‘In this business, you gotta be able to have people disrespecting you. And you gotta smile and you gotta pretend like, “That’s OK” ’ — List of Will Smith Oscar nominations, wins
Posted: June 2026
List of Oscar nominations for Will Smith. Will Smith has been nominated for 4 Academy Awards and won 1. Year indicates year/period for which films were eligible for awards consideration, not year of ceremony. Sources: Oscars.org, Internet Movie Database, Wikipedia
2021: King Richard (Best Picture) (shared with Tim White, Trevor White) — Lost to CODA (Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi, Patrick Wachsberger). Other nominees: The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion, Tanya Seghatchian, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, Roger Frappier), Dune: Part One (Mary Parent, Denis Villeneuve, Cale Boyter), Drive My Car (Teruhisa Yamamoto), Don’t Look Up (Adam McKay, Kevin J. Messick), Belfast (Laura Berwick, Kenneth Branagh, Becca Kovacik, Tamar Thomas), Nightmare Alley (Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale, Bradley Cooper), West Side Story (Steven Spielberg, Kristie Macosko Krieger), Licorice Pizza (Sara Murphy, Adam Somner, Paul Thomas Anderson)
WON: 2021: King Richard (Best Actor) (Richard Williams) — Other nominees: Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of Macbeth), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog), Andrew Garfield (tick, tick... BOOM!), Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos)
2006: The Pursuit of Happyness (Best Actor) (Chris Gardner) — lost to Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland). Other nominees: Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson), Peter O’Toole (Venus), Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond)
2001: Ali (Best Actor) (Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali) — lost to Denzel Washington (Training Day). Other nominees: Russell Crowe (A Beautiful Mind), Tom Wilkinson (In the Bedroom), Sean Penn (I Am Sam)