This year’s Academy Awards could deliver some landmark firsts in the long history of the contest, as well as potentially setting a handful of records.
The American horror film Sinners has already broken new ground by clocking up a total of 16 nominations – more than any other movie since the Oscars were established in 1929.
If Sinners manages to win 11 awards at the ceremony on Sunday night, it will equal the record for the most Oscars picked up by a single film, set by Ben-Hur in 1960 and matched by Titanic in 1998 and The Return Of The King in 2004.
Were it to go one better and scoop 12 awards, it would set a new record.
One of the 16 nominations bagged by Sinners is for Ryan Coogler, for best director.
If Coogler triumphs, it will be the first time a black director has won the award.
The first non-white person to win best director was Ang Lee in 2006, for Brokeback Mountain.
There have been three other instances of non-white directors receiving this Oscar: in 2013, when Lee won again for Life Of Pi; in 2020, won by Bong Joon Ho for Parasite; and in 2021, by Chloe Zhao for Nomadland.
Zhao is one of this year’s other nominees for best director, for the film Hamnet.
She will herself make history if she manages to pip Coogler to the prize, becoming the first woman to win the award twice.
Zhao is one of only three women in history to have won the Oscar for best director.
The other two are Kathryn Bigelow (for The Hurt Locker in 2010) and Jane Campion (The Power Of The Dog in 2022).
Hamnet’s star, Jessie Buckley, will make history for her home nation of Ireland if – as expected – she wins an Oscar.
Buckley has already bagged a Bafta, a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice award for her role as the wife of William Shakespeare.
Capping the set with an Academy Award would make her the first ever Irish performer to be named best actress.
It would also come just two years after Ireland triumphed in the Oscar for best actor, when Cillian Murphy won for his role in Oppenheimer.
Further back, Barry Fitzgerald scored a win for Ireland at the Oscars in the best supporting actor category in 1945, for his performance in the musical comedy Going My Way, while Brenda Fricker did likewise in the best supporting actress category in 1990, for her part in the biographical drama My Left Foot.
British talent failed to win any of the four acting Oscars in 2025 – the fourth year in a row this had happened.
There could be a fifth consecutive washout in 2026.
No British performers have been nominated for best actor or best actress, the first time this has occurred in the same year since 2012.
The UK is represented in the other two acting categories, with Delroy Lindo in the running for best supporting actor and Wunmi Mosaku nominated for best supporting actress, in both cases for roles in Sinners.
While Mosaku has already picked up this year’s Bafta for best supporting actress, both she and Lindo face tough competition for their respective Oscars and neither are the clear front-runners to win.
One of Mosaku’s fellow nominees, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, would make history if she is named best supporting actress, becoming the first person from Norway to win an acting Oscar in any category.
Elsewhere, history has already been made in the category for best cinematography, where Autumn Durald Arkapaw is the first ever black woman to be nominated, for her work on Sinners.
If she triumphs on Sunday night, she will be not only the first ever black female to win the award, but also the first woman to take home the prize.
The first non-white man to win the Oscar for best cinematography was Peter Pau in 2001, for the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Ruth E Carter is one of the nominees for best costume design, also for Sinners.
If she wins, she will be the first black designer to collect a hat-trick of Oscars, having previously received the award in 2019, for Black Panther, and in 2023, for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
