As of Oct. 3, 95 films have been announced as submissions by their countries, passing the total of 86 that qualified last year and making it all but certain that the final, AMPAS-approved total will hit 90 for the first time in four years.

The 86 submissions do not include films from 13 countries that took part in the race last year, including regular participants China and the United Kingdom.  

Countries with approved selection committees have until Sept. 30 to choose a film to represent their country in the race. The Academy then vets those films to make sure they meet language, creative input and theatrical-release requirements.

At the moment, the category doesn’t seem to have the kind of clear frontrunner it had in recent years with “Sentimental Value,” “The Zone of Interest” and “All Quiet on the Western Front.” (Of course, “Emilia Perez” seemed to be a clear frontrunner this time of year in 2024, but it ended up losing to “I’m Still Here.”)

The films with the best chance of advancing to the shortlist at this point seem to be Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord,” which won the Palme d’Or in Cannes; Javier Calvo and Javier Abrosso’s “La Bola Negra,” Spain’s entry; “Fatherland” from Pawel Pawlikowski, whose last two films have been nominated; South Korea’s “Possible Love,” from Lee Chang-dong; Japan’s “All of a Sudden,” from Ryusuke Hamaguchi, whose last film won; Lukas Dhont’s “Coward,” Belgium’s entry; Austria’s “Rose,” which like “Fatherland” stars Sandra Huller; and the French submission, “Minotaur,” from twice-nominated Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, now living in exile in Paris.

All of those films except “Possible Love” and “Rose” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May – and to further confirm that festival’s primacy as an Oscar feeder in this category, so did “The Dreamed Adventure” (Bulgaria), “Elephants in the Fog” (Nepal), “Everytime” (Germany), “The Meltdown” (Chile), “Strawberries” (Morocco), “Ulya” (Latvia), “Dua” (Kosovo), “9 Temples to Heaven” (Thailand) and “Death Has No Master” (Venezuela).

The list below consists of all the films that were announced as official submissions by their home countries, or were reported to have been entered. Submission does not guarantee that a film will meet the Academy’s requirements, although it’s likely that the vast majority of these films will end up on the official list of qualifying movies when the Academy releases it.

The Academy will assign voters in the international category lists of required-viewing films, most likely in late October. An initial round of voting will take place Dec. 7-11, with a 15-film shortlist announced on Dec. 15.

For the first time, AMPAS has added a new method of qualifying, with films that won awards at six different festivals accepted in the competition as long as they meet the other requirements. We’ve added the films that qualified via festival awards to the end of this list.

Below, you can find information on all the known submissions, along with trailers of the films when available.

The list will be updated as new submissions are announced, and finalized when the Academy reveals its official list.

Country submissions

ALBANIA
“A State Film,” Roland Sejko
Documentary filmmaker Sejko assembled this look at the communist regime of Enver Hoxha, which lasted from 1946 until 1991, by using propaganda footage produced by the regime itself, and presenting it without commentary. This is the second documentary to be submitted by Albania, the only previous one being 2023’s “Alexander.”
Trailer (no dialogue)

ALGERIA
“Roqia,” Yanis Koussim
One of a handful of horror films in the competition, Koussim’s thriller focuses on an exorcist and a young man who is suffering from amnesia and possibly demonic possession that may date back to his military service. The film mixes fundamentalist religion with themes drawn from  the “Black Decade” of the Algerian Civil War in the 1990s.
Subtitled trailer

ARGENTINA
“The Virgin of the Quarry Lake,” Laura Casabe
In recent years, South American Oscar submissions have often used horror tropes to deal with political and social realities, and this year’s Argentinian entry does that as it tells a coming-of-age story set against the 2001 economic policies that led to extensive civil unrest. Based on two short stories by Mariana Enríquez, the film deals with three teenage girls, one of whom casts a spell on the boy they’re all attracted to.  
Subtitled trailer

ARMENIA
“In the Land of Arto,” Tamara Stepanyan
Stepanyan’s narrative fiction debut stars Zar Amir Ebrahimi (“Holy Spider”) and Camille Cottin (“House of Gucci”) in the story of a woman who discovers her husband’s hidden past when she arrives in Armenia to legalize his death.  Stepanyan also represented Armenia in the Oscar race last year with her documentary “My Armenian Phantoms.”
Subtitled trailer

AUSTRALIA
“First Light,” James J. Robinson
Set on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, this film is Australia’s first Filipino-language entry, and the debut feature from Australian-Filipino filmmaker and photographer Robinson. It takes place in a Catholic convent where a nun has her faith shaken by the injustice and corruption she sees in the aftermath of a tragic accident.
Subtitled trailer

AUSTRIA
“Rose,” Markus Schleinzer
One of two notable 2026 entries to star Sandra Hüller (Poland’s “Fatherland” being the other), “Rose” is set in the 17th century and features Hüller as a woman who disguises herself as a soldier and claims to be the heir to an abandoned estate in a small village. The film premiered at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, where Hüller won the best-actress award, and has also played or is scheduled to play at festivals in Hong Kong, Sydney, Karlovy Vary, Melbourne, Sarajevo, New Zealand, Telluride, Brussels, New York, London, Vancouver and Mill Valley before getting a U.S. theatrical release from Mubi. 
Subtitled trailer

BANGLADESH
“Roid,” Mejbaur Rahman Sumon
An allegory that uses Old Testament imagery to slowly unveil a story about a middle-aged man whose attempts to abandon his volatile wife repeatedly fail, “Roid”  takes place in a rural Bangladeshi village but gradually enters a realm of symbolism and abstraction.  Sumon also directed the country’s 2022 Oscar submission, “Hawa.”
Subtitled trailer

BELGIUM
“Coward,” Lukas Dhont
Stars Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne shared the best-actor award in Cannes for their performances in this drama as gay World War I soldiers who entertain the troops by staging theatrical revues. Dhont has made three feature films, and all three have been Belgian Oscar submissions, with “Girl” entering the race in 2018 and “Close” earning a nomination in 2022.
Subtitled trailer

BOLIVIA
“The Condor Daughter,” Álvaro Olmos Torrico
For years, a common theme in international Oscar entries has been the collision between old ways and modern living. This year’s Bolivian entry is an example of that kind of story, telling of a young singer in the Bolivian Andes who is torn between folk traditions and a career in the city. Bolivia has submitted 19 films to the Oscars since 1995, but two were ruled ineligible, one was withdrawn and none have been nominated or shortlisted.
Subtitled trailer

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
“The Widower,” Hari Šečić
An aging electrician begins to question his patriarchal ways after the death of his wife in Šečić’s feature debut, which premiered at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival. Since it won its first Oscar for “No Man’s Land” in 2002, Bosnia and Herzegovina has submitted a film every year, with two entries making the shortlist and one, “Quo Vadis, Aida?” earning a nomination.
Trailer (no subtitles)

BRAZIL
“Gugu’s World,” Allan Deberton
Brazil has been on a roll at the Oscars lately, with Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here” winning Best International Feature Film two years ago and Kleber Mendonca Filho’s “The Secret Agent” landing four noms, including international and Best Picture, last year. While those two films came from acclaimed and experienced directors, Deberton is better known as a producer. “Gugu’s World” stars Yuri Gomes as the title character, a queer teenager who wants to be a footballer but isn’t accepted by his father.  
Subtitled trailer

BULGARIA
“The Dreamed Adventure,” Valeska Grisebach
German director Grisebach won the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for her drama set on the border between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. Yana Radeva plays an archaeologist who is drawn into an Eastern European underworld when she tries to help a friend whose car has been stolen.
Subtitled clip

CAMBODIA
“Becoming Human,” Poley Ly
Not to be confused with “Being Heumann,” “Becoming Human” is a ghost story starring Savorn Serak as the spirit of an abandoned cinema, who must decide whether to remain a ghostly guardian of the decrepit building or be reborn as a human. The film is the debut feature for director Ly, who has been compared to Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, also enamored of the spirit world. 
Subtitled trailer

CAMEROON
“Mabanda,” Kang Quintus
The second film to be directed by Cameroonian filmmaker and actor Quintus, “Mabanda” is focused on a pregnant teenager living with an abusive father after the death of her mother. It is the eighth film to be submitted by Cameroon, and like four of the others, it is in Cameroonian Pidgin English.  
Trailer (no dialogue)

CANADA
“Nina Roza,” Genevieve Dulude-de Celles
A Bulgarian-born art curator in Canada must return to his homeland for the first time in decades in search of a young art prodigy in this drama that won the screenplay award at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Canada had a 10-year stretch at the Oscars between 2003 and 2012 that included one winner, five nominees and seven shortlisted films, but since then it has made the shortlist twice but failed to earn another nomination.
Subtitled trailer

CHAD
“Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars,” Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
A young woman who experiences visions befriends the village outcast in this drama set in northeastern Chad, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and won the FIPRESCI Prize there. Chad has only submitted four films to the Oscars over the past 24 years, all of which have been directed by Haroun.
Subtitled trailer

CHILE
“The Meltdown,” Manuela Martelli
Chilean actress-director Martelli has said that she’s planning to make a trilogy of films tracing the history of her country in the late 20th century, “The Meltdown” being the second. (“1976,” which came out five years ago, was the first.) The film is set in 1992 and mixes personal and national trauma in its story of a young girl who befriends a German skier training near a Chilean ski resort.
Subtitled trailer

COLOMBIA
“Rains Over Babel,” Gala del Sol
Director del Sol was a finalist at the Student Academy Awards in 2018 for a short she made at Chapman University. She makes her feature debut with “Rains Over Babel,” a “tropical punk fantasy” that reimagines Dante’s “Inferno” by situating purgatory in a dive bar set in the mythical Colombian city of Maya. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January.
Subtitled trailer

COSTA RICA
“If We Don’t Burn, How Do We Light Up the Night,” Kim Torres
Rural Costa Rican folklore is used to cover up violence against women in the feature directorial debut of Kim Torres, who has said she based the screenplay on some of her own experiences growing up. Torres used a cast made up largely of nonprofessional actors.
Subtitled trailer

CROATIA
“God Will Not Help,” Hana Jušić
While she directed the Chilean Oscar entry, Manuela Martelli stars in the Croatian submission as an early 20th-century woman who arrives in a remote village in the Croatian mountains claiming to be the widow of a local man who left the town for South America years earlier. Jušić is the third female director to represent Croatia at the Oscars in the last four years – and as the director of the country’s 2017 submission, “Quit Staring at My Plate,” she’s the first woman to have more than one film chosen by the Croatian selection committee. (Five men have had multiple films selected.)
Subtitled trailer

CUBA
“Malecón,” Carlos Larrazabal
César Domínguez stars in this drama as Elvis, an ex-convict who is released from prison after serving 10 years, but must struggle not to be drawn into Havana’s criminal underworld. The film is Larrazabal’s feature debut.
Subtitled trailer

