EW speaks to anonymous Academy members — a publicist, a director, an editor, and an actor — about who they voted for this year. See all of their shocking picks!

4 anonymous Oscars voters let loose on Academy Awards picks, react to Timothée Chalamet’s campaign: ‘F--- that guy’ (exclusive)

EW speaks to anonymous Academy members — a publicist, a director, an editor, and an actor — about who they voted for this year. See all of their shocking picks!

Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at *. *Since 2016, his work at EW includes *RuPaul's Drag Race* video interviews, Oscars predictions, and more.

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March 11, 2026 9:30 a.m. ET

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Anonymous Academy voters reveal their juicy Oscars picks in EW's Secret Ballot. Credit:

Richard Harbaugh/AMPAS  - Design: EW

- EW speaks with 4 anonymous Oscars voters who reveal their spicy reactions to this year's race.

- On Timothée Chalamet's campaign and recent anti-opera comments, one actor tells EW: "F--- that guy!"**

- Almost all chose Jessie Buckley to win Best Actress, but many were split on Supporting Actor.

No phrase better provides a snapshot of the energy surrounding the end of the 2025-26 awards season than the one uttered by an Academy voter * *anonymously surveyed about their Oscars picks: "Oh, yeah. F--- that guy."

*That guy* in question is former Best Actor frontrunner Timothée Chalamet, whose *Marty Supreme* campaign hit a roadblock in recent weeks after its star received criticism over what many felt were smug comments about his work — which he later followed up by making a heavily criticized jab at audiences losing interest in other art forms like opera and ballet.

"It's so trashy. Punching down on artists who make a fraction of what he makes, yet have spent 10 to 20 years honing their craft? I'm sorry, you know, this guy is not Philip Seymour Hoffman. And Philip Seymour Hoffman would certainly never punch down on opera or ballet dancers," the actor continues. "That's an entitled dude. I'm sorry. I lost a lot of respect for him."

Oscars statuette. Bettmann/Getty Images

It's clear: Managing one's words is a key step in any star's delicate ballet-dance through Oscar season, which this year has welcomed a wide range of contenders into the foray.

From Michael B. Jordan and Jessie Buckley to Sean Penn, this year's crop spans major blockbusters with cultural impact (*Sinners*) to prestige dramas (*Hamnet*) and, even, a mix of the two (*One Battle After Another*). The Academy also implemented a new rule, which requires all voters to have seen every film in a specific category before casting their ballot.

But, as one director anonymously tells EW, they're not all being honest about their results.

Corey Feldman alleges Oscars left 'Stand by Me' star out of planned Rob Reiner tribute

'Sinners' shatters major Oscars record previously held by 'Titanic,' 'La La Land,' more

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our ******EW Dispatch newsletter*****.**

"I think it's a noble initiative," EW's director says with a laugh. "I think you should obviously watch everything before you say, 'This is the best of this group.' But, you know, when the movies are 13 hours long, everybody's lying this year. I can guarantee that."

What we *can* promise, however, is some *super* candid explanations from our roster of secret balloters. Ahead of Sunday's 98th Academy Awards telecast on ABC, read on to see what EW's panel of Oscars insiders voted for — and their candid reasoning for why.

*See EW's full list of 2026 Oscar predictions*

Timothée Chalamet in 'Marty Supreme'.

EW’s panel of anonymous Oscars voters

**The Actor:** A star on screens big and small, this performer has appeared in an eclectic wealth of projects for decades.

**The Director:** An accomplished filmmaker working on both major studio productions and smaller, critically lauded specialty films.

**The Editor:** This behind-the-scenes professional has shepherded box office smashes and prestige titles into the pop culture conversation.

**The Publicist:** A mastermind of marketing responsible for publicizing a range of top-tier titles and the A-list stars in them.

Amy Madigan in 'Weapons'.

Quantrell Colbert/Warner Bros.

Best Supporting Actress

**The Actor:** Of course, it was **Amy Madigan for *Weapons***. I loved her in this role. It's always great when someone who you've watched for years gets this moment, and it's fantastic work. I look at it strictly as performance [over genre]. Actors, we take the work we can find, and we do the same level of preparation for horror or drama. We bring the same effort and energy, whether it’s Martin Scorsese directing or a new director.

