The Emmy nominations technically mark the beginning of the overall 2025-26 awards season, which will end when the Oscars are presented next March. As such, it may be fitting if a few names announced as Emmy nominees earlier this morning also become Oscar nominees, if not winners, by the end of the next nine months. And for the moment, more than a few of them have been predicted to show up on Oscar nomination morning, too.
For starters, Jeremy Allen White received his latest Emmy nomination for “The Bear,” just as he is predicted to be an Oscar nominee, if not a favorite, for “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.” Playing his troubled father in that movie is Stephen Graham, who just received his own Emmy nomination in Best Actor in a Miniseries as an even more troubled father in Netflix’s “Adolescence,” and received bonus nominations as a co-writer and creator.
Although Graham is not currently projected as a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee – especially since fellow “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” co-star Jeremy Strong is in the early top five himself – the potential of winning an Emmy a month before his movie and Oscar campaign starts can only be an added boost, much like it may be for White if he wins his third Emmy in a row. Though ironically enough, while White might be a safer bet for Oscar consideration than Graham, it’s Graham who could have the better shot at an Emmy win – if only because White and “The Bear” already have their Emmys.
Even if White fends off the likes of Seth Rogan, Martin Short, and Adam Brody at the Emmys, fending off the likes of Timothee Chalamet, George Clooney, and/or any surprise Best Actor contenders at the Oscars could be another struggle altogether, if he does get in at all. And even if Graham defeats “The Penguin’s” Colin Farrell at the Emmys (who also has Edward Berger’s “The Ballad Of A Small Player” coming out later this year), defeating the likes of Strong, Stellan Skarsgard, and/or any surprise Best Supporting Actor contenders at the Oscars could be another matter, and that’s if he does manage to get in after all. Yet if either or both of them win at the Emmys first, it may be just the beginning of seeing them at every major awards show for the next several months, whether for their shows, for “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” or both.
If either or both of them win, it might be the first part of a two-part historic achievement almost no one has ever pulled off before. Several actors and actresses have won both an Emmy and an Oscar in their career, whether they are an “EGOT” winner of a Grammy and Tony as well or not. But the only male actor to ever win an Oscar and Emmy in the same awards season was George C. Scott, who won the 1970 Best Actor Oscar for “Patton” in a ceremony held on April 15, 1971 – a few weeks before he won what was then called the “Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” Emmy for the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie “The Price.” As for actresses, only Holly Hunter in 1993-94 for “The Piano” and “The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleading-Murdering Mom,” Helen Hunt in 1997-98 for “As Good as it Gets” and “Mad About You,” and Helen Mirren in 2006-07 for “Elizabeth 1” and “The Queen” have pulled it off.
Since then, many an actor has been an Emmy and Oscar nominee in the same season, like Robert Downey Jr, Ryan Gosling, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Lily Gladstone, Jodie Foster, Andrew Garfield, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Olivia Colman, Amy Adams, Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Janney, Brad Pitt and more in recent years. Nonetheless, all these recent Emmy and Oscar nominated stars either won one or zero of these awards back-to-back within 12 months. Jamie Lee Curtis came closest to winning both within a season, although she was awarded her “Everything Everywhere All at Once” Oscar on March 2023 and then awarded her Emmy for “The Bear” in September 2024.
On the off-chance Allen White or Graham win both within the same year, it would rank among the greatest award season runs of all time. Still, Allen White and Graham aren’t the only ones who just started this season with a shot at history.
Although Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande play clashing characters in “Wicked” and the upcoming “Wicked: For Good,” they were separated into different categories as Oscar nominees last year. Yet they had a chance to be nominated together in the Best Comedy Actress guest star category – Grande for her multiple hit sketches as a “Saturday Night Live” host, and Erivo for her multiple characters in the “Poker Face” Season Two premiere. However, only Erivo made the cut at the Emmys, making her the only “Wicked: For Good” lead with a chance at the Emmy and Oscar doubleheader.
Grande remains more of a preseason Oscar favorite, but she wasn’t the first Best Supporting Actress leader on the NBP staff charts. For now, that honor belongs to Ayo Edebiri for “After the Hunt,” which will likely premiere at the Venice Film Festival mere days before Edebiri returns to the Emmys as a Best Actress Comedy nominee and a Director nominee for “The Bear.” But while Edebiri’s “The Bear” co-star Allen White has an obvious path to winning the Emmy and Oscar over the next year, Edebiri’s path looks far shakier – if only because her 2025 Emmy competition includes three-time winner and heavy favorite Jean Smart for “Hacks,” and Edebiri’s past Emmy win for “The Bear” was at the Best Supporting Actress category in 2023.
Leaving that aside, there’s still no way to know yet if Edebiri, let alone “After the Hunt” as a whole, will be an Oscar factor despite the early faith from some pundits. For that matter, the biggest, if not only, reason there is such preseason hope for “Wicked: For Good” and “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” and their actors is because their predecessors and peers have been Academy catnip before. Even if both movies wind up too disappointing or mediocre to get into Best Picture, Allen White, Graham, and Erivo will still be considered threats for nominations – if not wins in that scenario – just because they or people playing their types of roles have been nominated before.
It takes someone on a particularly massive career surge to be Emmy and Oscar contenders in one year/season, no matter what obstacles are in their way. Allen White could be someone like that, especially with the added luck of playing Bruce Springsteen at the same time. However, the recent creative obstacles of “The Bear” and the recent lack of Oscar wins for musical biopics might eventually be real problems at Emmy and Oscar time. Graham could be someone like that after the longtime character actor went to the next level, starring in and co-creating “Adolescence,” although such a breakthrough may not carry over to the Oscars if “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” has far less to offer him.
In addition to her long path ahead to returning to the Oscars and winning this time, Erivo is likely a long shot at the Emmys, thanks to competition from bigger shows like “The Studio,” “Hacks,” and “The Bear,” including Curtis again. As for Edebiri, her crossover potential from TV comedy star to dramatic movie star is about to undergo a massive test.
It’s still very possible that Allen White, Graham, Edebiri, and Erivo will be nominees over and over again in award shows from now until March 2026, and not just for their movies. However, any of them winning both movie and TV awards requires a lot of historic breaks to go their way – and the Emmy nominations were merely the first steps.
What did you think of the Emmy nominations earlier this morning? Do you think any nominees this year will also be competing for an Oscar later this year? Please let us know in the comments section below and on Next Best Picture’s X account.
You can follow Robert and hear more of his thoughts on the Oscars & Film on X @Robertdoc1984