CYPRUS
“Hold Onto Me,” Myrsini Aristidou
The first-ever entry from Cyprus stars Maria Petrova as Iris, an 11-year-old girl who goes in search of her long-absent father (Christos Passalis) after hearing that he’s returned to their hometown for a funeral. The first feature from Greek Cypriot writer-director Aristidou, it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic.
Subtitled trailer

CZECH REPUBLIC
“If Pigeons Turned to Gold,” Pepa Lubojacki
Last year, the Czech Republic submitted its first documentary to the Oscar race with Klara Tasovska’s “I’m Not Everything I Want to Be”; this year, it submitted its second doc with Lubojacki’s “If Pigeons Turned to Gold.” The film follows four of Lubojacki’s relatives over a period of five years, exploring why addiction, alcoholism and homelessness repeats across generations in the family. The film premiered in Berlin in February.
Subtitled trailer

DENMARK
“Woman Unknown,” May el-Toukhy
Danish-Egyptian director el-Toukhy was the only woman among the 21 directors in the main competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival, but her film “Woman Unknown” qualified for the Oscars by winning the Golden Lion over works by Werner Herzog, Florian Zeller, Danny Boyle, Nanni Moretti, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Lee Chang-dong, Lance Oppenheim, Martin McDonagh and others. Even after it qualified for the Oscars by winning that award, Denmark chose the film as its official representative. Mathilde Arcel stars as a former housekeeper who is hiding secrets as she prepares to marry her former employer in formerly German-occupied Denmark just after World War II. In accepting the award from the Venice jury headed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, el-Toukhy said the film was about “the female body as a battleground.”
Subtitled trailer

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
“Melodrama,” Andres Farias
Chosen from seven finalists by the Dominican selection committee, “Melodrama” is a romance about a widow whose neighbors disapprove of her growing relationship with a Haitian construction worker. The film premiered at the Havana Film Festival and won best-film, best-director and best-actress (Mercedes Morales) awards at the Dominican Film Festival in New York. 
Subtitled trailer

ECUADOR
“The Ivy,” Ana Cristina Barragan
This social realist drama set in a coastal town in Ecuador deals with repressed pain that surfaces in the growing connection between a woman in her 30s and a teenage boy. The film won the screenplay award in the Orizzonti section of the 2025 Venice Film Festival. Barragan, whose 2017 film “Alba” was that year’s Oscar submission, becomes the third Ecuadorian director to represent the country in the Oscar race more than once, after Sebastian Cordero (three times) and Javier Andrade (twice).
Subtitled trailer

EGYPT
“The Stories,” Abu Bakr Shawky
This anthology film tells five different stories spanning four decades in the life of an Egyptian man and an Austrian woman who become pen pals before marrying and raising a family. The film was inspired by writer-director Shawky’s parents and comes eight years after his debut feature, “Yommedine,” was Egypt’s Oscar submission. Since 1958, the country has submitted 39 films to the international Oscar race without ever receiving a nomination, a record for futility second only to Portugal.
Subtitled teaser trailer

EL SALVADOR
“Vértices,” Arturo López Rodas
Joining Cyprus as a country entering a film in the Oscar race for the first time, El Salvador has entered a black-and-white drama about three old friends reuniting at a funeral for the first time in 30 years. Ángel Flamenco, Francisco Martinez and Francisco Graniello play the lead roles, while writer-director López Rodas changed the setting from a birthday to a funeral after the death of a close friend who’d promised to read the script.
Subtitled trailer

ESTONIA
“Our Erika,” German Golub
Estonian bicycle racer Erika Salumae, who overcame childhood hardships to win gold medals in cycling at the 1988 and 1992 Summer Olympics, is the subject of this sports biopic by Golub, who won the top prize in the international narrative category at the Student Academy Awards in 2020. Karolin Jürise plays Salumae as an adult, with two child actors taking the role of the athlete at the ages of 5 and 10.
Trailer (no subtitles)

FINLAND
“The Squirrel,” Markus Lehmusruusu
Finland, which has made the shortlist twice in the last five years with the wonderfully quirky, deadpan films “Compartment No. 6” and “Fallen Leaves,” is back with a sci-fi dramedy set in a dystopian future world in which plants and animals are so scarce as to be almost nonexistent.  Miro Lopperi plays a designer of synthetic pets who finds what might be the planet’s last real squirrel, while Mimosa Willamo plays the government official sent to investigate.
Subtitled trailer

FRANCE
“Minotaur,” Andrey Zvyagintsev
Zvyagintsev’s last two films, 2014’s “Leviathan” and 2017’s “Loveless,” were nominated for Oscars after being submitted by Russia. After a life-threatening, Covid-related illness that kept him hospitalized for almost a year, and after criticizing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the director moved to France, where he has lived in exile since 2022. “Minotaur,” a French-Latvian-German coproduction, deals with a Russian oligarch who learns his wife is having an affair in the early days of the Russo-Ukrainian War. It won this year’s Grand Prix in Cannes, making it runner-up to Palme d’Or winner “Fjord.” While France has entered films by directors from Iran and Vietnam in recent years, Zvyagintsev is the first Russian director to ever represent the country at the Oscars.
Subtitled trailer

GEORGIA
“Guria,” Levan Koguashvili
Georgia has submitted some bold and striking films over the last dozen years, but the country hasn’t received a nomination since its first-ever submission in 1996. Its latest entry, the second Georgian contender to be directed by Koguashvili, is set in a rural section of Western Georgia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, with a widowed farmer trying to survive in tough times.
Subtitled clip

GERMANY
“Everytime,” Sandra Wollner
Austrian writer-director Wollner won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes with this drama about a mother, daughter and teenage boy who take a holiday trip to Tenerife, Spain in the aftermath of a tragic accident. The last five German entries have either won the Oscar (“All Quiet on the Western Front”), been nominated (“The Teachers’ Lounge,” “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”) or been shortlisted (“I’m Your Man,” “Sound of Falling”) – and over the last 25 years, Germany has had one of the most remarkable streaks in the category’s history, with three wins, 11 nominations and 17 shortlisted films.
Subtitled clip

GREECE
“Broken Vein,” Yannis Economides
Since its last nomination for Yorgos Lanthimos’ surreal “Dogtooth” in 2010, Greece has been torn between submitting bold and weird films and going with more straightforward, crowd-pleasing ones. In a way, “Broken Vein” splits the difference. This thriller about a businessman who must find a way to pay off his debt to a loan shark  isn’t downright bizarre, but it’s the work of a director known for his tough edge and his embrace of graphic violence.
Subtitled trailer

HONG KONG
“Sons of the Neon Night,” Juno Mak
Since it received nominations for the historical dramas “Farewell My Concubine” and “Raise the Red Lantern” in the early 1990s, Hong Kong has regularly submitted the kind of crime thrillers and action films for which its cinema is known, without any of them earning a nomination. “Sons of the Neon Night” is another action thriller, one in which the heir to a drug trafficking syndicate starts a war in an alternate version of 1990s Hong Kong. Stars include Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung Ka-fai and Alex To.
Subtitled trailer

HUNGARY
“Silent Friend,” Ildikó Enyedi
Lea Seydoux has starred in a number of films over the past year (“Gentle Monster,” “The Unknown,” “Alpha Gang” … ), but “Silent Friend” is the only one that ended up in the Oscars’ international race. She plays a French botanist in the drama, which uses a ginkgo tree as the point of connection between stories taking place in 1908, 1972 and 2020. Director Enyedi has represented Hungary three times in this category, and her 2017 film “On Body and Soul” is the most recent Hungarian nominee.
Subtitled trailer

ICELAND
“The Ground Beneath Our Feet,” Yrsa Roca Fannberg
A nonfiction film set in a nursing home in Reykjavik and shot on 16mm film, “The Ground Beneath Our Feet” is is the first documentary every submitted by Iceland, which has sent 47 films to the Oscars since 1980. The country has only been nominated once, in 1991, though it has made the shortlist three times in the last five years.
Subtitled trailer

INDIA
“Gondhal,” Santosh Davakhar
The Gondhal ceremony, a devotional ritual in which songs are performed for gods and goddesses, is the setting for this crime drama that involves murder and betrayal and reportedly includes Indian cinema’s first 25-minute take. The film is only the fourth of India’s 59 Oscar submissions in the Marathi language. India’s selection committee has had a spotty record in recent years, bypassing acclaimed films like “The Lunchbox” and “RRR” in favor of entries that weren’t nominated.
Subtitled trailer

INDONESIA
“Four Seasons in Java,” Kamila Andini
A woman is ostracized when she returns to her hometown after spending time in prison for killing the man who raped her in Andini’s film, which incorporates moments of magical realism. The film, which premiered at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, is Andini’s second to be submitted by Indonesia, following “Yuni” in 2021.
Subtitled trailer

IRAN
“Land of Angels,” Babak Khajehpasha
Iran joins Palestine and Switzerland in entering a film set in Gaza, with this one focusing on the lives of children during the war. The Iranian selection committee has come under fire repeatedly in recent years for making selections (or snubbing films) for what appear to be political reasons. The country has won the international Oscar twice in the last 14 years, both with films directed by Asghar Farhadi.