**The Director:** I’m voting for *Sinners* across the board, so **Wunmi Mosaku**. *One Battle After Another* was heavily marketed on Teyana Taylor’s name, and then she was gone [after 30 minutes] and I was waiting for her to turn up. Very surprised she was missing…. I have to admit, I watched *Weapons* on an airplane. I'm shocked by the Oscar nomination, even though I think it's a fantastic performance, but when you look at *Sinners*, it's talking about race and ownership and history, and it's flipping every sort of aspect of the genre on its head by doing something different. *Weapons* didn't have that, you know? *Weapons* was like, "Oh, yeah, this is gonna be about the crazy lady." I’ll be honest, I didn’t recognize Amy Madigan. I thought it was maybe a man dressed up as a woman. I thought it might be a very homophobic *Silence of the Lambs*-type situation!

**The Editor:** A couple of times on my ballot, I’ve selected performances in films I did not like because I thought what the person in the role did was noteworthy. [Similarly], an underwritten or unbelievable or uninteresting character made believable or interesting by the actor is noteworthy. So I gave **Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas in *Sentimental Value*** the nod here, because that movie I found really dull and kind of pointless. I don't need to watch another movie about an aging director. Aside from that, I thought her character was grounded. Both lead actors kept me linked to some kind of real psychology through their performances, not through the writing. Inga is what I will remember from that film.

**The Publicist:** **Amy Madigan**. She made the film, which was uniquely shot and written, but that performance was one for the ages. I also think it's wonderful for a veteran actor. The fact that she could be rewarded for a film that’s seemingly out of the comfort zone of Academy voters is [important] and I wanted to reward that. Elle and Inga, I think, were incredibly deserving. It was a challenge between them and Amy, and I'm so happy that Inga has this moment, and I hope she's booking eight million things.

Delroy Lindo as Delta Slim in 'Sinners'.

Best Supporting Actor

**The Actor:** **Stellan Skarsgård**. I've been a fan of his forever. *Chernobyl* is the best miniseries ever made. He was so brilliant. What I really liked about him in *Sentimental Value* is the complexity of his relationship with his daughters. You could see it play across his face, yet he's funny, he's charming…. Just an incredible, empathetic, and sophisticated performance.

**The Director:** Nobody watched *Frankenstein*. Nobody could get through that movie. I'm gonna go with **Benicio Del Toro**, just because of that whole sequence of them hiding the kids and getting the kids out and moving them from place to place. I loved watching him, every second. I also don't want Sean Penn to get it because I'm still mad at him for how he treated Madonna. I think he is going to win, unfortunately.

**The Editor:** I voted for **Delroy Lindo in *Sinners***, because his role stood out to me in that film. It was the most memorable performance and it confirmed what I already knew about him as an actor I've loved and followed for years and have always felt deserved more recognition. I wouldn't necessarily highlight *Sinners* as *the* film, but it does feel like one that is more about the actor, rather than me being particularly in love with that character and that film. I think he did just about as good a job as anybody could possibly have done with it, and it stood out. In comparison to the other nominees, I can't really say the same thing. These are not any of the roles I would've highlighted this year for supporting actor, but of the nominations, I’d be thrilled if Delroy won.... I have trouble finding just about anything about *One Battle After Another* remarkable, including Sean Penn’s performance. It's fine, but it felt very cartoonish, much like the rest of the movie. I think Sean did a fine job in a role that I find simplistic. I didn't go into the Academy thinking I’d vote based on career prizes, but that's where we are with these nominees. I don't need to give Sean a career prize the way I would like Delroy Lindo to get one.

**The Publicist:** **Stellan Skarsgård**. His performance could have been a very easy, one-note performance. He layered his performance with subtlety. I thought it was excellent. *Sentimental Value* is one of my favorite films of the year and certainly one of my favorite films of all time. Stellan is getting my vote for that. I was also happy to see Delroy Lindo get in.

Jessie Buckley as Agnes in 'Hamnet'.

Agata Grzybowska/Focus Features

Best Actress

**The Actor:** I voted for **Jessie Buckley**. It's the best film of the year, and she carried that film on her back. The quiet moments, the grief, the slow dawning of realization that her husband had written this piece as a way of dealing with his grief and her anger. A performance for the ages, absolutely. I feel terrible for Rose Byrne, though. She should win the Oscar because her work is beyond. It's so good. She’s the whole movie. I know Jessie carried *Hamnet*, but *If I Had Legs I’d Kick You *rests in Rose’s closeups, it's entirely her performance. It’s just so interior. It's so beautiful. Those are performances of the decade. I don't even talk about last year and *Anora* and all that stuff. Last year's performance [from Mikey Madison] doesn't even touch what these two women did. Mikey did good work, but I'm like, I haven't thought about that movie since.

