Background
For the last couple of years, my friendly Oscars guessing competition has gotten more and more elaborate. It started in 2024, and only included the 5 friends who I attended the Oscars watch party with at our local independent theatre. I had everyone input their guesses for the key categories, and gave each category it’s own score value. I came dead last at guessing the winners, but had such a fun time that I decided to continue in the following years!
While the last 2 years have been more digital, I still like to have something on-hand to bring with me to the event. I have been adding everything to a 1 page reference to get live results!
2026 Oscars
2026 had 22 participants. Similar to previous years, it included all key categories with their own associated point values. Here was the breakdown:
| Category | Point Value |
| Actor in a leading role | 2 |
| Actor in a supporting role | 2 |
| Actress in a leading role | 2 |
| Actress in a supporting role | 2 |
| Animated feature film | 2 |
| Casting | 1 |
| Cinemtography | 1 |
| Costume design | 1 |
| Directing | 2 |
| Film editing | 1 |
| International feature film | 1 |
| Makeup & hairstyling | 1 |
| Music (original score) | 1 |
| Music (original song) | 1 |
| Production design | 1 |
| Sound | 1 |
| Visual effects | 1 |
| Writing (adapted screenplay) | 1 |
| Writing (original screenplay) | 1 |
| Best picture | 3 |
The results had some sure winners, and some major upsets! Before we get into which participant won, let’s get into some of the fun findings.
Accolades
🏆 The cleanest sweep!
This accolade goes to a movie that had few nominations (only 2), but won both and had the highest score of participants guess it for the win: KPOP DEMON HUNTERS!
🏆 The underdog!
There were 5 categories where 4 or fewer people guessed the correct answer. Amazingly, all of these categories were won by the same movie….. ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER! Does this mean that this movie is a sleeper, or does it mean that it was bad and didn’t deserve all the wins? I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
| Category | Movie that won | # who guessed correctly | What movie had the most guesses? (and how many) |
| Casting | One Battle After Another | 4 | Marty supreme (9) |
| Directing | One Battle After Another | 3 | Hamnet (10) |
| Film editing | One Battle After Another | 4 | Marty & F1 (8 each) |
| Writing (adapted) | One Battle After Another | 3 | Hamnet (8) |
| Best picture | One Battle After Another | 4 | Mary supreme (7) |
🏆 The biggest upset!
There was one standout movie that performed very well among participants which ended up flopping the hardest.
Nominated for 9 oscars, and the leading (or tied) choice in 5 of those categories by participants, this movie received 0 Oscar wins… MARTY SUPREME!
Winners!
With a whopping 17 points, the winner is…. Taylor McBaby!
Taylor went the strategy of consistency, getting 14/20 categories correct, the highest of all participants.
Following Taylor, we had a 4 way tie for 2nd, and a very close 3rd.
Thanks to all who participated! I hope you had as much fun as I did 🙂
Well done Taylor!!
Curse you, Taylor! I’ll get you next year!
my poor lisan al gaib was robbed 😫
Thank you everyone, this win means the world to me™️