IRAQ
“No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman,” Halkawt Mustafa
The life of Nadia Murad, who was abducted by the Islamic State in 2014 and later won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work “to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war,” inspired this story of a female sniper who goes to Mosul to rescue her sister from the jihadist organization. The film premiered at the 2026 Venice Film Festival.
Teaser trailer

IRELAND
“Aontas,” Damian McCann
Co-writer and director McCann uses backward chronology to tell this story of three women who rob a credit union in a rural Irish town. The film had one of the earliest premieres of any of this year’s entries, debuting at the Santa Barbara Film Festival in February 2025. This is the 13th Irish Oscar submission, with three of the previous entries making the shortlist and one earning a nomination.
Subtitled trailer

ISRAEL
“Tell Me Everything,” Moshe Rosenthal
A preteen boy discovers that his father is in a relationship with another man in this drama that begins in the midst of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. The film set a record with 16 nominations for the Ophir Awards, Israel’s version of the Academy Awards; it won 10 of those – including Best Picture, which automatically made it the country’s Oscar entry. Israel holds the record for the most international nominations without a win, 10.
Trailer (No subtitles)

ITALY
“The Spiral,” Paolo Stippoli
Italy has submitted 70 films to the Oscars since the international category was created in 1956, racking up the most Oscar wins of any country, 14, and the second-most nominations, 33. But this is probably the first time that the Italian entry has screened at the Toronto Film Festival in the pulpy, genre-specific Midnight Madness category, where it finished second in audience voting for the People’s Choice Award. This apocalyptic thriller features Jasmine Trinca as a woman who learns that her mother may have cut a deal with a stranger (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) who just might be the devil.
Dubbed trailer

JAPAN
“All of a Sudden,” Ryusuke Hamaguchi
This film’s title is something of a misnomer, because the Neon movie takes its time sinking into the growing friendship between a French care-facility director and a Japanese theater director with terminal cancer. Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto shared the best-actress award at Cannes for their performances, which are delivered in a combination of French and Japanese. Hamaguchi was last in the Oscar race for 2021’s “Drive My Car,” which won the international Oscar and was the first Japanese film ever nominated for Best Picture.
Subtitled trailer

JORDAN
“Sink,” Zain Duraie
The feature debut from Jordanian writer-director Duraie focuses on the relationship between a mother and her teenage son, who has an undiagnosed mental illness. The film is the 10th submission from Jordan, though two of its previous entries were withdrawn after controversy over their subject matter.
Subtitled trailer

KAZAKHSTAN
“Abel,” Elzat Eskendir
Unexpected repercussions of the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s take center stage in “Abel,” which gets its title from the name of a shepherd who makes his living on a collective farm in Kazakhstan until the farm is dissolved and privatization begins. Kazakhstan has been submitting films to the Oscars since 1992, which is around the time that the film takes place.
Trailer (no English subtitles)

KENYA
“One Woman One Bra,” Vincho Nchogu
Winner of the audience award in the narrative category at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Best First Feature award at the BFI London Film Festival, “One Woman One Bra” is the feature directorial debut of Nchogu. It deals with an unmarried woman in a rural village who must find information about her own background in order to retain ownership of the home and land where she’d been living.
Subtitled trailer

KOSOVO
“Dua,” Blerta Basholi
Like many entries from the Balkan countries in recent years, “Dua” is set during the wars that consumed that region in the 1990s. Pinea Matoshi stars as the title character, a 13-year-old girl growing up in the capital city of Pristina during wartime. The film is the second from Basholi to represent Kosovo in the Oscar race, the first being the shortlisted “Hive” in 2021. Of the country’s last six Oscar submissions going back to 2018, five have been directed by women.
Subtitled trailer

KYRGYZSTAN
“Kassandra,” Bekzat Pirmatov
A horror story drawn from Kyrgyz folklore, “Kassandra” deals with a healer who sees marks on the foreheads of pregnant women that signify their babies should not be born, and with a young woman who wakes up each morning feeling as if she’s been drained of her strength. Is it personal trauma or the Albasty, an ancient female demon?
Dubbed trailer

LATVIA
“Ulya,” Viesturs Kairišs
This film is a biopic of Latvian basketball legend Uljana Semjonova, who won multiple championships for TTT Riga and won two Olympic gold medals for the Soviet Union. The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes. Kairišs has directed three of the 13 Latvian Oscar submissions, making him the only director to have more than a single entry.
Subtitled trailer

LEBANON
“Furies,” Rami Kodeih
Two sisters  come up with an elaborate all-night heist plan  in Kodeih’s thriller – the twist being that they’re breaking into a bank to “steal” their own money, which has been frozen in the 2019 Lebanese liquidity crisis that prevented depositors from accessing their savings. George Clooney and Grant Heslov are executive producers for Smokehouse Pictures.
Subtitled clip

LITHUANIA
“How to Divorce During the War,” Andrius Blazevicius
Blazevicius won the directing award in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic section for this story of an executive and a film director  who are, as the title suggests, going through a divorce in the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with refugees flooding into their hometown of Vilnius. Although the premise sounds serious, the film is notable for its dark humor.
Subtitled trailer

LUXEMBOURG
“Child,” Cyrus Neshvad
Brigitte Urhausen and Malik Zidi star as parents who go to extremes to secure an organ transplant for their dying son in this drama that premiered at the Raindance Film Festival in June. Neshvad’s 2022 short “The Red Suitcase” was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Live Action Short Film category.
Subtitled trailer

MALAYSIA
“The Fox King,” Woo Ming Jin
Indonesian star Dian Sastro plays a journalist-turned-teacher in this drama about a pair of twins whose unusually tight connection is frayed when they both fall for the teacher. Director Woo, who is himself a twin, has said he wanted to make the film “to explore the complexity of the bond between twins.”
Subtitled trailer

MALTA
“Żejtune,” Alex Camilleri
In what is only the fifth Maltese Oscar submission (one of which was deemed ineligible), a woman returns to Malta to claim her inheritance and then leave the country for good, but an elderly guide helps change her mind about her homeland. Camilleri is a 2021 winner of Film Independent’s Someone to Watch Award for his film “Luzzu,” which was also selected as Malta’s Oscar submission.
Subtitled trailer

MEXICO
“On the Road,” David Pablos
No connection to Jack Kerouac, this “On the Road” tells the story of a young gay hustler who falls in love with an older truck driver as they take a dangerous road trip that makes time for graphic violence and equally graphic sex. The film dominated first-round voting at the Ariel Awards, earning 13 nominations to nine for the next-biggest nominee at Mexico’s version of the Oscars. After two years of not making the shortlist, the country is trying to regain the momentum it had during a six-year stretch in which it won for “Roma” and made the shortlist four times in a row.
Subtitled trailer

MONGOLIA
“Independence: Keeper of the Prophecy,” Tamir Bat-Ulzii
This near-three-hour epic is a historical drama set during the time in the early 1900s when Mongolia declared its independence from China. The country has yet to receive an international Oscar nomination, though its first submission, 2003’s “The Story of the Weeping Camel,” was nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category.
Trailer (no subtitles)

MONTENEGRO
“To Hold a Mountain,” Biljana Tuturov and Petar Glomazic
While the Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Toronto and Busan film festivals each qualify one jury winner for the Oscars international category, Sundance sends winners from both its international dramatic and documentary competitions. “To Hold a Mountain” won in the latter category, and was also chosen as Montenegro’s official submission, the first documentary to receive that distinction. It follows a mother and daughter in remote Montenegrin highlands who fight against government plans to build a NATO military training ground in their protected ancestral grounds.

MOROCCO
“Strawberries,” Laila Marrakchi
Inspired by reports about the exploitation of Moroccan women who travel to southern Spain to do agricultural work, “Strawberries” delves into a community of workers that includes an Olympic gold medalist in taekwondo whose career has ended in scandal. The film is the fifth consecutive Moroccan Oscar submission to have a female protagonist.

NEPAL
“Elephants in the Fog,” Abinash Bikram Shah
Shah’s drama stars Pushpa Thing Lama as the matriarch of a Kinnar community of transgender and intersex people who live in celibacy in a remote village in Nepal. It is the first feature for Shah and for Lama, a real-life Kinnar activist. The film premiered in Cannes, where it won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize.
Subtitled trailer

NETHERLANDS
“Paikar,” Dawood Hilmandi
It’s been 62 years since the Netherlands submitted its first documentary to the Oscars, 1964’s “The Human Dutch.” “Paikar,” which premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, is only its second doc submission, with Afghan-Dutch director Hilmandi exploring his difficult relationship with his father, an imam who was also a mujahideen fighter in Afghanistan.  
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NIGERIA
“Dear Ajayi,” Damilola Orimogunje
This film is a family drama set in the 1990s, focusing on two estranged sisters who must come together to care for their ailing mother despite profound differences in their values and outlooks. It is only the fifth film submitted to the Oscars by Nigeria, with the first of those entries, 2019’s “Lionheart,” deemed ineligible because it was predominantly in English. “Dear Ajayi” is in Igbo, Yoruba and Nigerian Pidgin English, which is officially classified as a non-English language by the Academy.  
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NORTH MACEDONIA
“17,” Kosara Mitić
Two teenage girls on a school trip come together when one of them is the victim of a sexual assault in the feature debut of director and co-writer Mitić. The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Best First Feature award.
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NORWAY
“Growth of the Soil,” Hans Petter Moland
Based on the 1917 novel by Nobel-winning Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun, “Growth of the Soil” is an epic-scale romantic drama set in the remote landscape of northern Norway. Moland’s “Out Stealing Horses” was Norway’s Oscar entry in 2019, and his wife, Maria Sødahl’s “Hope” was the country’s submission the following year. The defending champion in the category with “Sentimental Value,” Norway has been shortlisted in four of the last six years, and has been nominated twice.
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PAKISTAN
“Hanging by a Wire,” Mohammed Ali Naqvi
The first documentary ever submitted by Pakistan, “Hanging by a Wire” deals with the 2023 rescue of passengers who were trapped in a cable car hanging almost 1,000 feet above a ravine. The film is a co-production with the U.K. and the U.S. that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and is being released by Abramorama.
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PALESTINE
“Citizen Osama,” Ahmed Hassouna
One of a couple of documentaries about the conflict in Gaza that premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival, “Citizen Osama” follows a professional photographer trying to support his wife and infant child by turning from artistic photography to war reporting.   The last two Palestinian submissions, the historical drama “Palestine 36” and the wartime anthology film “From Ground Zero,” were both shortlisted but not nominated by Oscar voters.
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PANAMA
“Chichero,” Aarón Bromley and Arturo Montenegro
Every year, a few sports dramas seem to make it into the international Oscar race. Panama has supplied one of those films this year with this drama about an aspiring boxer and indigenous Quechan forced to migrate to Panama by the armed conflict around his home in Peru during the stormy decade of the 1980s.
Trailer (no subtitles)

PARAGUAY
“Narciso,” Marcelo Martinessi
A Paraguayan rock ’n’ roll star in found dead in his bed in this drama set in 1959 in a country being taken over by a military dictatorship. This is the 10th time Paraguay has submitted a film, with Martinessi also directing the third submission, 2018’s “The Heiresses.” He is now the first Paraguayan director to have two of the country’s entries.
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PERU
“Night Has Come,” Paolo Tizón
This documentary had its world premiere more than two years ago, at the 2024 Karlovy Vary Film Festival, before a Peruvian release in November 2025. It is the directorial debut of Tizón, who documented a group of young men as they join the Peruvian Air Force.
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PHILIPPINES
“Filipiñana,” Rafael Manuel
Based on his award-winning short film of the same name from 2020, Rafael Manuel’s satiric black comedy follows a “tee girl,” a young woman whose job at a posh country club is to place golf balls on the tee so that wealthy club members don’t have to bend down. The film won a Special Jury Award for Creative Vision at Sundance in January, and Manuel’s style has been compared to a dizzying array of directors: Wes Anderson, Michael Haneke, Jacques Tati, Jia Zhangke, Ruben Ostlund …
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POLAND
“Fatherland,” Pawel Pawlikowski
Poland has sent Pawlikowski’s films to the Oscars three times: in 2014, when his “Ida” won the international Oscar and was also nominated for Best Cinematography; in 2018, when “Cold War” was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography and Best Director; and this year, with another black-and-white drama set in Europe in the middle of the 20th century. “Fatherland” stars Hanns Zischler as German writer Thomas Mann and Sandra Huller as his daughter, Erika, and is based on a trip that Mann made to a divided Germany in the years after World War II, with both West and East Germany trying to claim him as one of their own. Mubi will release the film in the U.S.
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PORTUGAL
“The Scent of Things Remembered,” Antonio Ferreira
In this drama that is a coproduction between Portugal and Brazil, José Martins plays a war veteran who moves into a nursing home as he approaches the age of 80; there, he’s haunted by his past and must overcome his racism to accept help from a Black caregiver. Portugal is an unfortunate record-holder in the international category, submitting 42 films since 1980 without receiving a single nomination.
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ROMANIA
“Fjord,” Cristian Mungiu
The Romanian selection committee could have chosen a different film, because “Fjord” also qualified by winning the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. But they stuck with this film about a conservative religious Romanian-Norwegian couple (Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve) who come under suspicion for their child-rearing practices when they move from Romania to a more liberal community in Norway. Although none of his films have been nominated, Mungiu is one of the most impactful directors in the history of the Oscars international category: The failure of voters to even shortlist his 2007 classic “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” led to an overhaul of the voting process that opened the door for more challenging nominees. Neon is releasing “Fjord” in the U.S.
Trailer (mostly in English)

