Sinners leads the way at the star-studded ceremony.
Whether you love the gowns, guests or gongs, there is no award ceremony quite like the Academy Awards. The 98th Academy Awards takes place on Sunday, 15 March in Los Angeles and will be hosted by the comedian Conan O’Brien. If you want to watch the Oscars in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, here’s how to get your streaming on.
Even though you’re more than 8,000 miles away, we’re here to help you join the action. The Academy Awards airs in more than 200 countries, and audiences in the Middle East can tune in to MBC 2, MBC Max, and Shahid Plus to stream the Oscars live.
For almost a century, the Oscars have celebrated the creme de la creme of cinematic talent. From dramas to action flicks, the Academy Awards honours the best and brightest in showbiz. With nail-biting moments and tear-jerking speeches, the award show is a rollercoaster of emotions for viewers worldwide.
The favourites for this year’s Academy Awards include Sinners, with a record 16 nominations. Sinners is a horror film by Ryan Coogler, set in 1930s Mississippi, and it stars Michael B. Jordan. Other notable nominees include Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another and Sentimental Value.
Arabs at the Academy Awards
The Middle East also has a presence at the Oscars. For the 2026 awards, the Best International Feature Film category includes Tunisia’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, which follows a six-year-old who gets trapped in war-torn Gaza. The Best Documentary Feature Film category includes Cutting Through Rocks by Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni, which follows the first female councillor in an Iranian village.
Over the years, Arab cinema has been recognised at the Academy Awards. The first Arab actor to be nominated for an Oscar was the Egyptian actor Omar Sharif. In 1963, he was shortlisted for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Lawrence of Arabia. It then took until 2019 for an Arab actor to win an Oscar: American-Egyptian actor Rami Malek won the Best Actor award for Bohemian Rhapsody.
In 2014, Saudi Arabia made history when it submitted its first film to the Academy and gained a nomination for Wadjda. Furthermore, in 2019, Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki became the first Arab female film director to be nominated for an Oscar.
Set the alarms.
GO: Visit www.oscars.org for more information.