The 2026 Oscars are just days away and all eyes are on all the nominees.
In the best actress category, Jessie Buckley, Rose Byrne, Kate Hudson, Renate Reinsve and Emma Stone are vying for the coveted golden statue.
Ahead of the 98th Academy Awards, which will be hosted by Conan O'Brien and take place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 15, we're taking a look at everything you need to know about the best actress nominees.
Buckley earned her second Oscar nomination for her performance as Agnes in "Hamnet." The role has so far earned her a BAFTA, Critics' Choice Award, Golden Globe and Actor Award.
In the film, Buckley portrays William Shakespeare's wife, who grapples with grief after losing their son, Hamnet, to the plague. While speaking to ABC News Live Prime in December, Buckley said playing Agnes was "powerful."
"Agnes is somebody who's deeply connected to her body, to nature, to creation within herself but also within the landscape she's living in," she said. "Telling the story of Agnes, who is the unspoken spinal cord to William Shakespeare -- it was amazing."
Buckley rose to fame with her 2008 role on the BBC talent show-themed series "I'd Do Anything," and went on to star in several TV shows and shorts before landing the role of Rosalyn WIlder in "Judy." In 2022, she was nominated for her first Oscar for best performance by an actress in a supporting role in "The Lost Daughter."
Leading up to "Hamnet," she starred in Sarah Polley's Oscar-winning film "Women Talking" and lent her voice to several projects, including Netflix's "Scrooge: A Christmas Carol" and also starred in the 2023 film "Fingernails."
Buckley, who is married to Freddie Sorensen, a mental health worker and former TV producer, told BBC Radio 4's "Desert Island Discs" podcast earlier this month that she became a mother a week after production for "Hamnet" wrapped.
"Something coaxed something — and I think it brought me into this chapter of my life as a mum," she said.
Will 2026 be the year Stone wins her third Oscar? The two-time Academy Award nominee, who is nominated this year for "Bugonia," earned her first Oscar in 2017 for best performance by an actress in a leading role for her performance as Mia in "La La Land." Seven years later, in 2024, she won her second Oscar for best performance by an actress in a leading role for her role in the Yorgos Lanthimos-directed film "Poor Things."
Stone received a best supporting actress Oscar nomination in 2019 for her role in "The Favourite," another collaboration with Lanthimos, who also directed "Bugonia."
Stone told "Nightline" in October that she "really loves bold storytelling," which Lanthimos is known for as a filmmaker.
"That's what I love to watch as an audience member," she added. "But I also love a rom-com."
In "Bugonia," which she stars in opposite Jesse Plemons, Stone, who shaved her own head for the role, plays Michelle, a high-powered CEO of a pharmaceutical company who is kidnapped by two conspiracy-obsessed young men who are convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying Earth.
Over the years, Stone's acting resume includes "Easy A," "The Help," "The Amazing Spider-Man" films, "The House Bunny" and more. She earned her first Oscar nomination in 2015 for best performance by an actress in a supporting role for her role in "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)."
Off-screen, Stone is a mom to daughter Louise Jean, whom she shares with husband Dave McCary.
Twenty-five years after Hudson's first Oscar nomination for "Almost Famous," the actress is going after the gold again.
Hudson's performance as Claire, a.k.a. Thunder, in "Song Sung Blue," earned her an Oscar in January for best performance by an actress in a leading role. The Craig Brewer-directed film tells the true story of Lightning (Hugh Jackman) and Thunder, a Milwaukee husband-and-wife Neil Diamond tribute act who experience soaring success and devastating heartbreak on their musical journey together.
"It feels wonderful," Hudson told Variety about her Oscar nomination for the role. "This whole process has been thrilling. It's allowed some time to reflect on my career, on how much the industry has changed, and how different the whole process is when you're in one of those that people get behind. I feel so lucky to be able to be able to do this for so long, and to have had the career that I've had."
At the time of her first Oscar nomination, Hudson was just 21. Reflecting on that moment at the Oscars luncheon, Hudson, now a mom of three, told People, "To be so young and to be nominated at 21 -- looking back on that, I can reflect now, having two decades of a career, it's a very different feeling to come in a room and there's people that I've worked with and people I've known for decades now. It's familiar, and you understand the business differently.”
Since "Almost Famous," Hudson starred in many rom coms, including "How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days," "Bride Wars," "Something Borrowed" and "Fool's Gold." She also showed off her range as an actress, singing and dancing in "Glee" and the 2009 film "Nine."
She will return to her role as Isla Gordon, the president of a fictional LA basketball team, for "Running Point" season 2, which will arrive on April 23.
In her Oscar-nominated role in "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You," Byrne plays Linda, a woman at the end of her rope who has to cope with her daughter's illness, an absent husband, a missing person and her relationship with her therapist.
"It was such an opportunity," Byrne told ABC News Live Prime in October. "The screenplay was just extraordinary. It read like fire and it was nothing like I had never read before. It was a very original voice. Mary Bronstein, the writer and director, has something to say in this film and I was just desperate to be a part of it."
The role earned Byrne the Golden Globe for best female actor -- motion picture musical/comedy in January.
Her Oscar nomination for "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You" is her first Oscar nod.
"My parents were screaming and crying and Bobby was on the phone and it's totally surreal," she told "GMA" on Oscar nominations morning in January, referring to her husband Bobby Cannavale. "I could not believe they said my name. I was beside myself. It was a tiny movie, it's such an honor to have this recognition for our film, it's a really radical, real piece of art. What a year for film, for performances!"
Over the course of her career, Byrne has starred in many films and TV shows, but she is perhaps known for her role as Helen in the 2011 film "Bridesmaids." The actress also stars in the "Insidious" franchise and recently wrapped the second season of "Platonic," in which she stars Reinse'swith Seth Rogen.
"Sentimental Value" star, Reinsve, is nominated for her first Oscar for her performance as Nora Borg in the Joachim Trier-directed film about a filmmaker's complicated relationship with his daughters. In the film, Nora struggles with her own mental health.
Starring in the film alongside Stellan Skarsgård and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, who are also nominated for best actor and best supporting actress, Reinsve told "GMA" in January that being nominated feels "surreal."
"I'm so happy that all the actors are nominated," she said. "We're all very happy and very proud."
Working on "Sentimental Value" was Reinsve's second time working with Trier. She previously worked with him in the 2021 film, "The Worst Person in the World."
In an interview with Awards Watch in November 2025, she said that in preparing for the role of Nora, she had to understand how Nora's mental health would "evolve."
"I had to get to a sense of what that means to a person and to get deeper into the empathy of going to that place where nothing really matters and you don’t see any sense of self-worth," she said. "I had to go into that space and see what specifically that means, because that couldn’t be general. You want to be very specific about that to build the relationship."
Reinsve's performance in "Sentimental Value" has earned her nominations for a BAFTA, Critics Choice Award, Golden Globe and more.
Off-screen, Reinsve is a mom. While speaking on stage at the ELLE Women in Hollywood Celebration in November, the actress shouted out her son and called him a "wonderful person" who is "so sensitive, and strong and cool."
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