SENEGAL
“The Attachment,” Mamadou Khouma Gueye
“The Attachment” (or “Liti Liti” in its Wolof title) is a highly personal documentary from director Gueye, who returned to the town where he grew up outside Dakar to chronicle what happens as the neighborhood is destroyed to make room for a railroad. In voting by the Senegalese selection committee, the doc won out over Nicolas Sawalo Cisse’s “La Memorie du Manguier.” Senegal has only qualified six films for the Oscars, all in the past 10 years, but three of them have made the shortlist.  
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SERBIA
“Wanderlust,” Nenad Pavlovic
Pavlovic’s second feature is based on the 1957 Mica Popovic novel “Izlet,” with a screenplay by the author’s son, Jovan Popovic. The black-and-white drama deals with a young man who sets off down a river to get away from a totalitarian society in a dystopian world. The director summed it up this way: “Through a deeply existentialist lens, the film explores the fragile balance between isolation and belonging, freedom and duty, offering a poetic reflection on what it means to create, to suffer and to live.”
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SINGAPORE
“We Are All Strangers,” Anthony Chen
The final film in Chen’s “Growing Up” trilogy follows three families from different social classes in contemporary Singapore. The other two films in the trilogy, 2013’s “Ilo Ilo” and 2020’s “Wet Season,” were also Oscar entries, and so was the director’s 2023 film “The Breaking Ice.” With his country’s selection of this film, Chen breaks a tie with Eric Khoo to become the Singaporean director with the most Oscar submissions.
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SLOVAKIA
“Flood,” Martin Gonda
A coming-of-age story set against the societal repression of communist-era Czechoslovakia, “Flood” focuses on a 15-year-old girl and her single father in 1980 living in a village whose residents are undergoing forced relocation for the building of a dam. Sára Chripáková, who plays the teenage girl, won the best-actress prize at the Sun in a Net Awards, Slovakia’s version of the Oscars.
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SLOVENIA
“Fantasy,” Kukla
One-name director Kukla used her 2020 short film “Sisters” as inspiration for this feature, in which three tomboyish friends find their lives permanently altered by the arrival of a transgender woman in their neighborhood. The director has said she made the film to address the patriarchy of the Balkans.
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SOUTH AFRICA
“Variations on a Theme,” Devon Delmar and Jason Jacobs
Clocking in at only 65 minutes, this film tells the story of an 80-year-old Namaqualand goat herder who is in danger of losing her independence. It won the Tiger Award at this year’s Rotterdam Film Festival.
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SOUTH KOREA
“Possible Love,” Lee Chang-dong
In 2018, Lee Chang-dong’s “Burning” made a breakthrough for South Korean cinema, becoming the country’s first movie to earn a spot on the Oscars’ international shortlist. Three more South Korean films have made the shortlist since then, and one, “Parasite,” won the international award and Best Picture. “Possible Love” is director Lee’s first film since “Burning,” an intricate story of class conflict, journalistic ethics and the difficulty of healing as explored through the friendship between a struggling working-class couple and a well-to-do documentary filmmaker and her husband. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at Venice this year and will be released by Netflix.
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SPAIN
“La Bola Negra,” Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi
Netflix is also releasing this epic, which uses an unfinished Federico Garcia Lorca play to explore the lives of three gay men from 1932 to 2017. Directors Calvo and Ambrossi (known collectively as Los Javis) use a combination of Spanish actors (Carlos Gonzalez, Miguel Bernardeau, Lola Duenas), international stars (Glenn Close, Penelope Cruz) and newcomers (musician Guitarricadelafuente) to shift between eras and slide in and out of Lorca’s story of a young man who is denied entry to a social club because he’s gay. The film won the directing award in Cannes and went on to take the People’s Choice Award in Toronto, the latter award suggesting that it has the potential to make its mark beyond the international category.
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SRI LANKA
“Riverstone,” Lalith Rathnayake
Three police officers escort a condemned political prisoner across the mountainous heart of Sri Lanka in this meditative road trip that finds a quiet power struggle taking place inside the car. The film is the first Sri Lankan Oscar submission in 17 years, and only the third ever.
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SWEDEN
“Adult Supervision,” Alex Schulman
This black comedy finds three fathers chaperoning their daughters’ school field trip to a remote archipelago. The three men, who find themselves increasingly ill-equipped to deal with the girls’ power struggles, are played by Fares Fares, Linus Wahlgren and  Gustav Skarsgård (yes, a son of Stellan and brother of Alexander and Bill). Sweden has received 16 nominations and been shortlisted an additional four times over the years, but all three of its wins came for films directed by Ingmar Bergman.
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SWITZERLAND
“Who Is Still Alive,” Nicolas Wadimoff
The category’s second documentary set in Gaza is this Swiss entry from Wadimoff, a frequently political director of both narrative and nonfiction films. He has made multiple films about Palestine going back to the early 1990s, with this one featuring nine Palestinian men and women drawing their neighborhoods in chalk and telling stories of their lives during the war. The film premiered in Venice in 2025.
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TAIWAN
“A Foggy Tale,” Chen Yu-hsun
Best known for his award-winning 2020 comedy “My Missing Valentine,” Chen gets serious with this drama set during the 1950s, when Taiwan was ruled under martial law by the Kuomintang. Caitlin Fang plays a young girl in search of the remains of her brother, who has been executed as a political dissident. All three of Taiwan’s previous nominations, and its one win, came with films directed by Ang Lee.
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THAILAND
“9 Temples to Heaven,” Sompot Chidgasornpongse
Chidgasornpongse served as an assistant director to Apichatpong Weerasethakul on several movies, and that Thai icon served a producer on this film, Chidgasornpongse’s directorial debut. It is a road trip of sorts, as a man and his family make a pilgrimage to nine different temples in one day after a fortune teller informs him that his mother will soon die. The film premiered in the Directors Fortnight section of this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
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TURKEY
“Like a Limbless Tree,” Tunç Davut
Davut, who has spent much of his career working in Turkish TV, co-wrote and directed this drama about a retired engineer who gives his longtime Syrian caregiver the money to flee the country with her sons – only to find himself taking care of the boys after she leaves without them. Turkey has been submitting films to the Oscars since 1964, including works from such esteemed auteurs as Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Semih Kaplanoğlu, but it’s never been nominated and Ceylan’s “Three Monkeys” is the only Turkish film ever to make the shortlist.
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UKRAINE
“Traces,” Alisa Kovalenko
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, four of the five Ukrainian Oscar submissions have dealt with the war, and three of them have been documentaries. “Traces” is a nonfiction film about SEMA Ukraine, an organization of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence committed during the invasion. It premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, winning Berlinale Panorama Audience Award.
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URUGUAY
“A Loose End,” Daniel Hendler
This comic thriller from actor-turned-director Hendler follows an Argentinian police officer who tries to put his life back together in Uruguay, where he’s fled to hide from a pair of corrupt colleagues. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2025.
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VENEZUELA
“Death Has No Master,” Jorge Thielen Armand
Asia Argento plays the heiress to an aging cacao plantation that has been occupied by workers who refuse to leave in this drama by Armand, the first Venezuelan filmmaker to receive a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. The film appeared in the Directors Fortnight section at Cannes this year.
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VIETNAM
“Spirit Guardians: The Last Secret of the First Emperor,” Nguyen Phan Quang Binh
The largest production in Vietnamese  history is an epic set in the Đinh dynasty of the 10th century. Vietnam has been submitting a mixture of historical dramas, action films and lighter fare since 1993, but its only nomination came with its first entry, “The Scent of Green Papaya.”   
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Films that qualified with festival wins

These films became eligible because they won Oscar-qualifying awards at six different film festivals. In the case of the top winners from Cannes and Venice and the documentary winner from Sundance, the films were also submitted by their home countries and would have qualified regardless of their festival wins.

CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
“Fjord,” Cristian Mungiu
See: Romania

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
“Shame and Money,” Visar Morina
This film qualified for the Oscars without even knowing it: It won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic award at the Sundance Film Festival on Feb. 1, exactly three months before the Academy announced that the winner of that award, and awards at five other festivals, would be eligible even if it wasn’t submitted by its country of origin. In this case, the country of origin might have been hard to determine, because “Shame and Money” is an Albanian-language co-production of Germany, Kosovo, Slovenia, Albania, North Macedonia and Belgium. It is set in the countryside and in the capital city in Kosovo, where a proud farmer (Astrit Kabashi) struggles to support his family in a battered economy.
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SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
“To Hold a Mountain,” Biljana Tuturov and Petar Glomazic
See: Montenegro

BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
“Yellow Letters,” Ilker Çatak
Çatak, a German-born director of Turkish origin, was in the Oscar race three years ago with “The Teachers’ Lounge,” which was nominated as Germany’s submission. “Yellow Letters” qualified without a country attached by winning the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. It is another film about tough economic times, seen in this case through the eyes of a Turkish playwright and an actress who lose their jobs after the government deems their latest play “too political.”
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TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
“Angh,” Theja Rio
India will have two films in race this year, because its official submission of “Gondahl” will be joined by this film, which won the newly Oscar-qualifying jury award in the Platform program. The film is set in the 1960s in the Nagaland region in northeast India, where the last chief of an abandoned village tries to keep the old traditions alive after the arrival of a Christian missionary. It is the feature debut of director Rio.
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VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
“Woman Unknown,” May el-Toukhy
See: Denmark

BUSAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
This festival will take place from Oct. 6-15 in Busan, South Korea. A jury headed by Chinese director Zhang Yimou will give an award to one of 13 Asian films in the main competition, none of which have been announced as submissions by their countries of origin.  Films competing for the award include Nanako Hirose’s “Between Two Lovers,” Gu You’s “The First Taste of Loneliness,” Eddie Cahyono’s “My Mother,” Majid Majidi’s “Midday Meal,” Yosep Anggi Noen’s “The Sea Speaks His Name” and Kim Jung-hoon’s “Shaving.”

