The Brief

Nominations for the 2026 Oscars are out, with Sinners leading the pack with a record 16 nominations for an individual movie. Star Michael B. Jordan, who played twins Smoke and Stack in the horror film set in 1930s Mississippi, was nominated for his first time. The film also garnered nods for best picture, best original screenplay, best directing and more.

First-time acting nominees this year also include Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein), Delroy Lindo and Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners), Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another), and much of the cast of the Norwegian drama Sentimental Value, including Elle Fanning, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgård.

One Battle After Another follows Sinners with 13 nods, including for best picture and a best actor nomination for Leonardo DiCaprio.

Timothée Chalamet, the star of frenetic table tennis story Marty Supreme, was nominated for best actor for his second year in a row. Last year, he got a nod for A Complete Unknown.  

The Oscars will be hosted by Conan O'Brien on Sunday, March 15 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, airing on ABC and streaming on Hulu.
Best picture

Bugonia
F1
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Train Dreams

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme
Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
Delroy Lindo, Sinners
Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value

Performance by an actress in a leading role

Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue
Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value
Emma Stone, Bugonia

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
Amy Madigan, Weapons
Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another

Best animated feature film

Arco
Elio
KPop Demon Hunters
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Zootopia 2

Best animated short film

Butterfly
Forevergreen
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Retirement Plan
The Three Sisters

Achievement in cinematography

Frankenstein
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Train Dreams

Achievement in costume design

Avatar: Fire and Ash
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
Sinners

Achievement in directing

Chloé Zhao, Hamnet
Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
Ryan Coogler, Sinners

Best documentary feature film

The Alabama Solution
Come See Me in the Good Light
Cutting Through Rocks
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
The Perfect Neighbor

Best documentary short film

All the Empty Rooms
Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud
Children No More: Were and Are Gone
The Devil Is Busy
Perfectly a Strangeness

Achievement in film editing
F1
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners

Best international feature film

The Secret Agent, Brazil
It Was Just an Accident, France
Sentimental Value, Norway
Sirāt, Spain
The Voice of Hind Rajab, Tunisia

Achievement in casting

Hamnet, Nina Gold
Marty Supreme, Jennifer Venditti
One Battle after Another, Cassandra Kulukundis
The Secret Agent, Gabriel Domingues
Sinners, Francine Maisler

Achievement in makeup and hairstyling

Frankenstein, Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel and Cliona Furey
Kokuho, Kyoko Toyokawa, Naomi Hibino and Tadashi Nishimatsu
Sinners, Ken Diaz, Mike Fontaine and Shunika Terry
The Smashing Machine, Kazu Hiro, Glen Griffin and Bjoern Rehbein
The Ugly Stepsister, Thomas Foldberg and Anne Cathrine Sauerberg

Original Score

Bugonia, Jerskin Fendrix
Frankenstein, Alexandre Desplat
Hamnet, Max Richter
One Battle after Another, Jonny Greenwood
Sinners, Ludwig Goransson

Original Song

"Dear Me" from Diane Warren: Relentless; music and lyric by Diane Warren
"Golden" from KPop Demon Hunters; music and lyric by EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seon and Teddy Park
"I Lied to You" from Sinners; music and lyric by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Goransson
"Sweet Dreams of Joy" from Viva Verdi!; music and lyric by Nicholas Pike
"Train Dreams" from Train Dreams; music by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner; lyric by Nick Cave

Achievement in production design

Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners

Best live action short film
Butcher's Stain
A Friend of Dorothy
Jane Austen's Period Drama
The Singers
Two People Exchanging Saliva

Achievement in sound

F1
Frankenstein
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sirāt

Achievement in visual effects

Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
Jurassic World Rebirth
The Lost Bus
Sinners

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Bugonia, screenplay by Will Tracy
Frankenstein, written for the screen by Guillermo del Toro
Hamnet, screenplay by Chloé Zhao and Maggie O'Farrell
One Battle after Another, written by Paul Thomas Anderson
Train Dreams, screenplay by Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar

Writing (Original Screenplay)
Blue Moon, written by Robert Kaplow
It Was Just an Accident, written by Jafar Panahi; script collaborators: Nader Saïvar, Shadmehr Rastin, Mehdi Mahmoudian
Marty Supreme, written by Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
Sentimental Value, written by Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier
Sinners, written by Ryan Coogler

Copyright 2026 NPR

After a warm spell, winter weather has returned to Southern California.

Thursday's rainfall will be on the drizzly, scattered end of things. The National Weather Service forecasts around a quarter inch of rainfall through Friday. Any snowfall will stick to the 8,000-foot elevation range Thursday, and drop down to around 6,000 feet by Friday.

As for temperatures, it's going to be another relatively cool day.

We're looking at highs in the mid 60s from the coasts to the valleys, and up to 68 degrees in the Inland Empire. In the Antelope Valley, temperatures will range from 54 to 63 degrees. And in Coachella Valley, expect daytime highs from 69 to 74 degrees and dry conditions.

The Sundance Film Festival begins for the last time in Park City, Utah, before heading to Boulder, Colo., next year. It's a bittersweet finale for the country's premier independent film festival, founded by Robert Redford in 1978.

With a gala, the festival plans to pay tribute to the late actor and director, who died of natural causes in September.

"Before he passed earlier this year, [Redford] shared with us this quote: 'Everybody has a story,'" says the festival's director, Eugene Hernandez. "This notion is such a great framing for a festival that has always been about finding and sharing with audiences the stories that come from all over the world."

This year, the festival will screen films that got their starts at Sundance, including Little Miss Sunshine, which went on to be nominated for best picture at the 2007 Oscars.

