What time do the Oscars start, how to watch in the UK and who is hosting for 2026?

It’s the film industry’s most eagerly-awaited night of the year as Hollywood celebrates a year of filmmaking with the 98th Academy Awards.

Hollywood’s biggest names will gather at the Dolby Theatre for the Oscars 2026, where this year’s nominees will find out whether they’ve done enough to earn the coveted gold-plated trophy.

The American horror film Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler, leads the nominations charge – pulling in a record-breaking 16 nods.

After Sinners, the next most nominated movie was One Battle After Another with 13 nods, followed by Sentimental Value (9), Frankenstein (9), Marty Supreme (9) and Hamnet (8).

Those films were all nominated in the best picture category, as well as Bugonia, Sentimental Value, Train Dreams, The Secret Agent and F1.

For the third year running, UK audiences will be able to watch the Oscars live and for free, tuning in as the trophies are dished out… if you can stay up late enough, that is. Here’s how you can watch the Oscars 2025 in the United Kingdom tonight.

Where can I watch the Oscars in the UK?

The Oscars will be broadcast exclusively on ITV1 and the streaming service ITVX in the UK.

Meanwhile, viewers in Central and Northern Scotland will be able to watch the show on ITV’s Scottish counterpart, STV and STV Player.

Jonathan Ross will host live coverage of the Oscars ceremony from 10:15pm on ITV and will be joined by a panel which includes Elle Osili Wood, Samson Kayo and Fred Asquith.

What time is the Oscars 2026?

With Jonathan’s pre-Oscars coverage beginning at 10.15pm, viewers can watch live footage from the red carpet as the stars arrive – hosted by Good Morning Britain star Ross King.

As for the main event, this will kick off at midnight in the UK (7pm Eastern Time).

How long is the show?

Coverage will continue through to the early hours of Monday morning, with the ceremony expected to end at around 2.35am UK time on ITV.

But of course, what with it being live TV, anything could happen!

Who is hosting the Oscars?

This year’s Oscars ceremony will again be hosted by Conan O’Brien, who took over the top job from fellow comedian and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel last year.

‘We have a lot of possibilities,’ he told ABC recently. ‘Early on, you just generate possibilities for the show: “What might we do?” You have to wait and see which movies are nominated, what’s in the zeitgeist, so there’ll be a lot of ideas that come in late. Sometimes those are the best ideas.’

While he couldn’t reveal much about this year’s show, O’Brien said that audiences could expect ‘a lot of magic’.

‘There’ll be some explosions, CGI will be used. I see this second Oscars as an opportunity to take things up a notch,’ he added.

While O’Brien hasn’t been able to reveal much about this year’s show, he said that audiences could expect ‘a lot of magic’.

In the best actor category, Timothée Chalamet is nominated for Marty Supreme (his third Oscar nomination), Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another (his eighth Oscar nomination), Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon, Michael B. Jordan for Sinners, and Wagner Moura for The Secret Agent.

The best actress nominees are Jessie Buckley for Hamnet, Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Kate Hudson for Song Sung Blue, Renate Reinsve for Sentimental Value for Emma Stone for Bugonia.

The best director nominees are Chloe Zhao (Hamnet), Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme), Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another), Joacim Trier (Sentimental Value) and Ryan Coogler for Sinners.

The Oscars airs tonight at 10.15pm on ITV1 and ITVX.

A version of this article was originally published on March 2, 2025.

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