Normally, a film would need to have a theatrical release in its home country between Oct. 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026, which wouldn’t be possible for the movies having their world premieres in Busan. But that requirement is waived for films that qualify by winning festival awards, so the Busan winner will receive an extension to file paperwork to enter the race, and will not need a theatrical release.

The post Oscars International Feature Category Passes 90 Films: Complete List of Entries (So Far) appeared first on TheWrap.

The 2026 show, which returned to Los Angeles for the first time since 2015, made sure those moments were there from the start, with Madonna’s opening performance with Sabrina Carpenter and Charli xcx embracing a signature sensual VMAs vibe.

But in the Peacock Theater, audiences were treated to a behind-the-scenes look at how the star-studded performances come together — and apart.

Keep on reading for seven moments cameras missed at the 2026 VMAs, several of which were dominated by show-stealer Taylor Swift.

A prompt start

The CBS broadcast of the VMAs was delayed just over 20 minutes by the NFL’s matchup of the Baltimore Ravens and the Dallas Cowboys. But inside the Peacock Theater, the lights went down right at 4:30 p.m. PT for Madonna’s opening performance.

Two of the night’s biggest performances weren’t there

The audience missed live performances from two of the night’s biggest headliners: Bruno Mars and Kacey Musgraves. Instead, the pair were featured in pre-recorded clips shown to both the Peacock Theater audience and viewers at home.

The VMAs introduced Mars’ performance from The Romantic Tour — which will bring him to Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium for a string of shows starting Sept. 30 — but there wasn’t as obvious a reason for Musgraves’ performance to be pre-taped. Her tribute to the late Dolly Parton was recorded from the VMAs stage, but Musgraves was nowhere to be seen on the night.

During Musgraves’ pre-tape of Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” some audience members might’ve thought the saloon set in the background would be used for an extended tribute to the country star. It turns out that it was used for Shaboozey’s performance of “High Noon” and “Cowgirl,” during which he was joined by rapper Gunna.

Shaboozey brought flames to the show — twice

Speaking of Shaboozey and Gunna, their set brought fire to the Peacock Theater as production tested out the pyrotechnics ahead of time. The performance lit the salon backdrop on fire, as promised by their “High Noon” line, “Meet me at the bar, guaranteed we tear it down.”

“Off Campus” stars stole the show

Fresh off wrapping up production on “Off Campus” Season 2, stars Ella Bright and Belmont Cameli enjoyed a night out at the VMAs, where ultimate Swiftie Bright was seated next to Taylor Swift herself. Bright and Cameli were stationed on a side stage as they geared up to introduce a performance from best new artist nominee Sienna Spiro — who would win later in the evening. The audience could also see the duo applauding as Madonna accepted yet another Moonman.

Once the spotlight hit the “Off Campus” stars, the fan enthusiasm was next-level, even prompting Bright to re-start her line after getting interrupted by the thunderous applause.

Taylor Swift catches eyes as she greets Madonna

If the “Off Campus” stars stole the show, we don’t even have the words for how mesmerized the crowd was by Taylor Swift. Gasps and squeals indicated to the rest of the theater that she was in the room. Her blonde bangs were easily tracked as attendees parted to make way for Swift to have a moment with Madonna. Perhaps another collaboration is on the way?

Taylor Swift and Dakota Johnson clutch each other during “Patient Zero” debut

After accepting her MTV VMA artist director honors from her “Patient Zero” music video star Dakota Johnson, the two held onto each other as they watched the debut of their collaboration. With arms around each other, Swift lipsynced the words to the new song. After the music video was over, the duo went back onstage, arm-in-arm, as Swift lifted her award in the air.

Paris Hilton in promo mode

Hilton was a presenter at the VMAs, but took advantage of the chance to film some promotional videos for what we can only guess is her new fragrance. Her team recorded her heading towards the pit of the VMAs, spritzing herself and throwing the fragrance into the crowd before strutting out of the area.

The post From Taylor Swift and Dakota Johnson Lipsyncing to ‘Off Campus’ Love: 7 Things Cameras Didn’t Catch at the VMAs appeared first on TheWrap.

Living pop icons like Taylor Swift and Madonna were honored repeatedly throughout the night, while rising stars like Raye and Sienna Spiro were both able to take full advantage of the moments given to them. Amidst it all, the VMAs also found the time to pay tribute to late, beloved music icons like George Michael, Dolly Parton and Kurt Cobain. While it may have lacked an overwhelming number of truly buzzy performances, the result was a show that, at its best, felt reflective, predictive and joyful all at the same time.

Here were the best moments from the 2026 VMAs.

Madonna Calls In Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX to Help Her Open the Show

The Queen of Pop made her return to the VMAs this year, opening the awards show for the first time in 23 years. To say she did so in style would be an understatement. The music icon brought the past, present and future of pop music together, kicking things off with Sabrina Carpenter for a live rendition of their 2026 duet “Bring Your Love.” Madonna followed that up with a live performance of her and Charli XCX’s dance track “Danceteria Afterhours.”

XCX joined her onstage for the song, as did a number of other guests, including Debi Mazar, Seth Rogen and Julia Garner (the latter of whom was personally chosen by Madonna to play her in a biopic that may not ever get made now). It was a fun, energetic opening for the show, one that further cemented both XCX and Carpenter’s considerable stage presence and nodded to Madonna’s ongoing influence on the music industry and its contemporary stars.

Raye Crushes Her VMAs Debut

It was a big night for rising British singer-songwriter Raye, who made her VMAs debut with a show-stopping joint performance of “I Will Overcome.” and “WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!” Raye showed every side of her star persona throughout the performance, meeting the moment with a level of fearlessness, intensity and playfulness befitting of a star of her talent and charisma.

“WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!” seemed to get everyone in the Peacock Theater out of their seats (because of course it did), and anyone watching at home could tell that Raye had crushed it by the time the applause came. (Something tells us she knew, too.)

Kacey Musgraves Pays Heartfelt Tribute to Dolly Parton

Like the Emmys before it, this year’s VMAs took time out of its broadcast to pay tribute to the late, great Dolly Parton. “Middle of Nowhere” singer Kacey Musgraves took to the stage dressed and adorned in a way that would have made Parton proud before giving a moving, pitch-perfect rendition of the latter’s iconic ballad, “I Will Always Love You.”

Musgraves may not have yet reached the same legendary status of Parton or Emmys performer Reba McEntire, but she did the “Jolene” singer proud. On a Sunday night when it rarely seemed interested in slowing down, the VMAs took its time with its Parton tribute. It was worth every minute.

Taylor Swift Lifts Up the Second Hour

There were questions heading into Sunday night about whether or not Taylor Swift would even be in attendance for this year’s VMAs, but her presence was thoroughly felt throughout the show’s second hour. Not only did she and Dakota Johnson team up to unveil the music video for Swift’s latest single, “Patient Zero,” but Swift was also awarded MTV’s first-ever VMA Artist Director Honors trophy. At a time when music videos seem to hold less of a cultural space than ever, the “Life of a Showgirl” singer wisely used her acceptance speech to highlight the beauty, craft and importance of the form.

Later, Swift returned to the VMAs stage to accept the Video of the Year award for “The Fate of Ophelia.” And just in case Swift’s doubters had any thought that she might not be able to send the night off on a high note, she proved them wrong by dedicating her win to Parton. “Everything that happened in her life or her career, she channeled back into love and gratitude and appreciation for her fans. I am lucky I got to be one of them, and I will always be one of them,” Swift said of the music legend, whom she deemed “the ultimate showgirl.”

Sienna Spiro Announces Herself

One of the ideal outcomes for an awards show like the VMAs is that an up-and-coming star announces herself along the way as a force to be reckoned with. That happened this year with Sienna Spiro. Standing alone on a stage with nothing but her voice and presence to carry her, Spiro gave a spell-binding performance early in the night of her 2026 track “Great Expectation.”

What felt like the start of a coronation was completed later when Spiro took home the award for Best New Artist. “I didn’t think this would happen, so I just have to say thank you so much,” Spiro said as she held the award, which may very well not end up being the last Moon Person trophy she wins throughout her career.

Madonna Gets Her Flowers

It was fitting in a night that felt like a celebration of pop’s history and future that Taylor Swift and Madonna ultimately took home the biggest wins at this year’s VMAs. The Queen of Pop was, indeed, heavily awarded throughout the night, taking home the 2026 trophies for Artist of the Year, Best Collaboration and Best Dance Song. While accepting the Artist of the Year award, she offered some hard-won advice and wisdom for the other musicians in attendance.

“I spent the last year-and-a-half finding myself, believing in myself and really making the music that I wanted to make,” she said. “To me, that really is the definition of being an artist. And my hope for all of you here tonight is that you spend the next year, or the next 10 years or the rest of your life, doing the same. Finding yourself and believing in yourself.”

The post The 6 Best Moments From the 2026 VMAs appeared first on TheWrap.

The new award is designed to honor the “groundbreaking musical artists” whose contributions and efforts behind the camera have “expanded the possibilities of music video and advanced the art of visual storytelling.” Swift, who was chosen as the award’s inaugural recipient, is a seven-time nominee and four-time VMAs winner for Best Director.

Dakota Johnson, Swift’s close friend, presented the honor.

“Taylor has spent the majority of her life on set, telling tales and building worlds. She isn’t just one of the most decorated artists in the history of the VMAs. She is the single most recognized video director in this show,” Johnson said. “She is a visionary with a relentless drive for perfection in everything she does, and still holds the artistry and the cardinal virtue to never lose sight of the ineffable magic spark at the center of it all.”

In a clip showcasing the artist’s work over the years Swift broke down her filmmaking process admitting she “just loves making stuff.”

“First of all, I want to say thank you to MTV for giving this platform to music videos so long ago,” Swift said in her acceptance speech. “I got to start making music videos and being a part of music videos 20 years ago, and since then I’ve gotten to be a part of making 60 music videos from 18 of those I wrote and directed, and I really love writing and directing music videos.”

She continued: “I got to tell you though, the main reason why I love writing and directing music videos so much is because you, the fans, make it so much fun. It’s so rewarding because you actually care about what we’re making. So, you know, I want to say thank you to everyone who ever worked on a music video that I got to be a part of. I learned something from every single person that ever worked alongside me on these projects. Mainly, I want to say thank you to the fans.”

