Will any of this year’s Oscar nominees get double the recognition?
One of the most notable rule changes for the 99th Oscars is that actors can receive multiple nominations in the same category, provided each performance ranks in the top five vote-getters. Previously, only the highest-placed finishers advanced. This move will ultimately tie up the acting race with the remaining votes. The change could neutralize some of the presumed “categorical fraud,” at least for actors with two performances in the same year, where election teams strategically push one turn in support to avoid splitting the vote.
Oscar historians can cite flip-flops like Leonardo DiCaprio for Blood Diamond and The Departed in 2006 and Kate Winslet for The Reader and Revolutionary Road in 2008 as examples of performers being able to win two slots in one race.
The mechanics of acting rules date back to the early days of the Academy Awards. The last notable acting rule change was at the 17th Academy Awards in 1945, when Barry Fitzgerald became the only actor in Oscar history to be nominated for both leading and supporting roles for his role as Father Fitzgibbon in Going My Way (1944). The Academy soon thereafter limited each performance to one nomination.
Several big-name actors are coming into the season with a quirky mix of time-honored projects, blockbuster flair and early rave, all of whom could play in that rare double role.
Here are the names Variety is looking at:
Honorable Mention: Zendaya (Dune: Part 3, The Odyssey, Spider-Man: Brand New Day), Robert Pattinson (starring in The Drama and Primetime, supporting role in Dune: Part 3, Here Comes the Flood, The Odyssey).
Penelope Cruz
Image credit: Cannes
The Spanish star, who won an Oscar for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (2008), appeared at two festivals, Sundance and Cannes, and left both on a high note. She gained attention as a free-spirited neighbor in Olivia Wilde’s dark comedy The Invite, and then appeared in one of three chapters in La Bora Negra, a period drama starring Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo that won the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival.
A24 and Netflix each released the film. A third title may also emerge. Florian Zeller’s thriller “The Bunker,” co-starring her husband Javier Bardem, is targeted for release in 2026, with a potential fall festival debut.
Is Cruise a triple hit as a supporting actress?
andrew garfield
Image credit: Alexi Lubomirski for Variety
Peter Parker nominated for two leading actor roles?
Now, after Oscar bids for “Hacksaw Ridge” and “Tick, Tock, Tock…Boom!”, the megastar has a lot of goodwill and is spending it on two very different swings.
In roles timely at this Hollywood moment, he plays OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman in Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial, and ventures into plague-ravaged 14th-century England as the leader of a peasant revolt in Paul Greengrass’ historical action drama The Uprising.
Anne Hathaway
Image credit: Courtesy of Universal Pictures
No one juggles a more dynamic slate than Oscar-winner Hathaway.
She has already scored a box office success with The Devil Wears Prada 2, a comeback film from her flop Mother Mary, and has three more projects in the works, most notably the title role in Colleen Hoover’s Verity and the mythical Queen of Ithaca Penelope in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
Hathaway also has the potential to be a summer blockbuster with the dinosaur adventure movie End of Oak Street, starring Ewan McGregor.
For her team, deciding which performances to drive will be an art form in itself.
Sandra Hüller
Image credit: Provided by Mubi
Many movie buffs are already calling this year Hüller’s year.
The actress, who was nominated for Best Actress for Anatomy of a Fall, kicked off 2026 by winning the Berlin Silver Bear for her role in the Austrian drama Rose, and then rose to prominence with the box office smash Project Hail Mary alongside Ryan Gosling.
Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Fatherland” received rave reviews at Cannes, and in October he received the Tom Cruise vehicle “Digger” from Alejandro G. Iñárritu.
That way, the two main actors and two supporting actors could potentially join the conversation. Does one actress occupy 4 out of 20 acting slots? A strange thing happened.
brad pitt
Image credit: Scott Garfield
Nominated for eight Oscars in three categories, and winning twice (Best Picture for “The Night Is Here” and Best Supporting Actor for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”), it’s safe to say that the Academy loves Brad Pitt.
So it would be foolish to discount double dip, especially when it comes to three high-profile projects.
Pitt will reprise his Oscar-winning role as Cliff Booth in David Fincher’s The Adventures of Cliff Booth (if that were to become the actual title of the film). He will also reunite with David Ayer (Fury) in The Heart of the Beast and star in the Edward Berger drama The Riders, which could emerge as a late appearance before the end of the year (or pushed back to 2027).
olivia wilde
Image credit: A24
Will the Oscars be a big deal?
The multihyphenate kicked off the year in Park City with a lively turn as an artist in Gregg Araki’s Sundance comedy-thriller “I Want Your Sex,” but much of the buzz centered on “The Invite,” which she directed and starred in.
Therefore, she will weigh the two performances and consider whether each belongs to the lead or support category.
She also appeared opposite Pedro Pascal in Tony Gilroy’s Behemoth!, but the size of her role is still being kept a secret.