The festival will also screen a remastered print of the 1969 movie Downhill Racer, in which Redford plays a champion skier. Redford was also a producer on this indie film.

"He would tell this story year after year about getting Downhill Racer made," recalls Sundance senior programmer John Nein. "It became a way that he understood the notion of protecting independence and protecting the artistic voice of a film. He often used that when he talked to emerging filmmakers, to relate to the struggles that they had in getting their films made the way that they wanted to."

Nein says one way to recognize that legacy is by programming 40 percent of the slate from first-time filmmakers. More than 16,200 films were submitted from 164 countries. Throughout the year, the Sundance Institute hosts labs and programs and provides grants and fellowships for independent filmmakers.

Over the years, Sundance has been a launching pad for filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, Ava DuVernay, The Coen brothers, Ryan Coogler, Chloe Zhao and Paul Thomas Anderson.

Another filmmaker whose career Sundance supported is Rachel Lambert, who says she was inspired by a film Redford directed: Ordinary People.

"It's a profound legacy a single human being can leave an entire nation's culture," she says of Redford. "It's remarkable."

Lambert will premiere her newest film, Carousel, a love story starring Chris Pine and Jenny Slate.

Also showing at Sundance: documentaries about Chicano theater pioneer Luis Valdez, singer Courtney Love, tennis star Billie Jean King, and South African leader Nelson Mandela.

Among the features in competition is The Gallerist with Natalie Portman and Jenna Ortega.

Another is The Invite, with Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton. The Invite's producer, David Permut, has been faithfully attending Sundance since the late 1980s, when he was in the audience for Steven Soderbergh's breakout Sex, Lies, and Videotape. 

"I never miss Sundance. I've been going every year since," says Permut. "I stay for 10 days, I'm not in and out like a lot of people from Hollywood when they're there with their film. I love the second week because it's basically cinephiles from all over the world."

Permut showed his first film at Sundance — Three of Hearts — in 1993. Last year, his film Twinless won the festival's audience award.

"I have 57 movies I want to see this coming Sundance," he says. "For me, it's about discovery."

Actress Hana Mana in <em>The Friend's House Is Here</em>. The film was smuggled out of Iran to premiere at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

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Alma Linda Films

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Some filmmakers have gone to great lengths to get their work screened this year — including the Iranian film The Friend's House is Here.

The drama—set in Tehran's underground art scene — was shot under the radar of Iranian authorities. Amid the country's recent political turmoil, members of the film's crew had to drive 11 hours to smuggle the film over the Turkish border to get it to the festival. According to the film's publicist, the film's two main actresses were not heard from for weeks during Iran's recent unrest. The publicist says the women are now safe but have been denied visas by the United States to attend Sundance.
Copyright 2026 NPR

Topline:

Why it matters: Pasadena’s claim to the cheeseburger is a significant part of Southern California's food history, with direct ties to car culture and roadside dining.

Who's participating: Nearly 50 restaurants are taking part, including Dog Haus Biergarten, Pie 'n Burger, the Taproom at the Langham Huntington Hotel and Magnolia House. There are also week-only specials, including Tardino Bros. Italian Kitchen's chili cheeseburger pizza and Burrito Express' smashburger taco.

Why now: It’s a perfect opportunity to explore some of those Pasadena spots that you've been meaning to try (and a good way to fire up your palate before LAist’s citywide Tournament of Cheeseburgers later this year!).

Volunteers are fanning out across the region tonight for the last night of L.A.’s annual homeless count to get a census of the unhoused population. But advocates say there’s one population that’s especially hard to get an accurate count of: families.

The way the count works is that volunteers count who they can physically see on the streets.

Homeless services providers say that doesn’t work with families because families don’t usually experience homelessness out on the streets. Instead, they are more likely to be living discreetly in their cars, in motels or doubled up in suboptimal units.

“ We know they're there. Yhey're our clients. We see them when they come, and they are referred [to us] by the schools, by 211, by the faith community. We see them but not through the count,” said Constanza Pachon, CEO of The Whole Child, an agency that serves families in southeast L.A. County.

What is the situation for unhoused families in the LA area?

Last year, homelessness declined overall in the region, but not for families with children. And service providers say even that was an undercount. In the region where Pachon serves, the count estimated a total of 265 families experiencing homelessness, but the agency serves about 2,500 families a year.

“There have been homeless counts in the previous years in which we don't see any families at all,” said Pachon, whose agency is running a site for the count in East L.A.

Providers worry they’ll see more families struggling with homelessness with funding cuts to the services system. Pachon says they’ve been at capacity over the past year and have a running waitlist for families who need housing services.

Mark Hood, CEO of Union Rescue Mission, volunteered Tuesday night and walked 9 miles through downtown Los Angeles. He said he didn’t encounter any families, but his agency, which runs shelters, has been seeing a rising need among families with children.

“We have certainly, last summer and into the fall, seen more families come through our door,” he said.

Learn more about homelessness in LA

• LA County launches new homelessness department: ‘The buck is going to stop with us’: The new L.A. County Homeless Services and Housing department takes the mantle from the embattled regional L.A. Homeless Services Authority, known as LAHSA, which until now has overseen the funding and administration of homeless services across a county where more than 72,000 people experience homelessness on any given night.
• California counties must jump through new hoops to get homelessness funds: Despite California’s large recent investments in homelessness, encampments are still rampant on city streets. But cities and counties already are chafing under tightening requirements they worry will make it harder to access crucial state funds without directly improving conditions on the street.
• How an overloaded homelessness system left this LA family living in their car: Many Los Angeles families have struggled to find housing over the past several months as options dry up. And now it could get even harder in the face of a county proposal to cut homeless services funding in order to close a deficit.