Over the years, the “Life of a Showgirl” singer-songwriter has taken more control of her visual output. She has directed many of her own music videos, including those for songs like “The Fate of Ophelia,” “Opalite,” “The Man,” “cardigan,” “willow,” “Anti-Hero,” “Bejeweled,” “Lavender Haze,” “I Can See You (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault),” “Karma (feat. Ice Spice)” and “Fortnight (feat. Post Malone).” In 2021, she also helmed the short film for the 10-minute version of her “Red” track, “All Too Well,” which starred Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien.

Along with taking home the inaugural award, Swift also premiered the music video for her new single “Patient Zero” starring Johnson and Colin Farrell.

The singer released the single Friday accompanied by her “The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore” expansion album. The new Disc 2 featured four songs: “Patient Zero,” “Cleveland!” “Pink Clouding” and “Babylon.”

In a Friday interview with Capital FM, Swift explained that the song was inspired by experiences she and her friends have had with women dating their exes reaching out to them for advice.

“The story behind me writing the song ‘Patient Zero’ is that I was hanging out with a bunch of friends, and one of my friends told us that she had been reached out to by the new girlfriend of an ex of hers, asking for guidance on if she had had the same experiences with this guy,” she said. “Everyone in our group just immediately started saying like, ‘Oh, I’ve been through that too,’ and telling the stories of when this kind of reach out had happened for them.”

The post Taylor Swift Makes History, Wins First-Ever Artist Director Honor at VMAs: ‘I Just Love Making Stuff’ appeared first on TheWrap.

The singer released the single Friday as part of her “The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore” expansion album. The new, second slate of “Life of a Showgirl” tracks featured four songs: “Patient Zero,” “Cleveland!” “Pink Clouding” and “Babylon.”

Dakota Johnson stars in the “Patient Zero” video as the wife of an abusive husband (played by Colin Farrell). Over the course of the video, she is haunted by images of Swift, her husband’s former partner. Sick for reasons she does not understand and accused of drinking too much, Johnson’s character finds herself caught up in swirl of confusion created by her toxic relationship.

It is only revealed in the music video’s closing moments that Farrell’s character has been poisoning Johnson all along, slowly gaslighting and killing her the same way he did with Swift’s departed, former heiress. The video’s story ties into the origins of “Patient Zero,” which Swift shared this week was inspired by a friend’s recounting of how an ex-boyfriend’s current girlfriend once reached out to her for advice on her relationship.

“If you wanna party with somebody / who might know about the devil on his shoulder under his halo,” the lyrics to the moody track read. “When the toxins take their hold / you’d rather die than let it go / But if you’re sick of him, I got you / I was patient zero.”

In a Friday interview with Capital FM, Swift noted that her friend’s story was one she discovered that she and multiple other women they knew could relate to.

“The story behind me writing the song ‘Patient Zero’ is that I was hanging out with a bunch of friends, and one of my friends told us that she had been reached out to by the new girlfriend of an ex of hers, asking for guidance on if she had had the same experiences with this guy,” Swift said. “Everyone in our group just immediately started saying like, ‘Oh, I’ve been through that too,’ and telling the stories of when this kind of reach out had happened for them.”

Swift commemorated the music video’s release in an Instagram post Sunday, in which she thanked Johnson, Farrell and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki.

“The ‘Patient Zero’ video is finally out in the world!” Swift wrote. “Getting to work with [Lubezki] was something out of a dream sequence, and I learned so much from getting to watch his genius in action. I want to thank @dakotajohnson and Colin for trusting me with their time, taste, and talent (Giggling with your friend because you’re twinning for an entire shoot was a new and truly delightful experience). And Colin’s turn as a villain is even more impressive when you get to be around him. He’s an absolute light and as kind as they come.”

She also shouted out Cara Delevingne, who makes a cameo appearance in the music video, writing, “Thank you for agreeing to play the lusty other woman. That’s what friends are for?”

“With the ‘Patient Zero’ video, I got to explore the cinematic and literary genres I love so much,” Swift continued. “I wanted to incorporate elements of gothic ghost stories, true crime, psychological thrillers all in a setting I hadn’t really shot in much. The house was a metaphor for the coldness of a relationship that’s faded and atrophied.”

“Thank you to the @vmas for giving us a World Premiere at the place where celebrating music videos became a thing,” Swift concluded. “And so much love for you guys, always.”

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Along with premiering her latest video, this year’s MTV awards show proved to be a huge night for Swift, who accepted the first-ever VMA Artist Director Honors earlier in the evening and then capped things off by winning Video of the Year.

The Artist Director Honors is designed to commemorate the “groundbreaking musical artists” whose contributions and efforts behind the camera have “expanded the possibilities of music video and advanced the art of visual storytelling.” Swift, who was chosen as the award’s inaugural recipient, is a seven-time nominee and four-time VMAs winner for Best Director.

Over the years, the “Life of a Showgirl” singer-songwriter has taken more control of her visual output. She has directed many of her own music videos, including those for songs like “The Fate of Ophelia,” “Opalite,” “The Man,” “cardigan,” “willow,” “Anti-Hero,” “Bejeweled,” “Lavender Haze,” “I Can See You (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault),” “Karma (feat. Ice Spice)” and “Fortnight (feat. Post Malone).” In 2021, she also helmed the short film for the 10-minute version of her “Red” track, “All Too Well,” which starred Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien.

The post Taylor Swift and Dakota Johnson Share Colin Farrell in ‘Patient Zero’ Music Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Madonna entered the night as the most-nominated artist, with 11 nods. She took home Artist of the Year, Best Collaboration for “Bring Your Love” with Sabrina Carpenter and Best Dance for “Confessions II – The Film.”

Taylor Swift followed with nine nominations. Swift won Video of the Year for “The Fate of Ophelia.” She also received the inaugural MTV VMA Artist Director Honor which was presented by her close friend Dakota Johnson. In her acceptance speech for Video of the Year, Swift dedicated the Moon Person award to Dolly Parton, who was “the ultimate showgirl.”

“Every single song that she wrote, her storytelling was so vivid and so rich,” Swift said of Parton. “Every single time you hear what she has written, and she, man, she handled this thing with such grace and joy and love and gratitude for the fact that she got to do this, and everything that happened in her life or her career, she channeled back into love and gratitude and appreciation for her fans. I am lucky I got to be one of them, and I will always be one of them.”

Swift also premiered the music video for her new single “Patient Zero” starring Johnson and Colin Farrell.

Elsewhere, Lisa took home Best Pop for “Dream feat. Kentaro Sakaguchi,” while Sienna Spiro won Best New Artist.

The ceremony also featured tributes to Parton, led by Kacey Musgraves, and George Michael, who was honored with a tribute performance by Sombr, RAYE and Teddy Swims. Nirvana received the Video Vanguard Award.

Here are all the winners of the 2026 Video Music Awards:

Video of the Year

Ariana Grande – “hate that i made you love me” – Republic Records
Bruno Mars – “I Just Might” – Atlantic Records
GENER8ION – “STORM starring Yung Lean” – Iconoclast Music
Madonna – “Confessions II – The Film” – Warner Records
Sabrina Carpenter – “Tears”- Island
Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia” – Republic Records

Artist of the Year

Ariana Grande – Republic Records
Bruno Mars – Atlantic Records
Madonna – Warner Records
Morgan Wallen – Big Loud/Mercury Records
Sabrina Carpenter – Island
Taylor Swift – Republic Records

Song of the Year

BTS – “Swim” – BIGHIT MUSIC
Ella Langley – “Choosin’ Texas” – Columbia Records
HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna, REI AMI – “Golden” – Republic Records/Visva Records
Madonna & Sabrina Carpenter – “Bring Your Love” – Warner Records
Olivia Dean – “Man I Need” – Island
PinkPantheress – “Stateside + Zara Larsson” – Warner Records UK/Atlantic Records
RAYE – “WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!” – Human Re Sources

Best New Artist

Bella Kay – Atlantic Records
CORTIS – BIGHIT MUSIC
Magnus Ferrell -Visva Records/Republic Records
Malcolm Todd – Columbia Records
Myles Smith – RCA Records
Sienna Spiro – Capitol Records
Stella Lefty – Sandlot/Atlantic Outpost

Best Collaboration

Clipse, Kendrick Lamar, Pusha T, Malice – “Chains & Whips” – Roc Nation Distribution
French Montana x Max B – “Ever Since U Left Me” – Coke Boys Records
Madonna & Sabrina Carpenter – “Bring Your Love” – Warner Records
PinkPantheress – “Stateside + Zara Larsson” – Warner Records UK/Atlantic Records
Shakira & Burna Boy – “Dai Dai” – Sony Music US Latin
Teyana Taylor & Lucky Daye – “Hard Part” – Def Jam Recordings

Best Pop

Ariana Grande – “hate that i made you love me” – Republic Records
Charli xcx – “SS26” – Atlantic Records
LISA – “Dream feat. Kentaro Sakaguchi” – Lloud Co./RCA Records
Olivia Rodrigo – “drop dead” – Geffen Records
Sabrina Carpenter – “House Tour” – Island Records
Tate McRae – “Nobody’s Girl” – RCA Records
Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia” – Republic Records

Best Hip-Hop

Cardi B ft. Kehlani – “Safe” – Atlantic Records
Don Toliver – “E85” – Cactus Jack/ Atlantic Records
Drake – “Janice STFU” – OVO/Republic Records
Megan Thee Stallion – “LOVER GIRL” – Hot Girl Productions
Travis Scott – “DUMBO” – Cactus Jack/Epic Records
Tyler, The Creator – “SUGAR ON MY TONGUE” – Columbia Records

Best R&B

Bruno Mars – “I Just Might” – Atlantic Records
Chris Brown – “It Depends/Obvious” – RCA Records
Dave & Tems – “Raindance” – Neighbourhood Recordings/Capitol Records
Justin Bieber – “YUKON” – Def Jam Recordings
Kehlani – “Folded” – Atlantic Records
Mariah the Scientist & Kali Uchis – “Is It a Crime” – Epic Records

Best Alternative

Geese – “Taxes” – Partisan Records/Play It Again Sam
mgk & Fred Durst – “FIX UR FACE” – EST 19XX LLC/Interscope Records
Noah Kahan – “The Great Divide” – Mercury Records
Olivia Rodrigo – “the cure” – Geffen Records
SOMBR – “Homewrecker” – SMB Music/Warner Records
Tame Impala – “Dracula” – Columbia Records
twenty one pilots – “Drag Path” – Fueled By Ramen

Best Dance

Bebe Rexha & Faithless – “New Religion” – Bebe Rexha Music LLC/EMPIRE
Harry Styles – “Aperture” – Columbia Records
Lady Gaga & Doechii – “RUNAWAY” – Lil Monsters/Top Dawg Entertainment/Interscope Records/Capitol Records
Madonna – “Confessions II – The Film” – Warner Records
PinkPantheress – “Stateside + Zara Larsson” – Warner Records UK/Atlantic Records
Slayyyter – “DANCE…” – RECORDS/Columbia Records
Tate McRae – “Nobody’s Girl” – RCA Records

