Oscar nominations morning brings a new record for the most nods ever received by a film: Sinners, starring New Jersey’s own Michael B. Jordan.
The number of nominations: 16.
A well-deserved Oscar nomination for Jordan, 38, puts him in contention for Best Actor for the first time in his career, while Sinners is up for Best Picture and director Ryan Coogler receives his first nominations for Best Director and Original Screenplay.
But Jordan’s shining star in the amazing run of Sinners isn’t the only New Jersey connection in the 2026 Oscar nominations.
See below for a movie-by-movie rundown of Jersey-linked nominees across major categories at the 98th Academy Awards. The Oscars air Sunday, March 15 on ABC, with Conan O’Brien returning as host.
Sinners
Michael B. Jordan as Smoke and Stack in “Sinners.” Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros.
About those 16 nominations …
In the best actor category, bluesy Best Picture nominee Sinners, a dazzling work in which singing vampires and musical time travel are just two features, is recognized for Michael B. Jordan’s work as two characters—twin brothers Elijah “Smoke” Moore and Elias “Stack” Moore.
Joining Newark’s own Jordan is veteran actor Delroy Lindo, 73, who also receives his first career Oscar nomination for the movie. He’s up for Best Supporting Actor for playing Delta Slim in the 1932-set film. Sinners also has a contender for Best Supporting Actress— Wunmi Mosaku, who plays Annie in the film.
Jordan’s frequent collaborator Ryan Coogler, 39, is up for three Oscars total: Director, Original Screenplay and Best Picture.
Autumn Durald Arkapaw is nominated for Cinematography, making history as the first woman of color to be recognized in the category (she was also the first female cinematographer to film a movie using 65mm IMAX).
Other nominations include Ruth E. Carter for Best Costume Design and two-time Oscar winner Ludwig Goransson (Black Panther, Oppenheimer), Coogler’s longtime friend from college, for Best Original Score and Original Song, a nomination he shares with Raphael Saadiq for I Lied to You.
Marty Supreme
Another one we knew would be bouncing our way like a ping pong ball—Marty Supreme’s sizable (though not nearly as large as Sinners) Oscars haul.
The movie, which is set in New York and New Jersey and filmed in New York and New Jersey in 2024, will contend with Jordan and Coogler’s Sinners and eight other films for Best Picture. Marty Supreme is nominated for a total of nine Oscars.
Star Timothée Chalamet, who shares in the Best Picture nod as a producer of the movie, is up for his third Best Actor Oscar for playing swaggering table tennis hopeful Marty Mauser. (His first two nods arrived in 2018 and 2025 for Call Me By Your Name and A Complete Unknown— Chalamet, 30, mostly filmed James Mangold’s Bob Dylan film in New Jersey, with just a short break before he started on Marty).
Filming locations included the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, which veteran production designer Jack Fisk transformed into the venue for one of the film’s table tennis tournaments. Fisk is nominated for Production Design alongside set decorator Adam Willis.
A24’s Marty Supreme spent $12 million filming in New Jersey, receiving a $4.3 million tax credit. Other locations used in the movie include the Ritz Theatre in Elizabeth, the Hopewell Borough post office, a home in Chesterfield and Market Street in Paterson.
Song Sung Blue
Joining Marty Supreme in the unofficial “filmed in New Jersey” Oscars category is Song Sung Blue.
The film’s lone nomination, for Best Actress, goes to Kate Hudson, who plays singer Claire Sardina in the true story of the Neil Diamond tribute band Lightning & Thunder. This is the second Oscar nomination for Hudson, 46, who was previously nominated in 2001 for playing Penny Lane in Almost Famous.
The simultaneously heartbreaking and jubilant story of Mike and Claire Sardina is set in Wisconsin and based on the 2008 Song Sung Blue documentary directed by Greg Kohs. Hugh Jackman plays Mike in the movie, which also features Sopranos actor Michael Imperioli as a Buddy Holly impersonator.
Song Sung Blue filmed in 2024 across Essex, Hudson, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic and Union counties. The Focus Features film, written and directed by Craig Brewer, spent $29.5 million in New Jersey and the production received a $10.2 million tax credit.
Filming locations included Montclair’s Charm Thai Cuisine and Tierney’s Tavern; The Women’s Club of Glen Ridge; Wayne Elks Lodge; St. Joseph’s Wayne Medical Center; Stillwell Garage in Matawan; Saint Elizabeth University; The Ritz Theatre in Elizabeth; Crossroads and Blue Star Shopping Plaza in Garwood; Denville Dog & Grill; the Ukrainian National Home in Jersey City and the Ukrainian Community Center in Irvington.
Blue Moon
One of the less flashy awards season rollouts was Blue Moon, which picked up two nominations at the Oscars. Both nods have Jersey ties.
First, Ethan Hawke receives his fifth Oscar nomination, but his first in the Best Actor category, for playing the lyricist Lorenz Hart in the Richard Linklater film. (He was previously nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Training Day and Boyhood, and for Best Adapted Screenplay alongside Linklater and Julie Delpy for Before Sunset and Before Midnight.)
In the film, Hart, of the Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart, spends a night of conversation and longing at Sardi’s in 1943 for the opening of the musical Oklahoma! from Richard Rodgers and his new songwriting partner, Oscar Hammerstein II. The movie, of course, takes its name from one of Rodgers and Hart’s most popular songs, released in 1934.
Hawke, 55, stars opposite Andrew Scott (as Rodgers), Margaret Qualley, Patrick Kennedy (as the author E.B. White) and Union City’s Bobby Cannavale in the film.
Hawke, a native of Austin, Texas, also has his own New Jersey connection, having lived in West Windsor when he was a child. He attended West Windsor Plainsboro High School and graduated from the Hun School of Princeton.
Another Jersey nomination goes to Metuchen’s Robert Kaplow, who wrote the film. Kaplow, who receives his first nomination for Best Original Screenplay, grew up in Westfield and taught English at Summit High School. His 2003 novel Me and Orson Welles was adapted for the 2008 Linklater film of the same name starring Zac Efron, Claire Danes and Christian McKay.
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