Oscars 2026: All The Records That Were Broken!
After the 98th Academy Awards, VegasInsider.com has updated its list of all the records that were broken at the 2026 ceremony. We hope their data might be useful for you to those cinephiles out there who track and toast the biggest night of Hollywood.
To highlight some of the records that were broken, Amy Madigan (who won for “Weapons” in the Best Supporting Actress category) set a new record for an actress with the longest gap between a first nomination and a first victory at the Oscars (40 years, 1 month), Sean Penn (who won in the Best Supporting Actor category for “One Battle After Another”) became only the fourth male actor to ever win 3 acting Oscars, Jessie Buckley (who won for “Hamnet”) became the first Irish actress to ever win in the Best Actress category while Autumn Durald Arkapaw (who won for “Sinners”) became the first woman to ever win in the Best Cinematography category as well as the first black cinematographer to ever win an Oscar.
You can see the full list of all the records that were broken at the 2026 Oscars in detail below, divided by categories.
OVERALL
Sean Penn (who won in the Best Supporting Actor category for “One Battle After Another”) became only the fourth male actor to ever win 3 acting Oscars, joining Daniel Day-Lewis, Jack Nicholson, and Walter Brennan. Penn previously won in the Best Actor category for “Milk” and “Mystic River.”
Amy Madigan (who won for “Weapons” in the Best Supporting Actress category) set a new record for an actress with the longest gap between a first nomination and a first victory at the Oscars - her 2026 win is 40 years and 1 month after her first Oscar nomination, which she received for “Twice In A Lifetime” at the 58th Oscars (the previous record holder amongst actresses was Geraldine Page who won for “The Trip To Bountiful” at the 1986 Oscars 32 years,1 month after her first nomination for “Hondo” at the 1954 Oscars)
BEST ACTRESS
Jessie Buckley (who won for “Hamnet”) became the first Irish actress to ever win in the Best Actress category
BEST ACTOR
Michael B. Jordan (who won for “Sinners”) became the first individual to win in the Best Actor category for playing twins - in “Sinners”, he plays both Smoke and Stack (*some do consider Lee Marvin’s win for “Cat Ballou” in 1965 to be a twins performance win, but it was never unambiguously confirmed that the two characters were twins)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Autumn Durald Arkapaw (who won for “Sinners”) became the first woman to ever win in the Best Cinematography category as well as the first black cinematographer to ever win
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Dianne Warren (nominated for “Dear Me”) officially broke her tie with Greg P. Russell, and she became the sole holder of the record for the most nominations without a win with 17 nominations. As a side note, Warren set another record by becoming the first individual to earn an Oscar nomination in the Best Original Song category for 9 consecutive years - her current run started in 2018, making 2026 her 9th consecutive nomination, thus breaking her previous tie with Sammy Cahn, who earned 8 consecutive nominations in the category between 1955 and 1962
Ejae, 24, Ido & Teddy Park (who won for co-writing “Golden”) became the first South Koreans to win in the Best Original Song category; additionally, “Golden” became the first K-Pop song to win an Oscar
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
Norway (“Sentimental Value”) won its first Oscar in the Best International Feature category at the Oscars on its 7th nomination in the category
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Maggie Kang & Michelle L.M. Wong (who won for “K-Pop Demon Hunters”) became the first individuals of South Korean descent to ever win in the Best Animated Feature category
BEST SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
For the 7th time in history, a tie occurred in one of the Oscar categories after “The Singers” and “Two People Exchanging Saliva” won at the 2026 Oscars - interestingly, Best Short Film (Live Action) became the first category with multiple ties in different years since there was also a tie in the category in 1995