Best Latin

Anitta with Shakira – “Choka Choka” – Republic Records/UMLE
Bad Bunny – “NUEVAYoL” – Rimas Entertainment
Fuerza Regida – “TU SANCHO” – Rancho Humilde/Street Mob Records/Sony Music US LatinKAROL G – “Papasito” – Bichota Records/Interscope Records
Rosalía ft. Yahritza Y Su Esencia – “La Perla” – Columbia Records
Ryan Castro, Kapo & GANGSTA – “LA VILLA” – AWOO Corp./ Sony Music US Latin
Shakira & Burna Boy – “Dai Dai” – Sony Music US Latin

Best K-Pop

BLACKPINK – “JUMP” – YG Entertainment
BTS – “SWIM” – BIGHIT MUSIC
CORTIS – “REDRED” – BIGHIT MUSIC
KATSEYE – “PINKY UP” – HYBE x Geffen Records
LE SSERAFIM (feat. j-hope of BTS) – “SPAGHETTI” – SOURCE MUSIC
LISA – “Dream feat. Kentaro Sakaguchi” – Lloud Co./ RCA Records

Best Country

Ella Langley – “Choosin’ Texas” – Columbia Records
Kacey Musgraves – “Dry Spell” – Lost Highway/Interscope Records
Lainey Wilson – “Somewhere Over Laredo” – Broken Bow Records
Luke Combs – “Back in the Saddle” – Columbia Nashville
Shaboozey – “Cowgirl” – American Dogwood/EMPIRE
Stella Lefty – “Boston” – Sandlot/Atlantic Outpost 
Tucker Wetmore – “Brunette” – Back Blocks Music/Mercury Records

Best Direction

Ariana Grande – “hate that i made you love me” – Republic Records
Bruno Mars – “I Just Might” – Atlantic Records
GENER8ION – “STORM starring Yung Lean” – Iconoclast Music
Madonna – “Confessions II – The Film” – Warner Records
Sabrina Carpenter – “House Tour” – Island
Taylor Swift – “Opalite” – Republic Records

Best Art Direction

Charli xcx – “SS26” – Atlantic Records
Lady Gaga & Doechii – “RUNAWAY” – Lil Monsters/Top Dawg Entertainment/Interscope Records/Capitol Records
Madonna – “Confessions II – The Film” – Warner Records
PinkPantheress – “Stateside + Zara Larsson” – Warner Records UK/Atlantic Records
SOMBR – “My Body Isn’t Ready” – SMB Music/Warner Records
Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia” – Republic Records

Best Cinematography

A$AP Rocky – “PUNK ROCKY” – A$AP Worldwide/RCA Records
Ariana Grande – “hate that i made you love me” – Republic Records
LISA – “Dream feat. Kentaro Sakaguchi” – Lloud Co./ RCA Records
Madonna – “Confessions II – The Film” – Warner Records
Shaboozey – “Cowgirl” – American Dogwood/EMPIRE
Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia” – Republic Records

Best Editing

Ariana Grande – “hate that i made you love me” – Republic Records
Bruno Mars – “I Just Might” – Atlantic Records
LISA – “Dream feat. Kentaro Sakaguchi” – Lloud Co./ RCA Records
Madonna – “Confessions II – The Film” – Warner Records
Sabrina Carpenter – “House Tour” – Island
Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia” – Republic Records

Best Choreography

GENER8ION – “STORM starring Yung Lean” – Iconoclast Music
Harry Styles – “Dance No More” – Columbia Records
KATSEYE – “PINKY UP” – HYBE x Geffen Records
Madonna – “Confessions II – The Film” – Warner Records
Tate McRae – “Nobody’s Girl” – RCA Records
Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia” – Republic Records

Best Visual Effects

Ariana Grande – “hate that i made you love me” – Republic Records
JISOO X ZAYN – “Eyes Closed” – Warner Records
Madonna – “Confessions II – The Film” – Warner Records
PinkPantheress – “Stateside + Zara Larsson” – Warner Records UK/Atlantic Records
RAYE ft. Hans Zimmer – “Click Clack Symphony.” – Human Re Sources
Taylor Swift – “The Fate of Ophelia” – Republic Records

The post 2026 MTV VMAs Winners List: Madonna Wins Artist of the Year, Taylor Swift Nabs Video of the Year appeared first on TheWrap.

Shouldn’t we?

In a way, yes, we should. But after a relatively underwhelming Cannes Film Festival back in May, the September trio of festivals was also underwhelming, and the New York lineup is light on much that could alter the race.

So let’s pick through what we’ve seen and what we expect to happen when the 10,000+ members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences get around to voting in the Best Picture category in early January. We’ll separate them into groups.  

Contenders that have already been released

The big one in this category, of course, is Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” an epic that became the de facto frontrunner when it was released on July 17 and hasn’t budged from that position since then. It did extremely well at the box office, reviews have been strong and it epitomizes a year in which lots of high-profile films tell stories about how we tell stories, with others in that camp including “The Debut,” “Elsinore,” “Digger,” “Primetime” and “Ink.”

Being a wire-to-wire favorite isn’t easy, but Nolan did it three years ago with his previous film, “Oppenheimer,” another third-week-of-July release. Lots of directors earn back-to-back Best Picture nominations – Paul Thomas Anderson did it last year, Edward Berger and Denis Villeneuve the year before – but winning the top prize with consecutive films hasn’t happened since David Lean turned the trick with “Bridge on the River Kwai” in 1957 and “Lawrence of Arabia” in 1962. The only other director to do it: William Wyler with “Mrs. Miniver” in 1942 and “The Best Years of Our Lives” in 1946.

(Francis Ford Coppola directed Best Picture winners only two years apart with the first two “Godfather” movies, as did Frank Lloyd with “Cavalcade” and “Mutiny on the Bounty” in the 1930s, but Coppola made “The Conversation” in between his two winners, and Lloyd made three other movies between his.)

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s “Project Hail Mary” came out even earlier in the year, on March 20, only five days after the Oscar ceremony. But like “Sinners” last year and “Dune: Part Two” the year before, it’s a bold spring movie that seems to be hanging on in the minds of voters.

The jury’s still out on a trio of movies that came out in the first half of the year: in order of likelihood, Olivia Wilde’s sharp and entertaining talkfest “The Invite,” YouTube creator Curry Barker’s horror-movie sensation “Obsession” (not a genre that usually finds favor with Oscar voters) and the divisive but crowd-pleasing Michael Jackson biopic (or whitewash?) “Michael.”  

Festival movies that are likely to be nominated

The fall festivals usually bring the premieres of a few best-pic nominees: Last year, for instance, there was “Bugonia” and “Frankenstein” from Venice and “Hamnet” from Telluride, the year before “The Brutalist” from Venice and “Conclave” and “Nickel Boys” from Telluride. This year, though, I count exactly one sure-fire nominee: Martin McDonagh’s twisted comedy “Wild Horse Nine.” It may not be as strong as the Irish director’s 2022 black comedy “The Banshees of Inisherin,” which received nine nominations, but it’ll likely do well, buoyed by the affection for a cast headed by John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell and Steve Buscemi.

Peter Farrelly’s “I Play Rocky” may not be quite as much of a sure thing, but his tale of the making of the 1976 Best Picture winner “Rocky” is a genuine crowd-pleaser and seems likely to become the first Toronto Film Festival world premiere to land a nomination since “American Fiction” in 2023.

Festival movies that might be nominated

This is a much bigger group than the likely nominees. It includes Jesse Eisenberg’s goofy musical “The Debut,” another crowd-pleaser; Mike Leigh’s wrenching but lovely “Tender Loving Care,” with “Widow’s Bay” Emmy winner Kate O’Flynn starring in what the iconic director says will likely be his last movie; and Australian film and theater director Simon Stone’s “Elsinore,” with a stunning performance by Andrew Scott as Ian Charleson, the “Chariots of Fire” star who played Hamlet in a London theatrical production while he was dying of AIDS in 1989. (It could follow “Hamnet” and become the second consecutive nominee to find parallels between Shakespeare’s classic tragedy and the lives of people putting it on.)

Other recent festival films in contention are Lance Oppenheim’s “Primetime,” with Robert Pattinson as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen; Sian Heder’s “CODA” follow-up, “Being Heumann,” which uses a predominantly disabled cast to tell the story of a 1977 sit-in that was pivotal in the disability-rights movement; and Danny Boyle’s “Ink,” in which Boyle’s typically propulsive filmmaking traces the rise of tabloid journalism in England in the 1980s.

Going back to the Cannes Film Festival in May, you can’t rule out James Gray’s “Paper Tiger,” in which Scarlett Johansson, Miles Teller and Adam Driver play roles based on Gray’s mother, father and uncle; and Jordan Firstman’s entertaining “Club Kid,” which takes “Three Men and a Baby,” drops two of the men and transplants the action to New York gay club scene.

Festival contenders not in English

This is an intriguing batch of films, because the increasingly international makeup of the Academy has led to four consecutive years of two non-English Best Picture nominees, and eight straight years of at least one. Two-thirds of those nominees have come from Cannes, which supplied at least six contenders this year.

The top three seem to be the Palme d’Or winner, Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord,” austere and provocative; the Spanish drama “La Bola Negra,” an expansive epic which spans decades in the lives of three gay men and is one of Netflix’s strongest contenders; and “Fatherland,” another mid-century black-and-white reverie from Pawel Pawlikowski, who worked this territory fruitfully with his last two movies, “Ida” and “Cold War.”

The Asian auteurs Lee Chang-dong and Ryusuke Hamaguchi can’t be discounted, either, with Lee’s “Possible Love” and Hamaguchi’s “All of a Sudden” telling deep and thoughtful stories from South Korea and Japan, respectively. Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, now living in exile in France, delivers a typically powerful look at Russian society in “Minotaur,” though Best Picture is more of a stretch for his dark drama.

Notable documentaries

No nonfiction film has ever been nominated for Best Picture, but two of them certainly stole the headlines during the festivals. One, we saw coming: Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney’s “Musk” was a look at the world’s richest man that felt monumental even as it drained viewers over its four-hour running time.

The other was a shock: Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder’s “You Can See Everything” premiered as a surprise film at Telluride and left audiences dumbfounded with its look at Elizabeth Holmes in the month before she began serving a prison term for defrauding investors in her company Theranos. If the Academy’s Documentary Branch doesn’t embrace the slippery doc/fiction hybrid beloved by Fielder fans, there’s always a chance it could hit the spot for general voters – unless those mind-boggled raves out of Telluride had something to do with the surprise unveiling and the altitude.

