How Actors From Penélope Cruz to Brad Pitt Could Score Multiple Oscar Nods in the Same Race
Can any of this year’s Oscar acting contenders receive a double take?
One of the most notable rule changes for the 99th Oscars allows an actor to earn multiple nominations in the same category, provided each performance ranks among the top five vote getters. Previously, only the highest finisher advanced. The move finally aligns the acting races with the rest of the ballot. The change has the potential to neutralize some of the presumed “category fraud,” at least for actors with two performances in play in the same year, in which a campaign team strategically pushes one turn into supporting to dodge a vote split.
Oscar historians can point to dual turns like Leonardo DiCaprio in 2006’s “Blood Diamond” and “The Departed” or Kate Winslet in 2008’s “The Reader” and “Revolutionary Road” as instances where a performer might have claimed two slots in one race.
The acting rule mechanism dates to the earliest days of the Academy Awards. The last notable acting rule change came at the 17th Academy Awards in 1945, when Barry Fitzgerald became the only performer in Oscar history to receive nominations for both lead and supporting actor for the same role, Father Fitzgibbon in “Going My Way” (1944). The Academy soon after limited each performance to a single nomination.
Several notable actors are entering the season with eccentric blends of pedigreed projects, blockbuster flair and early raves — all of which could put them in play for that rare double.
Here are the names Variety will be keeping close tabs on.
Honorable mentions: Zendaya (“Dune: Part Three,” “The Odyssey” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day”) and Robert Pattinson (“The Drama” and “Primetime” in lead, “Dune: Part Three,” “Here Comes the Flood” and “The Odyssey” in supporting).
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Penélope Cruz
Image Credit: Cannes The Oscar-winning Spanish star of “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (2008) walked into two festivals, Sundance and Cannes, and walked out with buzz at both. She drew standout notices as a free-spirited neighbor in the Olivia Wilde dark comedy “The Invite,” then surfaced in one of the three chapters of “La Bola Negra,” the period drama that won best director at Cannes for Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo.
A24 and Netflix landed the films, respectively. A third title could also loom: the Florian Zeller thriller “Bunker,” alongside hubby Javier Bardem, eyeing a 2026 release, and a possible fall festival debut.
Could Cruz be a triple threat for supporting actress?
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Andrew Garfield
Image Credit: Alexi Lubomirski for Variety Two leading actor nominations for Peter Parker?
Well, after Oscar bids for “Hacksaw Ridge” and “Tick, Tick … Boom!,” the A-lister has plenty of goodwill, and he’s spending it on two very different swings.
In a timely role for this Hollywood moment, he plays OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman in Luca Guadagnino’s “Artificial,” and then steps into plague-ravaged 14th-century England in Paul Greengrass’ historical action drama “The Uprising” as the leader of a peasant rebellion.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Universal Pictures No one is juggling a more dynamic slate than the Oscar-winning Hathaway.
She has already conquered the box office with “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” a rebound from the flop “Mother Mary,” and has three more projects on the way, notably the title role in the Colleen Hoover adaptation “Verity” and the mythological Penelope, queen of Ithaca, in Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.”
Hathaway also has a potential summer blockbuster in the dinosaur adventure film “The End of Oak Street” with Ewan McGregor.
For her team, deciding which performance to push will be an art form in itself.
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Sandra Hüller
Image Credit: Courtesy Mubi Many cinephiles are already calling this the year of Hüller.
The “Anatomy of a Fall” best actress nominee opened 2026 by winning the Silver Bear in Berlin for the Austrian drama “Rose,” then stood out in the box office smash “Project Hail Mary” alongside Ryan Gosling.
At Cannes, she drew raves for Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Fatherland,” and she has the Tom Cruise vehicle “Digger” from Alejandro G. Iñárritu in October.
That could put two lead and two supporting performances in the conversation. Four of the 20 acting slots for one actress? Stranger things have happened.
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Brad Pitt
Image Credit: Scott Garfield Eight Oscar nods across three categories, resulting in two wins (best picture for “12 Years a Slave” and supporting actor for “Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood”): It’s safe to say the Academy loves Brad Pitt.
So it would be foolish to discount a double dip, especially with three high-profile projects.
Pitt reprises his Oscar-winning role as Cliff Booth in David Fincher’s “The Adventures of Cliff Booth” (if that ends up being the actual title of the film). He also reunites with David Ayer (“Fury”) for “Heart of the Beast” and leads the Edward Berger drama “The Riders,” which could surface as a late entry before year’s end (or push to 2027).
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Olivia Wilde
Image Credit: A24 Will the Oscars go Wilde?
The multi-hyphenate opened the year in Park City with a buzzy turn as an artist in Gregg Araki’s Sundance comedy thriller “I Want Your Sex,” though much of the talk centered on “The Invite,” which she directed and stars in.
That leaves her weighing two performances, and whether each belongs in lead or supporting.
She also appears opposite Pedro Pascal in Tony Gilroy’s “Behemoth!,” though the size of the role remains under wraps.
