Actor Awards 2026: The Black Nominees Carrying This Season

How Black actors are shaping the conversation in this Awards season. 

By Sahndra Fon Dufe

The 2026 Actor Awards nominations arrived with a record-breaking seven nods for One Battle After Another, but the real story extends beyond any single film's dominance. Black actors secured five individual nominations across the film categories (two in the TV category), distributed across leading, supporting, and ensemble categories in ways that reveal progress, but also persistent patterns in how Hollywood deploys Black talent.

What makes this year's slate notable is where and how Black performers are being trusted with material that challenges industry assumptions about which roles they can take on.

Michael B. Jordan earned a Best Actor nomination for Sinners, Ryan Coogler's horror thriller, where he plays dual roles as twin brothers Smoke and Stack who return to their Mississippi Delta hometown in 1932 only to confront supernatural evil. Jordan's performance showcases extreme character differentiation: one brother grounded and mellow, the other charismatic and manipulative.

Michael B. Jordan as the Smoke and Stack twins is a performance deserving of all the major awards. Credit: LA Times

Jordan's nomination represents something increasingly rare: a Black actor leading a  horror blockbuster, specifically one that’s received numerous serious awards consideration. Sinners earned $368 million worldwide, demonstrating commercial viability alongside critical acclaim. The film also secured nominations for Miles Caton in Supporting Actor and Wunmi Mosaku in Supporting Actress.

The New Jersey-raised superstar stands as the only Black lead actor nominee this year. The Best Actress category includes Chase Infiniti for One Battle After Another in her film debut, but the broader landscape reveals what industry observers already know: Black actors remain more frequently nominated  and cast  in supporting categories.

The supporting categories tell a more complex story. Teyana Taylor earned a Supporting Actress nod for One Battle After Another, playing Perfidia Beverly Hills, a revolutionary whose character sparked significant cultural discourse. Taylor won the Golden Globe for the role, though the performance generated debate about representation, with some critics drawing comparisons to problematic historical depictions of Black women in film.

Black women can and should play complex controversial characters. Taylor’s Perfidia Beverly Hills is evidence to that effect. Credit: Vogue

Taylor has defended the complexity of the role. When asked about criticism that Perfidia was overly sexualized, Taylor responded by pointing out that the first scene shows her character holding a gun to a man's head who calls her "sweet thing"  a moment that contextualizes her character's weaponization of sexuality as survival strategy rather than stereotype.

Wunmi Mosaku received a timely boost with her nomination after being shut out of the Golden Globes for her work in Sinners. The 38-year-old actress, previously known for Lovecraft Country, plays Annie, a Hoodoo healer and Smoke's love interest.

The Supporting Actor category features one Black nominee: Miles Caton (Sinners). Caton, who won the Best Young Actor/Actress award at the 2026 Critics Choice Awards, earned his second major nomination for his film debut. The 20-year-old comes from a musical background as the son of gospel singer Timiney Figueroa, and his vocal performances in Sinners became a defining element of the film's critical reception.

Five films earned Best Cast nominations: Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, and Sinners. Two of these  One Battle After Another and Sinners  feature significant Black ensemble presence, though they approach representation differently. While One Battle After Another integrates Black actors into its revolutionary narrative, Sinners centers Black performers in a period horror film that tackles themes of music, race, family, religion, and vampires in the Jim Crow-era Mississippi Delta. The distinction matters: one film includes Black actors in a predominantly white ensemble; the other is fundamentally about Black experience.

The Cast of Conclave with their statuettes for Best Cast at the 2025 Actors Awards. Credit: Reuters

The SAG ensemble category has historically been a strong Oscar predictor. Since 1995, only four films (Braveheart, The Shape of Water, Green Book, and Nomadland) have won Best Picture without earning a SAG ensemble nomination. It therefore remains to be seen how it plays out in March. 

On the studio end, Warner Bros. dominated with 13 total nominations across four titles, including both One Battle After Another and Sinners. This represents calculated risk-taking: both films carry production budgets that studios typically reserve for franchise fare, yet are original, director-driven projects with significant Black talent above and below the line.

Ryan Coogler secured final cut privilege, first-dollar gross, and ownership of Sinners twenty-five years after release; deal points that indicate the industry's willingness to grant Black filmmakers greater creative and financial control, provided they deliver commercial results. The Netflix factor also matters. The ceremony will stream on Netflix on March 1, and the platform's investment in awards-season content continues to reshape how Black actors access prestige recognition.

With all that said, Sinners represents a critical test case: Can a Black-led horror film, a genre historically shafted by awards bodies, secure major wins? The film received an "A" CinemaScore, the highest grade for a horror film in 35 years, suggesting mainstream acceptance that awards voters have historically withheld from genre work. But we’ve seen what happened to films like Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Us. So, will it be enough?

Black Film Wire Projection: Who Wins, Who Doesn't

Near-locks:

• Michael B. Jordan remains competitive for Best Actor, though he faces stiff competition. Guild voters tend to reward transformative performances, and playing twins qualifies.

• Ensemble categories favor consensus picks. One Battle After Another has critical pedigree but lacks the commercial heat of Sinners. Both could split votes, opening the door for a surprise; but we wouldn’t count on that outcome. 

Vulnerable:

• Teyana Taylor's Golden Globe win positions her well. And while Wunmi Mosaku's late-breaking nomination could signal momentum, chances are much slimmer. Chase Infiniti, on the other hand, is almost certain to lose out on the trophy. 

• Miles Caton benefits from breakout narrative energy. Voters love discovering new talent  but his youth and limited screen time could work against him.

The Broader Pattern: 

Supporting categories remain the quiet stronghold for Black actors, while leading roles  particularly for Black women  remain scarce. Chase Infiniti's Best Actress nomination marks her film debut, but the category remains dominated by established white actresses year after year.

What's notable in 2026 is the kind of films gaining traction. Genre-bending, Black-led cinema is no longer relegated to indie distribution or streaming-only releases. These are theatrical releases with marketing campaigns, festival premieres, Warner Bros. muscle and the whole shebang behind them! The question is whether fellow actors, who are voters, will reward the work  or whether the same old patterns will reassert themselves once the ceremony begins.

The 32nd Annual Actor Awards stream live on Netflix, March 1, 2026. Stay with the Black Film Wire for more updates and industry insight.