When will the 2026 Oscar nominations come out?
January 22 is the day Oscar nominations are set to be announced for the 2026 ceremony.
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