What Have Oscar Nominees Worked on in the Past? 

This March, Hoopla’s Movie Club is rolling out the red carpet for film lovers by spotlighting past movies connected to today’s Oscar nominees. Before the 2026 Academy Award winners are announced, we’re looking back at earlier performances and projects from actors, actresses, and directors now in the running for Hollywood’s highest recognition.  

Some of these films you’ll have seen, and some are under-the-radar gems. You might recognize a young performer delivering a star-making turn, or a director experimenting with themes and styles that would later define their career. It’s a fun way to trace creative journeys—and maybe discover a new favorite you missed the first time around!  

When Are the Oscars?  

The 98th Annual Academy Awards are on Sunday, March 15. 

Maybe you’re deciding which hors d’oeuvres to bring to an Oscar party. Or maybe you just love a great story. 

Browse Hoopla’s collection of movies featuring nominees for 2026 Oscars and have a star-studded movie night. Here are a few highlights:  

Actress in a Leading Role 

Nominee: Jessie Buckley for Hamnet 

Oscars Nominee: Jessie Buckley for Hamnet, watch Beast for free on Hoopla.
Beast (2018): Moll (Jessie Buckley), trapped at home on a suffocating island, falls passionately for Pascal, a free-spirited outsider who awakens her to life beyond family control. Free to watch on Hoopla without ads.

Beast (2018): Moll (Jessie Buckley), trapped at home on a suffocating island, falls passionately for Pascal, a free-spirited outsider who awakens her to life beyond family control. But when he’s arrested for brutal murders, Moll must choose loyalty or survival.

Other movies featuring 2026 Actress in a Leading Role nominees: 

Adam (2009): Rose Byrne 

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003): Kate Hudson 

Actor in a Leading Role 

Nominee: Timothée Chalamet for Marty Supreme 

Oscars Nominee: Timothée Chalamet for Marty Supreme, watch A Rainy Day in New York for free on Hoopla.
A Rainy Day in New York (2020): Privileged college couple Gatsby Welles (Timothée Chalamet) and Ashleigh Enright (Elle Fanning) visit New York for a weekend that unravels when her interview assignment derails. Watch it for free on Hoopla with your library card and ad free!

A Rainy Day in New York (2020): Privileged college couple Gatsby Welles (Timothée Chalamet) and Ashleigh Enright (Elle Fanning) visit New York for a weekend that unravels when her interview assignment derails, sparking chance encounters, romantic missteps, rainy philosophizing, old flames, and entanglements that strain their relationship. Bonus: Elle Fanning is also up for an award! See below.

Other movies featuring 2026 Actor in a Leading Role nominees: 

Catch Me if You Can (2002): Leonardo DiCaprio 

Adopt a Highway (2019): Ethan Hawke 

Best Supporting Actor 

Nominee: Delroy Lindo for Sinners 

Oscars Nominee: Delroy Lindo for Sinners, watch Glory & Honor for free on Hoopla.
Glory & Honor (1998): Matthew Henson (Delroy Lindo), the first African American to achieve the feat, was forgotten—until this true story restores his legacy as the expedition’s unsung hero. Free to watch on Hoopla.

Glory & Honor (1998): Two men reached the North Pole, yet only one was celebrated. Matthew Henson (Delroy Lindo), the first African American to achieve the feat, was forgotten—until this true story restores his legacy as the expedition’s unsung hero.

Other movies featuring 2026 Actor in a Supporting Role nominees: 

Return to Montauk (2017): Stellan Skarsgård 

Oh, Canada (2024): Jacob Elordi 

Dead Man Walking (1995): Sean Penn  

The Usual Suspects (1995): Benicio del Toro 

Best Supporting Actress 

Nominee: Elle Fanning for Sentimental Value 

Oscars Nominee: Elle Fanning for Sentimental Value, watch Teen Spirit for free on Hoopla.

Teen Spirit (2018): Violet (Elle Fanning), a shy small-town teenager, longs to escape and follow her dream of singing. Guided by an unexpected mentor, she enters a local vocal competition that challenges her talent, ambition, and moral integrity for the first time.

Another movie featuring a 2026 Actress in a Supporting Role nominee: 

Future Weather (2013): Amy Madigan

Best Director 

Nominee: Chloe Zhao for Hamnet

Oscars Nominee: Chloe Zhao for Hamnet, watch Songs My Brother Taught Me for free on Hoopla.
Songs My Brother Taught Me (2015): Director Chloé Zhao’s first film sensitively depicts marginalized lives, where ancient cultural identity is overwhelmed by modern realities of poverty, alcoholism, and violence. Watch it on Hoopla.

Songs My Brother Taught Me (2015): Director Chloé Zhao’s first film sensitively depicts marginalized lives, where ancient cultural identity is overwhelmed by modern realities of poverty, alcoholism, and violence. She balances this hardship with breathtaking natural imagery, offering moments of beauty that gently counter the despair faced by her characters.

Another movie featuring a 2026 Best Director nominee: 

Punch-Drunk Love (2002): Paul Thomas Anderson 

Get Ready for the Oscars 

The best part about Hoopla’s March Movie Club? You don’t need a ticket. You don’t need a subscription. With Hoopla, you can borrow these movies featuring 2026 Oscar nominees and watch them at home—free with your library card! Hoopla works on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Samsung TV, LG TV, and many other devices (including your smartphone!), making movie night easy to plan. You can also check out Hoopla’s collection of past Oscar winners and nominees to revisit past Academy Award-worthy films.

From acclaimed director Ridley Scott and renowned producer Jerry Bruckheimer, based on actual events, Black Hawk Down is the heroic account of a group of elite U.S. soldiers sent into Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993 as part of a U.N. peacekeeping operation. Watch it for free on Hoopla.
Johnny Depp is Ichabod Crane, an investigator determined to stop the murderous Headless Horseman and you can watch it for free on Hoopla!
Interstellar - From director Christopher Nolan (Inception) comes the story of ex-pilot Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), who must leave his family and Earth behind to lead an expedition beyond this galaxy to discover whether mankind has a future among the stars. Watch it for free on Hoopla.
This classic confrontation between good and evil stars Kevin Costner as federal agent Eliot Ness, Robert De Niro as gangland kingpin Al Capone and Sean Connery as Malone, the cop who teaches Ness how to beat the mob: shoot fast and shoot first. Watch it on Hoopla with no ads!
Tintin and his friends discover directions to a sunken ship commanded by Capt. Haddock's ancestor and go off on a treasure hunt. Watch it for free on Hoopla with your library card!
Watch Arrival for free on Hoopla.
The lives of several people of various ethnicities collide in Los Angeles in this Academy Award-winning film. Watch Crash on Hoopla for free.
When a ship of Americans and Britons is sunk by a German U-Boat missile during WWII, the survivors must cope with the elements -- and each other. Watch it on Hoopla for free with your library card!
Here comes Bing Crosby as a reporter with a song in his heart...and room left over for two war orphans. Watch it for free on Hoopla.
Four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris (Apollo 13), Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) and Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) and Colin Farrell (In Bruges) star in this epic saga of survival from six-time Oscar-nominee Peter Weir (Witness, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World). And it's free to watch on Hoopla!
Meryl Streep (AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, DOUBT, MAMMA MIA!) gives an OSCAR®-winning performance as Margaret Thatcher in this surprising and intimate portrait of the first and only female Prime Minster of the United Kingdom. Watch it on Hoopla for free.
The story of the life and career of famed baseball player Lou Gehrig. Watch it on Hoopla for free.

This March is the perfect time to celebrate the paths that led to the Academy Awards, with Hoopla’s March Movie Club.

*Titles may vary by library