The 2026 Oscar Nominations Prove Long-Term Actor-Director Partnerships Still Dominate

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 17: (L-R) Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler speak onstage during ELLE’s 2025 Women in Hollywood Celebration presented by Ralph Lauren and Bvlgari with support from evian, Hendrick’s Gin, and Lucid Motors on November 17, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for ELLE)

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The 2026 Oscar nominations dropped a fascinating pattern that went largely unnoticed amid the “Sinners breaks records” headlines: four of the ten lead acting nominations came from long-term actor-director partnerships spanning at least three films together.

Emma Stone earned her Best Actress nomination for Bugonia, her fifth collaboration with Yorgos Lanthimos. Michael B. Jordan’s Best Actor nod for Sinners marks his fifth film with Ryan Coogler. Renate Reinsve’s Best Actress nomination for Sentimental Value comes from her third project with Joachim Trier. And Ethan Hawke’s Best Actor nomination for Blue Moon represents his ninth—yes, ninth—film with Richard Linklater.

That’s 40% of the lead acting nominees coming from relationships where director and actor have built something over years, not just one standout performance.

Why Repeat Collaborations Create Oscar-Caliber Work

These creative partnerships deepen with each project, allowing both parties to take bigger risks because they’ve built a foundation of trust and shorthand.

Consider Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos. After The Favourite, Poor Things (which won Stone her second Oscar), and now Bugonia, Stone has become Lanthimos’ muse for exploring female characters who defy convention.

Each performance builds on the last — she’s acting in his films, yes, but also helping define his cinematic language. By their fifth collaboration, Lanthimos can write roles that only Stone could inhabit, knowing exactly how she’ll transform his darkly absurdist vision into something deeply human.

Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler’s partnership began with Fruitvale Station in 2013, continued through Creed and Black Panther, and has now evolved into Sinners, where Jordan plays dual roles as vampire-fighting twin brothers.

Coogler knows exactly how to frame Jordan’s intensity, vulnerability, and physicality because he’s been studying it for over a decade. There’s an intimacy in their collaboration that allows Coogler to push Jordan into increasingly complex territory — from the tragic Oscar Grant to the conflicted Killmonger to the demanding dual performance in Sinners.

Meanwhile, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater have been at this since Before Sunrise in 1995.

Nine films later, including the Before trilogy and Boyhood, Hawke isn’t only starring in Linklater’s films, he’s often co-writing them. Their collaboration is so intertwined that separating where Linklater’s vision ends and Hawke’s interpretation begins becomes nearly impossible. This is what 30 years of creative partnership looks like: two artists who’ve literally grown up together on screen, aging in real time through their work.

Even Renate Reinsve and Joachim Trier’s three-film partnership (including breakthrough The Worst Person in the World) shows how a director can write specifically for an actor’s strengths, crafting roles that wouldn’t exist without that particular performer in mind.

Trier first cast Reinsve in a one-line role in Oslo, August 31st in 2010, saw something special, and a decade later wrote The Worst Person in the World specifically for her when she was ready to quit acting. Now she’s an Oscar nominee for their third collaboration.

What Hollywood Gets Wrong About Casting

The industry’s default approach treats each film as a standalone event: cast the biggest name available, hope for chemistry, shoot for three months, never work together again. Rinse and repeat.

But these Oscar nominations suggest something different: the best performances often come from relationships built over time. When a director knows an actor’s range intimately, they can write to their strengths, push their boundaries, and create space for the kind of nuanced work that gets recognized.

The difference resembles a first date versus a ten-year marriage. Both can be exciting, but only one has the depth of accumulated understanding. An actor working with a director for the first time spends weeks figuring out communication styles, creative wavelengths, and trust. An actor working with a director for the fifth or ninth time walks onto set already speaking the same language.

This matters especially for risky creative choices. Stone shaving her head for Bugonia, Jordan playing twins in Sinners, Hawke embodying the rapid-fire wit of Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon — these are performances that require absolute trust between actor and director. That trust doesn’t develop overnight.

The Scorsese-De Niro Model Still Works

This approach has deep roots. Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro made eight films together between 1973 and 1995, yielding multiple Oscar nominations and wins. Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio have now made six films together. Wes Anderson has a rotating ensemble he returns to repeatedly. The Coen Brothers worked with Frances McDormand across decades. Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy. Paul Thomas Anderson and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

What’s notable about 2026 is how many of these partnerships are simultaneously peaking. Seeing this pattern show up so prominently in a single Oscar race remains rare. It suggests something about the current moment in cinema—perhaps a renewed appreciation for the kind of artistic continuity that only comes from sustained collaboration.

The business model of contemporary Hollywood, with its focus on IP and franchise filmmaking, often works against these partnerships. But the Oscar nominations reveal that when directors and actors do manage to build ongoing relationships, the Academy takes notice. The work simply stands out.

The Takeaway

The 2026 acting nominations extend beyond individual performances—they demonstrate what happens when creative partnerships are given time to mature. Four of these ten nominations exist because someone made the radical decision to work with the same person again, and again, and again.

In an industry obsessed with what’s new, these nominations remind us that sometimes the most innovative work comes from doing something very old-fashioned: building relationships that last. The question is whether Hollywood will learn from this pattern or continue treating every film as a fresh start, leaving these kinds of deep collaborations to chance rather than cultivating them intentionally.