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Actor Awards 2026: Biggest Snubs And Surprises
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Actor Awards 2026: Biggest Snubs And Surprises

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The 2026 Actor Awards delivered one of awards season’s most unpredictable nights, with major upsets in both film and television categories reshaping the Oscar race with just two weeks until the March 15 ceremony.

The rebranded ceremony formerly known as the Screen Actors Guild Awards, featured shocking wins, glaring omissions, and results that left pundits scrambling to recalculate their predictions. Here are the night’s most significant surprises and snubs.

The Biggest Upset: Michael B. Jordan Over Timothée Chalamet

The evening’s most seismic shock came in Best Actor, where Michael B. Jordan won for his dual roles as the Smokestack twins in Sinnersupsetting presumptive frontrunner Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme).

Jordan received a standing ovation from the room as Viola Davis excitedly presented him with the award. The win is particularly significant because Chalamet had won both the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy and the Critics’ Choice Award, making him the betting favorite heading into the night.

The victory suddenly throws the Best Actor Oscar race wide open. Jordan now has serious momentum after being embraced by his fellow actors, while Chalamet’s campaign faces its first major setback after Marty Supreme went 0-for-11 at the BAFTAs the previous week.

Adding to the chaos: neither Jordan nor Chalamet won BAFTA. The lack of consensus across precursor awards means Best Actor is now anyone’s race.

Ensemble Upset: Sinners Over One Battle After Another

In the night’s other major shock, Sinners won Best Ensemble over One Battle After Another, the film that had won the Golden Globe for Best Drama, the BAFTA for Best Film, and the Producers Guild Award.

The upset is significant for two reasons. First, the SAG ensemble award has historically been the strongest predictor of the Best Picture Oscar winner. Second, One Battle After Another had a record seven Actor Awards nominations across various categories, yet walked away with only Sean Penn’s Supporting Actor win.

Sinners’ ensemble win opens the door for a potential Best Picture-Best Director split at the Oscars, similar to CODA beating The Power of the Dog in 2022 or Spotlight defeating The Revenant in 2016. Ryan Coogler’s vampire epic is now positioned as a legitimate threat to dethrone One Battle After Another.

The film also won the Casting Society’s Artios Award and swept the NAACP Image Awards with 13 wins, suggesting it has deeper support within the industry than many assumed.

Amy Madigan Wins Despite Being Film’s Sole Nomination

Amy Madigan’s Supporting Actress win for Weapons was somewhat unexpected, as she was competing in a three-way split against Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Anotherwhich won Best Picture at the Golden Globes) and Wunmi Mosaku (Sinnerswhich won BAFTA).

What makes Madigan’s win more surprising is that Weapons received only one Oscar nomination — hers. Historically, actors from films with minimal nominations face an uphill battle; only five actors have won Oscars as their film’s sole nominee since 2000.

However, Madigan had won Critics’ Choice earlier in the season.

The Glaring Snubs

Rose Byrne Shut Out For If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Rose Byrne’s loss for Best Actress, though not unexpected, was an unfortunate omission. Byrne was considered a dark horse contender for her acclaimed performance in If I Had Legs I’d Kick Youhaving won a Golden Globe for it last month.

Instead, Jessie Buckley continued her clean sweep for Hamnetwinning over a field that also included Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), Chase Infiniti (One Battle After Another), and Emma Stone (Bugonia).

Byrne’s shutout suggests her campaign never gained the traction needed to break through, with A24 concentrating most of their efforts into campaigning for Marty Supreme. Buckley has now won the Critics’ Choice Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Actor Award, making her Oscar win in two weeks virtually inevitable.

Jesse Plemons Left Empty-Handed for Bugonia

Jesse Plemons was nominated for Best Actor for Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugoniabut lost to Jordan. The snub is particularly notable because Plemons has been building a reputation as one of the industry’s most reliable character actors, delivering acclaimed work in everything from Breaking Bad to The Power of the Dog to Killers of the Flower Moon.