A post-festival possibility that some people have seen

One of the biggest contenders to skip the fall festivals was Alejandro G. Inarritu’s “Digger,” with Tom Cruise as a billionaire mogul (there seem to be a lot of them on screens these days) in a rare comedy for the ambitious Mexican director. The film premiered in London and had a few Stateside screenings recently, with more coming in the next week. So far, it’s safe to say that the film has been wildly divisive: It’s completely excessive and over-the-top in a way that seems to be exhausting to some and thrilling to others, while a big twist recasts everything you’ve seen and forces you to reconsider those scenery-chewing performances by Cruise, John Goodman and others.

A lot of people seem to be predicting that it’ll flop with voters (think: Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon”), but it’s so seriously wacky that it might also get points for guts and nerve. It won’t hurt that it gives people a reason to vote for Tom Cruise, which has been hard to find during his years in the action-star arena.

Contenders that haven’t screened yet

This Oscar-watcher’s rule of thumb is that if you come out of the fall festivals and there are three or four or six big movies that have yet to screen, you should assume that 75% of them will not be serious contenders. The problem is that at this point, you don’t know which 25% might score.

That said, the end to Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” trilogy, “Dune: Part Three,” seems pretty close to a sure thing. You’d think the pedigree of “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth” would make that a reliable bet as well: screenplay by Quentin Tarantino based on the character that won Brad Pitt an Oscar for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” directed by three-time Best Director nominee David Fincher. But only one of Fincher’s last four movies has earned a best-pic nomination, and his pulpier genre exercises – “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “Gone Girl,” “The Killer” – are the ones that tend to miss out. So who knows?

Also a David-Fincher-adjacent semi-sequel, Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Reckoning” is a follow-up to the Sorkin-written, Fincher-directed “The Social Network,” with Jeremy Strong taking over the Mark Zuckerberg role from Jesse Eisenberg. We can expect smart, fast talking, but 2020’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” is the only one of the three previous movies Sorkin has directed to be nominated for the top Oscar.

Other films still waiting in the wings are a trio of New York Film Festival premieres: Tony Gilroy’s “Behemoth!” with Pedro Pascal as a cellist and film composer; Luca Guadagnino’s “Artificial,” with Andrew Garfield as the CEO of OpenAI; and Tom McCarthy’s “A Statement,” with Paul Rudd and Paul Giamatti as part of an ensemble playing scientists and policymakers trying to craft a statement on climate change in 1980.  

Another film that hasn’t screened yet but holds real promise, at least to me, is “Werwulf” by Robert Eggers, who ought to have gotten more awards traction than he did for “The Lighthouse” and “Nosferatu.” No, I don’t really expect it to become a Best Picture nominee. But a werewolf movie with Willem Dafoe speaking dialogue that’s all in Middle English? Damn, sign me up.  

Best Picture predictions as of right now

Given all of this, where do we stand for now? If I had to come up with a list of what I think the Best Picture nominees would be, I’d start with these seven films, more or less in this order:

“The Odyssey”
“Wild Horse Nine”
“La Bola Negra”
“Dune: Part Three”
“I Play Rocky”
“Fjord”
“Project Hail Mary”

For the final three slots, I see at least eight films that seem to have a shot, barring any surprises surfacing between now and when voting begins in January. I’d currently go with this trio, the first two because they moved me so much and the third because it’s just so batty:
“Elsinore”
“Tender Loving Care”
“Digger”

But I wouldn’t rule out these:
“The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth”
“Primetime”
“The Debut”
“Being Heumann”

As always, all opinions are subject to change because this is awards season.

The post Where Does the Best Picture Oscar Race Stand After the Lackluster Festivals? appeared first on TheWrap.

Peter Farrelly’s “I Play Rocky” and Brad Bird’s “Ray Gunn” will join the red carpet lineup, AFI announced Friday. Farrelly’s biographical drama about the creation of Best Picture winner “Rocky,” starring Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone, recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was the first runner-up for the People’s Choice Award. Bird’s long-gestating animated feature “Ray Gunn,” which just got a first trailer on Wednesday, will screen at AFI Fest shortly after its BFI London Film Festival world premiere on Oct. 10.

AFI Fest also announced a number of additions to its Special Screenings section on Friday, including Ava DuVernay’s “14th,” Tony Gilroy’s “Behemoth!,” Simon Stone’s “Elsinore,” Beth de Araújo’s “Josephine,” Martin McDonagh’s “Wild Horse Nine” and more.

“AFI FEST is where the world tells stories in the beating heart of Hollywood,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI president and CEO, in a statement. “This year, we are proud to celebrate 40 years of bringing artists and audiences together to be inspired in a powerful sense of community.”

These films join a set of movies already announced as part of the AFI Fest slate. Travis Knight’s PG-13 stop-motion epic “Wildwood” will open the festival, while Sian Heder’s “CODA” follow-up “Being Heumann” will close it. “Project Hail Mary” filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller will serve as guest artistic directors for the festival and hold a Q&A after a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

You can see the full list of Friday’s additions to AFI Fest below.

Red Carpet Premieres

“I Play Rocky”
“Ray Gunn”

Special Screenings

“14th”
“Ashes”
“Behemoth!”
“Bitter Christmas”
“Bunker”
“Clarissa”
“Elsinore”
“Josephine”
“The Man I Love”
“Mouse”
“Tangles”
“Wild Horse Nine”

The post ‘I Play Rocky,’ ‘Ray Gunn’ Close Out AFI Fest’s Red Carpet Lineup appeared first on TheWrap.

Malkovich will receive the award for his performance in Martin McDonagh’s “Wild Horse Nine,” in which he and Sam Rockwell play CIA agents who travel from Chile to Easter Island in the run-up to the 1973 Chilean coup that overthrew the Salvador Allende government. His comic performance as a man planning to write a book that could spill CIA secrets has made him one of the frontrunners in this year’s Oscar Best Actor race.

The Searchlight film had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where Malkovich won the best actor award from a jury headed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. “Wild Horse Nine” also screened at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals before its Nov. 6 theatrical release.

“A legendary actor gives … his best performance to date in which he combines pathos, volatility, vulnerability and tenderness,” SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling said in a statement. “It’s a high wire act that shows us what a commanding artist he is.”

Malkovich has been nominated for Academy Awards for “Places in the Heart” and “In the Line of Fire,” and has also appeared in “Dangerous Liasons,” “The Killing Fields,” “Burn After Reading,” “Con Air,” “Shadow of the Vampire,” “In the Hand of Dante” and “Being John Malkovich.”  

Past winners of the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award include Michael B. Jordan, Cate Blanchett, Bradley Cooper, Adam Driver, Jennifer Lawrence and Viola Davis.

The award will be presented to Malkovich on Feb. 12, 2027. The 42nd annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival will run from Feb. 3 through Feb. 13 in the coastal town north of Los Angeles.

The post John Malkovich to Receive Performer of the Year Award at Santa Barbara Film Festival appeared first on TheWrap.

The VMAs have not been hosted in the city of Angels since 2017, but the show promises splashy moments with its return. On the heels of her 13 nominations for “Confessions II,” Madonna will perform for the first time at the awards show in 23 years. 

The “Like a Virgin” singer has created many a moment at the awards show, including her breakthrough 1984 performance in a wedding dress and her 1990 “Vogue” lipsync. This year she will open the show with some “very special guests,” Toffler teased. 

“It’s kind of amazing that Madonna is still relevant and received these accolades and nominations so many years after that memorable 1984 performance she did,” the producer told TheWrap. “It was kind of undeniable to try to have her back on the show somehow and opening it. She never gives a performance that people don’t talk about.”

Toffler’s production and distribution company Gunpowder & Sky, which he co-founded in 2016, signed a multi-picture and multi-year production partnership with Paramount Global in 2025, which was part of the reason the producer returned to live TV. 

He produced last year’s VMAs, which saw Lady Gaga take MTV to Madison Square Garden and Sabrina Carpenter perform a rain-soaked rendition of “Tears.” The 2026 show brings the show back to L.A. with the Long Beach’s own Snoop Dogg serving as the “masters of ceremony.” 

“I am trying to create the mayhem all over again,” he said. 

As part of the night’s celebrations, Taylor Swift will receive the Artist Director Honors award. This award is a one-off honor that celebrates the pop superstar’s achievements in front of and behind the camera. 

The announcement (and this interview) came hours before Swift announced that her video for the “Patient Zero” would debut during the broadcast. The popstar also revealed that her surprise “The Life of a Showgirl” deluxe album would be released Friday. Toffler did not confirm that the nine-time nominee would attend the show, though. 

“I’ll give you her phone number. You can ask,” he joked. 

The 2026 VMAs will pay tribute to Dolly Parton and George Michael. Kacey Musgraves was tapped to honor the country legend. Toffler called the artist “a wonderful embodiment of modern country and strong women in country” and a natural choice for the tribute. 

George Michael, who died a decade ago on Christmas Day 2016, will be honored. Among those performing the homage to the beloved singer are Raye, Sombr and Teddy Swims, with Adam Blackstone serving as musical director for the tribute. 

Toffler did not reveal too many details of the performance but shared that the English singer-songwriter was “an integral part of MTV’s history.” He also shared that audiences should watch Michael’s 1991 performance of “Freedom” for MTV’s 10th anniversary, a potential hint for Sunday’s tribute.

Nirvana will receive Sunday’s Video Vanguard Award, the highest honor of the night. Toffler said that he was shocked the rock band had yet to be honored at the MTV awards show. 

“I don’t have the answer for why now. I personally felt we should have recognized them every day of every year,” he said. “I couldn’t believe they weren’t recognized, ut their videos are so revolutionary and pivotal to the history of music videos … People like Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish and Selena Gomez all cite Nirvana as a huge influence, as does Dr. Dre.”

As the way audiences consumed music and videos have evolved, so have the VMAs and MTV. The awards show has implemented social categories as well as fan voting to engage music lovers online. 

Toffler said, however, that TV and awards shows still serve as a “galvanizing art form.”

“TV still gathers a lot of people, and the thing about music now is the genres really kind of have mashed up with one another. Streaming has has kind of taken away chronology in a way,” he said. “The beauty of the VMAs, in many ways, is it’s genre and color and age blind. They all live on the stage together.”

“You’ve got Snoop and Madonna with Yung Lean and Gener8ion and Lisa and Raye and Shaboozey. They shouldn’t really live on in one place together, but for one night, for a couple of hours, they will, and maybe some mayhem will ensue,” he said. 

The 2026 MTV Video Music Awards will air live from Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater on Sept. 27, at 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT on CBS, with a simulcast on MTV and streaming on Paramount+ Premium in the U.S. The show will be available globally on Paramount+ and MTV the following day.

The post How VMAs Producer Plans to ‘Create the Mayhem All Over Again’ With Madonna, Taylor Swift and George Michael appeared first on TheWrap.