The American Immigration Council is a non-profit, non-partisan organization. One-fifth of the Oscars awarded Sunday—or five out of the 25 categories—went to immigrants. A sixth, for cinematography, went to the child of an immigrant. Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who has discussed how her Filipino background helped shape her vision, is also the first woman in Academy Awards history to win an Oscar for cinematography.
She won for the movie “Sinners,” as did Swedish musician Ludwig Goransson, who moved to the United States in 2007, for original score.
Brooklyn residents Natalie Musteata, a Romanian-American, and her collaborator-husband Alexandre Singh, a Franco-Indian, won the Oscar for live action short for “Two People Exchanging Saliva.”
Korean American singer-songwriter EJAE (Kim Eun-jae), who was raised in Korea and the United States, took home the first KPop win, for best song for “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters.”
Irish-American Richard Baneham won the visual effects Oscar, for “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” and U.K.-born makeup artist Mike Hill won the makeup Oscar, along with two Canadians, for “Frankenstein.”
The Oscar winners were among 21 immigrants nominated in 15 categories (in several categories, two or three of the five nominees were immigrants).
See below for more on the role immigrants played in this year’s Academy Awards, and how immigrants have been instrumental to Hollywood’s success since the days of Charlie Chaplin (who emigrated from England) and the birth of the studio system that cemented Los Angeles as the global capital of moviemaking (all five major studios were founded by immigrants).
This year, more than one-third of the Oscar nominations (6) for Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” went to immigrants, including individual nominations for supporting actress, supporting actor, and original score. Among the film’s producing team is Sev Ohanian, an Armenian producer born in Germany. Its cinematography nomination went to Arkapaw, the child of a Filipino immigrant..
Among the four nominations that went to Americans for the British film “Hamnet,” all are immigrants. Chloé Zhao, a Chinese-American filmmaker, was nominated for best picture, best director, and best adapted screenplay, which is shared with U.K.-author Maggie O’Farrell. Polish-American stylist Malgosia Turzanska is up for best costume design.
In all, nearly one in five nominations for this year’s Oscars (22 of 125, or 17.6%) went to immigrants. The figure does not include international artists not living in the United States, who have also garnered a significant number of the nominations as academy membership expands globally and international films increasingly receive greater recognition.
Given that immigrants comprise 11.2% of the workforce in the U.S. film industry, according to the American Immigration Council analysis of the 2024 American Community Survey, this year’s Oscars represent an especially strong showing.
The nominated immigrants hail from 17 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, England, France, Germany, Iran, Ireland, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, and Sweden.
Of the 10 films that received the most nominations (a combined 80), 28.8% went to either immigrants (15) or the children of immigrants (8).
Most of the nods for “Frankenstein,” which was filmed primarily in Scotland, England, and Canada, went to international artists. Of the remaining four, all went to immigrants living in the United States, most notably two individual nominations for Mexican-American director Guillermo del Toro, for picture and adapted screenplay. Also nominated are U.K.-born makeup artist Mike Hill (shared with two Canadians) and sound engineer Brad Zoern, who is from Canada.
Most-Nominated Films of 2026 Academy Awards
The 98th Academy Awards includes 24 categories, all of which have five nominees except best picture, which has 10. Excluding the category for international feature film, all the remaining categories have nominations that include immigrants or the children of immigrants except for four: animated feature and animated short, both categories that were practically swept by international films; casting; and production design.
Three of the five nominees for best original song are performed or written by immigrants:
- “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters,” by Korean American singer-songwriter EJAE (Kim Eun-jae) and composer Mark Sonnenblick.
- “I Lied to You” from “Sinners,” by Swedish musician Ludwig Goransson and Raphael Saadiq. Göransson, who moved to the United States in 2007, is also nominated for original score.
- “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from “Viva Verdi!” by Nicholas Pike, a U.K.-born composer who spent his later childhood in South Africa before moving to the United States to study flute and composition.
For best leading actor, the five nominees include one immigrant and two children of immigrants:
- Wagner Moura, “The Secret Agent,” is an established Brazilian actor and outspoken political artist who lives in Los Angeles with his family.
- Timothée Chalamet, “Marty Supreme,” is the son of French journalist Marc Chalamet and third-generation New Yorker Nicole Flender.
- Leonardo DiCaprio, “One Battle After Another,” is from Los Angeles. His mother, Irmelin Indenbirken, immigrated from Germany after World War II.
All 24 Categories of 2026 Academy Awards
In addition to those cited earlier, the immigrants nominated for 2026 Academy Awards are:
Rose Byrne, lead actress, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” emigrated from Australia to the United States as a young adult to pursue acting.
Wunmi Mosaku, supporting actress, “Sinners,” was born in Nigeria and raised in England. She now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.
Delroy Lindo, supporting actor, “Sinners,” was born in England. When he was a teenager, he and his Jamaican mother moved to Canada and then the United States.
Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni, documentary feature, “Cutting Through Rocks,” are both from Iran.
Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh, live action short, “Two People Exchanging Saliva.” Musteata is a Romanian American filmmaker. She lives in Brooklyn with Singh, her collaborator-husband, who was born in France to Indian and French parents and calls himself Franco-Indian.
Felipe Pacheco, sound, “Sinners,” is from Costa Rica.
Richard Baneham, visual effects, “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” was born and raised in Ireland and lives in Los Angeles.
Michael Ralla, visual effects, “Sinners,” is from Germany and lives in Los Angeles.
Kazu Hiro, makeup and hairstyling, “The Smashing Machine,” was born and raised in Kyoto, Japan. In 2019 he became a U.S. citizen and changed his name from Kazuhiro Tsuji.
In addition to those cited earlier, the known children of American immigrants nominated for 2026 Academy Awards are:
Joshua Henry Safdie, best picture, best director, best original screenplay, and best editing, “Marty Supreme.” Safdie’s father was raised in Italy and France.
Geeta Gandbhir, documentary feature, “The Perfect Neighbor,” and documentary short, “The Devil Is Busy,” was born in Boston to Indian immigrant parents.
Miyako Bellizzi, costume design, “Marty Supreme,” is a second-generation Japanese-American. Her parents were sent to a U.S. internment camp during World War II.
Steve Pinder, live action short, “Jane Austen’s Period Drama,” has remarked that his mother is British.
Taken together, this year’s nominations show that immigrants are contributing across nearly every part of filmmaking. That influence is not new; it is woven into the history of Hollywood itself.
In the early 1900s, filmmakers like Albert Zukor (Austro-Hungarian immigrant, founder of Paramount Pictures), Carl Laemmle (German immigrant, founder of Universal Studios), William Fox (Hungarian immigrant, founder of 20th Century Fox), Louis B. Mayer (Russian immigrant, founder of MGM), and Harold, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner (Polish immigrants, founders of Warner Brothers) helped build the modern Hollywood after leaving the East Coast for California. There, they found more than sunshine and open land. They found immigrant talent and communities that helped connect American films to a global audience.
More than a century later, this year’s Oscar nominations show that immigrants remain vital to the industry’s success. They continue to shape the films it produces, the stories it tells, and the audiences it reaches.