**The Director:** I’m voting for **Jessie Buckley** because she's so in the moment and so good. She was very real and I appreciated her natural face that could move and emote. I found Jessie refreshing. Emma Stone is never bad and she throws herself 100 precent into whatever she's doing. She’ll always have my heart from *Easy A.* It just felt like the story of *Bugonia* was, okay, this is gonna be a s---y American version of *Parasite*. I adore Rose Byrne, but that movie, I was put off by the director’s Q&A, where she was like, "You can tell that I don't have exposition in my movie. I trust my audience to know what's happening.” I was like, don’t trust me. I don't know what the f---‘s going on!

**The Editor:** I don't have issues with any of the actors. I just had to select something with the most nuance or unexpected depth. I think what Rose Byrne did was remarkable. I could think about and rewatch **Jessie Buckley’s performance** the most in *Hamnet* and find new layers of what's going on for that character, more so than the others. I think that probably comes down mostly to the script and the directing, honestly, more than the skill of any of the actors…. I truly have no idea what Kate Hudson is doing in this category. It's nothing against her in particular. I just don't know how that role in that film would've gotten selected, other than I guess a lot is driven by campaigns.

**The Publicist:** This was probably the toughest category for me. Jessie Buckley did exceptional work in *Hamnet*. However, I was completely, surprisingly won over by **Kate Hudson in *Song Sung Blue.**** *Watching her juggle the magnitude of, it's a real story, it's in someone's story, and being an *actor*. As somebody who I feel like I haven't seen on screen for quite some time, I thought it was a remarkable, fearless performance.

Michael B. Jordan plays brothers Smoke and Stack in 'Sinners'.

**The Actor:** **Michael B. Jordan** got my vote. Playing twins, you get two roles for one. It's almost unfair, you know? Like, wait, that guy played *two* guys!? So, Michael absolutely got it, but I looked at his body of work. This guy has been killing it. I remember him in *The Wire* as this skinny kid, and he’s just grown so beautifully. His work in *Sinners* is powerful, physical, just exciting.

**The Director:** 100 percent **Wagner Moura**. So good. He’s just so watchable and so beautiful. His performance was so beautiful.

**The Editor:** I chose **Wagner Moura**. He carries the movie and is sort of inscrutable and fascinating the whole time. He seems to effortlessly embody the time and place. He brings complexity to moments that seem effortless. That’s always fascinating to me. I found that movie fascinating as a way to approach a complicated historical subject. It's impossible to imagine the movie without him…. I have a ton of respect for Michael B. Jordan, and I'm sure [his role in *Sinners*] was technically difficult, playing the two characters, but I wasn’t particularly moved by it.

**The Publicist:** **Michael B. Jordan.** Two roles, which absolutely could’ve been an exercise in special effects. He created distinctive characters in these brothers. Watching his eyes, watching him emote, he brought a lot to the screen. I saw the movie a second time, just to watch him again. I was bowled over by him. I think there was an arrogance to Timothée’s campaigning that, in the year 2026, no one wants to hear or see somebody say that they deserved this Oscar. It felt tone deaf and really disappointing, because I love that movie.

Ryan Coogler directing 'Sinners'.

Eli Adé/Warner Bros.

Best Director

**The Actor:** This was a hard one. *Sinners* is just that movie. It did so much, and I voted for **Ryan Coogler.** Chloé Zhao created a masterwork, but so did Ryan. The technical filming with the twins, blending it, the performances, he just steered so many great performances out of people. This guy's been killing it.

**The Director:** Did people nominate Paul Thomas Anderson — who is a fantastic director — for *this* movie, or is it one of those movies where, you know, it’s like when we gave Martin Scorsese the award for *The Departed*? It wasn't his best movie, but it was kind of one of those, “Oh, we should've given one of these earlier.” When you think about the economy of storytelling, it's so beautifully directed, the car chase scene, the ups and down, the locations and how he picked them — all of it's so beautiful. And then you’re like, "But this overall story… what?” I kept waiting for something deeper.

