Alums Triumph at the 2026 Academy Awards

Update:

Winners of the 98th Academy Awards were announced on the evening of Sunday, March 15, 2026 with three projects with Columbia connections taking home major awards. The star-studded ceremony also boasted School of the Arts talent behind the scenes, with Film alum Berkley Johnson '05 on the writing team for this most-anticipated awards show. 

All the Empty Rooms, directed and co-produced by Joshua Seftel, a National Arts Journalism Program Fellow at Columbia University from 2002 to 2003, was awarded the Oscar for Best Documentary Short. Seftel is an American film and television producer, writer and director known for blending non-fiction and narrative storytelling. The short film follows American broadcast journalist Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp as they embark across the United States to memorialize the bedrooms of children killed in school shootings.

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners had already made Academy Awards history with 16 nominations—the most ever for a single film—and ultimately went on to win four Oscars. Ryan Coogler was recognized with the award for Best Original Screenplay, while Michael B. Jordan earned Best Actor, Autumn Durald Arkapaw was honored for Best Cinematography, and Ludwig Göransson took home the Oscar for Best Original Score—an electrifying achievement for this standout project developed in part by Warner Bros Executive Diamond McNeil '11. 

F1, produced by Dede Gardner (CC '90) and Joseph Kosinski (GSAPP '99), who also directed the film, took home the Oscar for Best Sound—an award that honored the artists Gareth John, Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A. RIzzo and Juan Peralta for their exceptional audio work on the film.

See a full list of 2026 Oscar winners here.

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Original: January 29, 2026

Academy Award nominations have been announced, and several Columbia alums will compete for the highest honors in Hollywood. Peter Forbes '21, Jennifer Lee '05, Sam Bisbee (CC '90), Diamond McNeil '11, Charlotte Kaufman (CC '11), Eli Bush (CC '09), Bess Kargman (JRN '08), and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Journalism Juan Arredondo (JRN '20) earned nominations in Best Animated Short, Best Animated Feature Film, and Best Documentary Feature Film, Best Documentary Short, Best Song, and more. Actors Danielle Brooks and Lewis Pullman made the announcement on behalf of the Academy on Good Morning America last Thursday, January 22, 2026.

Sinners set an Academy record this year with 16 nominations, the most of any film in history. The genre-bending smash hit was developed at Warner Bros. by McNeil, who works for the studio as a development executive. In 2024, Warner Bros. won a heated bidding war for the director and writer Ryan Coogler's script, which follows twins opening a juke joint in 1930's Mississippi when vampires come to town.

Lee already made history as the first female director of a Disney feature film when she led the record-breaking Frozen. This year, as an executive producer, she earned another nomination for Best Animated Feature Film with the smash Zootopia 2, also from Disney. The film continues the stories of Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps, the buddy cops who happen to be a fox and a rabbit, as they fight crime and get into hijinks in the big city. Zootopia 2 also earned nominations for the Best Animated Film at the Golden Globes and Critic's Choice Awards. The film features voice acting performances by Jason Bateman, Ginnifer Goodwin, Jenny Slate (CC '04) and a lead single by Shakira.

Forevergreen is an animated short that follows a plucky bear cub as he adapts to forest life with the help of a nurturing evergreen tree, until his antics—amid a background of climate change—put the tree in peril. Forbes contributed additional story material to the film. Forevergreen qualified for its Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short when it won the American Film Institute Grand Jury Prize. The film also won the Animated Audience Choice Award at IndyShorts and the Kids' Choice Award Special Mention at the Palm Springs International Shorts Fest.

Columbia College alums lit up the Best Documentary Feature Film category. The Perfect Neighbor, produced by Bisbee, and The Alabama Solution, co-written, co-directed, produced, and cinematography by Kaufman, both earned nominations. The Perfect Neighbor, released on Netflix, follows an incident of neighborhood violence with a white female perpetrator who police did not take seriously as a threat to her Black neighbors. The Alabama Solution uses footage filmed on contraband cell phones by incarcerated activists within Alabama correctional facilities, to highlight the rampant abuse and injustice within that system. The film is available for streaming on HBO Max.

Honored in the Best Documentary Short Film category is Armed Only With A Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud, co-produced by Adjunct Assistant Professor of Journalism Juan Arredondo (JRN '20). The film examines Renaud's career as a journalist before he became known as the first American journalist killed while reporting on the Russo-Ukraine war. 

Onetime Columbia College student Timothée Chalamet earned his third and fourth Academy nominations for his role starring in and producing the Josh Safdie feature Marty Supreme. The period piece, which was produced by Eli Bush (CC '09) and is also up for Best Picture, follows a table tennis phenom looking to win the world championship in 1950s New York City. Marty Supreme is production company A24's highest-grossing film to date. Chalamet won his first Golden Globe for Outstanding Male Actor in a Leading Role for his performance as Marty Mauser.

Joshua Seftel, a National Arts Journalism Program Fellow at Columbia from 2002-2003, earned a nomination for Best Documentary Short with All the Empty Rooms. The 33-minute film memorializes the bedrooms left empty by children murdered in school shootings. It debuted at Telluride Film Festival and won the Subject Matter Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival. Seftel directed and co-produced the film, which was picked up by Netflix for streaming after its Colorado debut.

Last but not least, the original song, "Dear Me," written by activist Diane Warren and performed by Kesha for Diane Warren: Relentless, was nominated for Best Original Song. The film was written and directed by Bess Kargman (JRN '08).

The 98th Annual Academy Awards will be hosted by comedian and acclaimed talk show host Conan O'Brien on March 15, 2026 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.