Texas Talent Crashes the 2026 Oscars

A Guide to the Lone Star State’s Biggest Nominees

The 2026 Academy Award nominations landed on January 22, and while Hollywood will always pretend it invented filmmaking, Texas quietly walked in like it owns the place. Not loud. Not flashy. Just casually sitting at the table with real talent and a few gold statues on the menu.

The 98th Academy Awards go down March 15, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, and this year the Lone Star presence is not some token “nice job, Texas” moment. These are real nominations, in real categories, for people who actually shaped the movies you cared about this year.

Here is your guide to the Texas-connected creatives who made the cut, and why you should care even if you only tune in for the chaos and the speeches.

Ethan Hawke

Best Actor Nominee

From: Austin, Texas
Nominated for: Best Actor for Blue Moon

Let’s start with the obvious flex.

Austin’s own Ethan Hawke is officially a Best Actor nominee for Blue Moon, and it somehow feels both overdue and perfectly timed. Hawke has spent his entire career zigzagging between blockbuster fame and deeply personal films, usually without chasing awards, which is probably why the awards finally caught up with him.

His performance in Blue Moon is not loud or showy. It is the kind that sneaks up on you and then sits in your head for days like a song you did not expect to love. Hawke never ditched Austin to become “Hollywood Hawke.” He stayed weird, and still made it to the big stage.

Clint BentleyBest Adapted Screenplay Nominee

From: Dallas, Texas
Nominated for: Best Adapted Screenplay for Train Dreams

Dallas-based writer and director Clint Bentley just got himself an Oscar nomination for adapting Train Dreams, which is one of those quietly devastating, beautifully constructed films that makes you realize cinema does not always need explosions to punch you in the chest.

Bentley’s style is patient. Observant. The kind of storytelling that trusts the audience to lean in instead of spoon feeding every emotion.

Greg Kwedar

Best Adapted Screenplay Nominee

From: Fort Worth, Texas
Nominated for: Best Adapted Screenplay for Train Dreams

Sharing that nomination is Fort Worth native Greg Kwedar, who co-wrote Train Dreams and helped turn it into one of the year’s most respected films.

Kwedar’s career has been one of steady growth rather than overnight hype, which honestly feels very Texas. No viral shortcuts. Just showing up, doing the work, and letting the results speak.

This officially adds Fort Worth in the Oscar conversation, and that feels like a sentence nobody expected to read ten years ago.

Jack Fisk

Best Production Design Nominee

From: Texas Hill Country
Nominated for: Best Production Design for Marty Supreme

Production design is probably one of the coolest nominations that most people casually ignore on Oscars night. But this year, Texans have a reason to pay a little closer attention.

Veteran production designer Jack Fisk picked up a nomination for Marty Supreme, and this is where real movie lovers start nodding knowingly. Production design is the difference between a movie that looks fine and a movie that feels like a place you actually visited.

Fisk has spent decades shaping how films look, breathe, and move, even when audiences do not realize his name is behind it.

Guillermo del Toro

Best Adapted Screenplay Nominee

Austin Connected Filmmaker
Nominated for: Best Adapted Screenplay for Frankenstein

While not Texas born, Guillermo del Toro has long been tied to Austin’s creative heartbeat, and this year he brings that connection straight into the Oscar race with Frankenstein.

Del Toro is one of those filmmakers who makes monsters feel more human than most romantic leads, and his adaptation landed him another nomination while his film also sits comfortably in the Best Picture conversation.

Texas is no longer the place Hollywood visits when it needs a ranch or a dusty road. It is where serious filmmakers come from, return to, and build careers without losing their identity in the process.

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