I'm going to pick **Ryan Coogler** because I think what he did was phenomenal, even though I know Paul's gonna win…. I became so aware of how I had seen so many movies with the crazy Haitians and the Voodoo stereotypes, and the Black people singing tribal chants and dancing around like that. And the fact that Ryan Coogler flipped it so effortlessly, so that the creepy, scary dance was a white, Irish folk song. It was brilliant. I've seen the exact opposite of that scene in too many movies. That was so skillful and subtle. This is such a personal movie and such a big canvas and genre. It was beautiful to watch an artist wrestle with what, what it means and form and content and how they're related.

**The Editor:** You may find flaws in my logic, but the flip side of the career vote is voting for someone whose career could benefit the most. I think I went the other way, which is voting for the one that is certainly one of the best directed films in general, which is *Hamnet*. **Chloé Zhao** definitely deserves this nomination for this film, whereas I don’t feel the other four belong in this category. I think of Paul Thomas Anderson as one of the few directors who seems to be able to marshal any budget, regardless of past box office, and not someone who needs the director recognition in this way. I’m perplexed by PTA's last four films. *Licorice Pizza* and *One Battle After Another* both feel potentially harmful to the world. It’s not just, politically, extremely regressive — and sort of gleefully so — he seems to be reveling in thumbing his nose at people who want to find political saliency in his works. It almost seems like an “F-you” to the audience who might want that.

**The Publicist:** I voted for **Paul Thomas Anderson**. It’s his time. It's an exceptional film, so well-made, so well-directed. He’s an auteur, a genius. It's his time, and I can’t wait to see him hold a little gold man. I think Ryan can win. That being said, I want to spread the wealth. I want to acknowledge as many of these films as I can.

Wagner Moura in 'The Secret Agent'.

Best Picture (ranked on preferential ballot from 1-10)

**The Actor:** ***Hamnet*** got my vote. *Secret Agent*, *Marty Supreme*, I just didn't rank those. *F1* is at the bottom, and *Marty Supreme* is right next to it. If there were two bottom placements, I would put them both together. I loved [the Safdies’] *Good Time*, this energetic work where you're dropped into this cauldron of chaos and characters. I'm just tired of that. *Marty Supreme* tired me out. I like actors who play unlikeable characters, but this guy, I’m rooting against him. I just didn't want to see it anymore.

- *Sentimental Value*

- *Train Dreams*

- *One Battle After Another*

**The Director:** Watching ***Sinners***, you're like, "Wow, this movie's firing on all cylinders.” And I hate horror movies! I hated *Marty Supreme*. I found it so misogynistic. It made me anxious for no reason.... In terms of ownership and the theme of the movie represented behind camera and in front of camera and in the process of making it, it’s extraordinary what he did. On top of it all, did box office numbers and delivered a beautiful film that is both artistic and commercially successful. And he managed to say something about race in our country during a time like this in a way that was so appealing to the masses. It’s extraordinary.

- *The Secret Agent*

- *One Battle After Another*

- *Sentimental Value*

- *Frankenstein*

- *Train Dreams*

- *Marty Supreme*

**The Editor:** I could only manage to select three, and I abstained from the rest: ***The Secret Agent*,** *Hamnet*, and *Bugonia*. *Bogonia* was borderline because I felt bad about abstaining from so many of them. It was interesting and decent. Again, compared to the films I saw made on the planet Earth last year, I don't think it belongs in the top 10, whereas *Secret Agent* and *Hamnet* do. *The Secret Agent* is extraordinary. I think it'll be a film that's referenced and talked about for a long time, for how it approaches the history and politics of Brazil, as well as just general kind of genre, espionage, political thriller stuff. Direction, composing, cinematography, acting, editing, it was successful and engaging on many fronts.

- *The Secret Agent*

**The Publicist:** What Ryan Coogler created with ***Sinners*** is nothing sure of a masterpiece. There's a reason I saw it in the theater three times…. I was surprised at *F1* getting nominated. I didn't dislike it at all. If someone were to tell me this was going to be an Oscar movie, I would've paused on that. It was wildly entertaining. I just don't know if it was the best picture*. Train Dreams* reminded me of a throwback to something from the ‘80s. It’s a slower-paced film, the kind of films we're not going to be seeing much more of. A dying breed.

- *Sentimental Value*

- *The Secret Agent*

- *One Battle After Another*

- *Marty Supreme*

- *Frankenstein*

- *Train Dreams*

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