His performance in Bugonia, which some critics called the best of his career, failed to resonate with voters despite the film’s critical acclaim. This continues a frustrating pattern for Plemons, who has yet to win a major award despite consistently strong work.

The loss also raises questions about Bugonia‘s overall Oscar prospects. The film was nominated for multiple Academy Awards including Best Picture, but its complete shutout at the Actor Awards suggests it may struggle to convert nominations into wins.

Chase Infiniti’s Breakthrough Denied

At just 25 years old, Chase Infiniti earned a Best Actress nomination for her breakout performance as Leonardo DiCaprio’s onscreen daughter in One Battle After Another. The nod was her second major recognition after winning at the Critics’ Choice Awards.

However, she lost to Buckley in what was likely always an uphill battle against the Irish actress’s juggernaut campaign. Still, Infiniti’s nomination alone with only one other acting credit to her name (the series Presumed Innocent), signals a major new talent worth watching.

The snub also continues a troubling pattern of rising actresses with acclaimed debut performances often struggle to break through at the Actor Awards, where voters tend to favor established names with longer industry relationships.

Ariana Grande Goes Home Empty for Wicked: For Good

Ariana Grande was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her reprisal of Glinda in Wicked: For Goodbut lost to Amy Madigan for Weapons.

The loss is particularly striking because Grande was also nominated in the same category at the 2025 Actor Awards for the first Wicked film. That movie earned 10 Oscar nominations and won two, while the sequel Wicked: For Good was completely shut out of the Oscar race, with not a single nomination.

Grande’s co-star Cynthia Erivo, who won Best Actress at the 2025 Actor Awards for playing Elphaba, wasn’t even nominated for the sequel. Neither of them were present at the ceremony.

The complete collapse of Wicked: For Good‘s awards prospects remains one of this season’s most baffling developments, especially given how strongly the first film performed.

Paul Mescal Missing at Both Ceremonies

While Paul Mescal was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Actor Awards for playing William Shakespeare opposite Jessie Buckley in Hamnethe lost to Sean Penn for One Battle After Another.

More painful still: Mescal was completely shut out of the Oscar nominations announced in January, despite earning nods at the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice, BAFTA, and Actor Awards. The snub was widely seen as one of the Oscars’ most egregious omissions.

Mescal and Buckley’s performances were described as a two-hander, with many critics arguing that her work couldn’t have achieved its emotional power without his matching intensity.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Buckley acknowledged this imbalance: “There’s no part of Agnes that exists without Paul. There’s no part of what I created or what we created in this story which exists without Paul and what he poured into this story. So what is recognized belongs to him as much as him being recognized in his own category would.”

Nomination Snubs From January

While the Actor Awards ceremony delivered its share of surprises, it’s worth noting which performers were shut out of the nominations process entirely when they were announced on January 7.

Most notably: Sentimental Value earned seven Critics’ Choice Award nominations but received no Actor Awards recognition whatsoever. Renate Reinsve (Best Actress), Stellan Skarsgård (Best Supporting Actor), Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Best Supporting Actress), and Elle Fanning (Best Supporting Actress) were all left out despite critical acclaim.

Similarly, The Secret Agent, Brazil’s acclaimed political thriller directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, was completely shut out of Actor Awards nominations despite earning four Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor for Wagner Moura, Best Casting, and Best International Feature Film. Moura won Best Actor at both Cannes and the Golden Globes, won the New York Film Critics Circle Award, and took home the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His complete absence from the Actor Awards lineup was particularly interesting.

The complete shutout of both films suggests they never gained traction with SAG-AFTRA voters, despite strong reviews and festival buzz. SAG-AFTRA voters have historically shown resistance to non-English language performances, even for work as acclaimed as Moura’s.

Deadline noted the “stunning” international snub, calling it an “America First” approach in a year where international films like Sentimental Value, The Secret Agent, No Other Choiceand It Was Just an Accident were all major Oscar contenders. Neon, which distributed most of the key international films, had 21 Golden Globe nominations but zero Actor Awards recognition.

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