Students Weigh In on This Year’s Oscar’s Nominations

Evangelia Grivas, Writer • February 10, 2026

Photo via Civilsdaily

The Oscars, also known as the Academy Awards, are given out to films for their artistic and technical aspects. The voting is determined by “academy members,” with different branches determining different nominations in categories.

There are 24 categories, each with 5 nominees, except for best picture, which has 10. This year’s voting began on Monday, January 12th, and concluded on Friday, January 16th.

This year, Sinners got 16 Oscar nominations, breaking the record for the most nominated film of all time.

Makeda Wesley, (12), is a huge fan of the movie as well as the horror genre.

“It blended horror, a Southern Gothic period piece, with vampires, comedy, very strong social commentary, an incredible cast, original score and live performance for filming the barn scene,” said Wesley.

Wesley recognizes there hasn’t ever been much recognition within the genre, not giving credit where it is due. She notes on how in movies like Us, actors haven’t gotten recognition or nominations for their performances.

Moon Blevins, (12), believes that all of the films are very deserving of their nominations, and hopes for either Frankenstein or Sinners to win best picture. Her favorite nominated movie however, is an animated movie, The Girl Who Cried Pearls. She also believes that Good boy should’ve received more nominations.

“It was an amazing picture with such emotion to it, as well as being an amazing concept,” Blevins said.

Emmalynne Harrity (12) didn’t see many of the nominated movies, but loved Sinners and Frankenstein. She hopes that Michael b. Jordan and Wunmi Mosaku, both from Sinners, receive awards for “actor in a leading role” and “actress in a supporting role” respectively.

Emmalynne Harrity (12) (Abbygail Milburn)

“I was pleasantly surprised by How to Train Your Dragon! I feel like it was a really good adaptation and the special effects were great,” said Harrity.

The 98th academy awards will be held on March 15th, 2026, and will air on ABC at 7 pm ET. For the second year in a row, Conan O’Brien will be hosting the event. Make sure to turn your TV on to see all the winners!

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About the Contributors

Evangelia Grivas, Writer

Eva Grivas is a Senior at Atherton and is a first year staff writer on the Aerial, and hopes to make news more accessible for students at Atherton, as well as cover more student opinions. She also loves graphic design, and she hopes to make the Aerial as smooth as possible. She builds sets for our school’s theater, president of the drone team, an engineering student, and girls golf leader. Outside of school Eva enjoys making music in her band, The Sharp Stars, drawing art, building(theater, and general construction), and fashion. She loves all types of metal, including: Slam, Deathcore, and hardcore, but also loves Jeff Buckley. After high school she plans on going to the University of Kentucky to get her degree in architecture. Over the summer she interned at an architecture firm and is about to start a job at We Scream Ice Cream on Goss Ave.

Abbygail Milburn, Editor

Abbygail Milburn,(12) is excited to be working on the Aerial this school year! Milburn is a co-editor for the Aerial and is looking forward to photographing sports, writing articles, and revising stories. Milburn is the Editor-In-Chief for the yearbook and has completed the media arts graphic design pathway. Milburn also has a passion for sports photography with her favorite being softball and baseball because of all the angles you can achieve of the players sliding to base. Outside of school, Abby is president of service to service, likes to read, and enjoys sports photography. She also has 2 german shepherds, Hades and Zena. After high school, she plans to pursue journalism and get a minor in marketing.