Amy Madigan picking up a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her brief but indelible performance as Aunt Gladys in ‘Weapons’ wasn’t exactly a foregone conclusion. By the time the ceremony arrived, the category had become something of a three-way race between Madigan, ‘One Battle After Another’’s Teyana Taylor, and ‘Sinners’’s Wunmi Mosaku. Even as she picked up a number of notable precursors, the Academy Awards’ historic dismissal of horror loomed large enough that Madigan’s garishly made-up witch never felt like a sure thing. But is the Academy shifting its relationship to horror? We can’t overlook the fact that the record breaker for most nominees in the ceremony’s history is, as of 2026, a horror film. ‘Sinners’ may also be a period drama, a musical, and a gangster movie, but it’s fully steeped in southern Gothic horror. And in picking up the Best Actor trophy, Michael B. Jordan became the first cinematic vampire to triumph in the category. Consider, too, ‘The Substance’ and ‘Nosferatu’’s multiple nominations the year prior. “The field appears to be wide open, which means extolling the virtues of the movies and performances we love might have real impact,” writes Louis Peitzman. It’s never too early to start championing the genre performers that might traditionally be overlooked by Academy voters. “Even this early into 2026, there’s at least one clear contender: Ralph Fiennes in ‘28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.’” Peitzman writes about the horror vibe shift at the Oscars and the nominees he’d like to make a case for the next awards sesason: