The Artios Awards 2026 have been announced, with the Casting Society honoring standout achievements in casting across film, television, and theater.

The annual ceremony highlights the crucial role casting directors play in shaping performances and storytelling, often serving as the unsung architects behind Hollywood’s biggest successes.

This year’s winners reflect a diverse slate of projects, from prestige dramas to animated blockbusters.

Standouts included Sinners, which earned recognition for its compelling ensemble, and Disney’s Zootopia 2, celebrated in the animation category.

This year’s celebrations spanned three cities.

What We Do in the Shadows star Harvey Guillén hosted the Los Angeles ceremony at the Beverly Hilton.

Somebody Somewhere alum Jeff Hiller emceed the Manhattan event at the Edison Ballroom, and Baby Reindeer Emmy winner Jessica Gunning fronted the UK gathering at One Moorgate Place.

Here’s a complete list of the winners of Casting Society’s 2026 Artios Awards:

FEATURE FILM

BIG BUDGET FEATURE COMEDY

Jay Kelly

Douglas Aibel, Nina Gold, Associate Casting Director: Matthew Glasner, Location Casting Directors: Francesco Vedovati, Barbara Giordani

BIG BUDGET FEATURE DRAMA

Sinners

Francine Maisler, Associate Casting Directors: Molly Rose, Amber Wakefield, Location Casting Director: Meagan Lewis

ANIMATED FEATURE

Zootopia 2

Grace C. Kim

STUDIO OR INDEPENDENT FEATURE COMEDY

Rental Family

Kei Kawamura

FEATURE: STUDIO OR INDEPENDENT: DRAMA

Sentimental Value

Avy Kaufman

FEATURE: INTERNATIONAL

The Fisherman

Mawuko Kuadzi

FEATURE: LOW BUDGET: COMEDY OR DRAMA

Sorry, Baby

Jessica Kelly, Location Casting Directors: Lisa Lobel, Angela Peri, Location Associate Casting Director: Melissa Morris

TV, COMMERCIALS, SHORT FILM & SHORT FORM SERIES

FILM, FIRST RELEASED FOR TELEVISION OR STREAMING

Bridget Jones Mad About the Boy

Lucy Bevan, Olivia Grant, Associate Casting Director: Lucy Downes

TELEVISION SERIES: COMEDY

Hacks (Season 4)

Linda Lowy

TELEVISION SERIES: DRAMA

Severance (Season 2)

Rachel Tenner, Associate Casting Director: Rick Messina, Location Casting Director: Bess Fifer

TELEVISION PILOT AND FIRST SEASON: COMEDY

The Studio

Melissa Kostenbauder, Francine Maisler, Associate Casting Director: Jesse Haddock

TELEVISION PILOT AND FIRST SEASON: DRAMA

The Pitt

Cathy Sandrich Gelfond, Associate Casting Director: Seth Caskey

LIMITED SERIES

Adolescence

Shaheen Baig

REALITY SERIES: COMPETITION

Rupaul’s Drag Race (Season 17)

Goloka Bolte, Michelle Redwine, Adam Cook

REALITY SERIES: STRUCTURED & UNSTRUCTURED

Queer Eye (Season 9)

Pamela Vallarelli, Jessica Jorgensen, Natalie Pino

LIVE ACTION CHILDREN & FAMILY SERIES

XO, Kitty (Season 2)

Lyndsey Baldasare, David H. Rapaport, Associate Casting Director: Claire Yenson, Location Casting Director: Su Kim

ANIMATED PROGRAM FOR TELEVISION

Big Mouth (Season 8)

Julie Ashton

INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION SERIES

Other People’s Money (Season 1)

Alexandra Montag

SHORT FORM SERIES

Die Hart (Season 3)

Chrissy Fiorilli-Ellington, Associate Casting Director: Jane Flowers, Location Casting Director: Tara Feldstein Bennett

SHORT FILM

Ado

Ally Beans

COMMERCIALS

Listening Is a Form of Love

Angela Mickey, Associate Casting Director: Aika Greenidge

THEATER

BROADWAY: COMEDY OR DRAMA

English

Stephen Kopel, Associate Casting Director: Sujotta Pace

BROADWAY: MUSICAL

(TIE)

Buena Vista Social Club

Xavier Rubiano, Tara Rubin, Associate Casting Director: Frankie Ramirez

Maybe Happy Ending

Craig Burns, Associate Casting Director: Jimmy Larkin

NEW YORK THEATER: COMEDY OR DRAMA

Sh¡T. Meet. Fan

Bernard Telsey, Will Cantler, Destiny Lilly

NEW YORK THEATER: MUSICAL

The Jonathan Larson Project

Rachel Hoffman, Associate Casting Director: Charlie Hano

LONDON THEATRE

The Importance Of Being Earnest

Alastair Coomer

LOS ANGELES THEATER

Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends

Tara Rubin, Xavier Rubiano, Peter Van Dam, Associate Casting Director: Louis DiPaolo
REGIONAL THEATER

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Lauren Port, Patrick Goodwin

THEATER TOURS

Parade

Craig Burns

SPECIAL THEATRICAL PERFORMANCE

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Geoff Josselson

The BRIT Awards will honour Ozzy Osbourne with the Life Time Achievement Award during the ceremony on Saturday, February 28.

The renowned heavy metal star, known as the Prince of Darkness, passed away at the age of 76 last year and will be honoured for his outstanding contribution to the music industry. 

There will be a number of tribute performances led by Robbie Williams, who was personally asked by Ozzy’s wife, Sharon Osbourne, to be part of the show due to his long-standing association with the Osbourne family.

Curated by Sharon herself, it will feature a special arrangement of No More Tears – the title track from Ozzy’s multi-million selling 1991 album of the same name.

Robbie will be joined on stage by Ozzy’s lead guitarist Zakk Wylde as well as Adam Wakeman, Robert Trujillo and Tommy Clufetos. 

Interestingly, Ozzy himself hosted The BRIT Awards in 2008 alongside his family Sharon, Kelly and Jack.

Stacey Tang, Chair of the 2026 BRIT Awards Committee and Co-President of RCA Records at Sony Music UK said: ‘Ozzy Osbourne has been a mighty force in modern music. Possessing an unmistakable voice and unique presence, he reshaped the sound and spirit of rock, inspiring generations of artists who followed.

‘This Lifetime Achievement Award recognises a remarkable legacy built on originality and enduring influence, that continues to connect with fans worldwide.’

Ozzy passed away at the age of 76 at his Buckinghamshire home on July 22 after suffering an ‘acute myocardial infarction’ and ‘out of hospital cardiac arrest.’

The latest round of cross-border strikes between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been quickly absorbed into a familiar vocabulary of sovereignty violations and regional instability.

Such descriptions are incomplete and inaccurate. For Pakistan, militancy emanating from Afghanistan is not a distant geopolitical abstraction. It is an immediate security exposure shaped by geography, history, and a border that remains porous despite decades of militarisation.

Over the past several years, Islamabad has repeatedly stated that anti-Pakistan groups, most prominently the TTP, have found space to regroup across the border. Afghan authorities have rejected the characterisation.

No state can indefinitely absorb violence that originates beyond its formal jurisdiction while relying solely on diplomatic assurances. Pakistan’s security establishment operates under domestic pressure. Civilian casualties from militant attacks do not register as abstract policy debates but as institutional demands for response. In such an environment, cross-border strikes become a tool of signaling as much as of disruption, showing that tolerance thresholds have been reached.

This does not imply that air power alone can neutralise sanctuary dynamics. Militant networks that straddle borders are sustained by terrain, local alliances and ideological overlap. The Afghan authorities, for their part, face internal constraints. Dismantling groups with shared histories or intertwined loyalties risks fragmentation within a political order that is still consolidating itself after decades of war.

Yet Pakistan’s calculus is shaped less by Kabul’s internal difficulties than by the immediacy of its own exposure. The Durand Line has long been more than a demarcation; it is a corridor through which commerce, kinship and militancy have flowed in equal measure. Expecting strategic patience in the face of repeated attacks misunderstands how states prioritise internal order.

International commentary often frames such strikes as escalatory by default, as though restraint were a neutral baseline. That assumption overlooks the asymmetry of cost. Afghanistan does not experience the same volume of attacks originating from Pakistani soil. The burden of spillover has, in recent years, fallen disproportionately on Pakistan. In that context, Islamabad’s calibrated use of force is an assertion that territorial lines cannot serve as shields for non-state actors.

Critics frequently invoke international law in isolation, detached from the persistent failure to neutralise armed groups operating in ungoverned or under-governed spaces. Legal principles cannot substitute for effective territorial control.

There are risks embedded in this approach. Repetition without resolution can normalise cross-border action as a routine policy instrument. Each episode narrows diplomatic space and deepens mistrust. It also reinforces a cycle in which militant actors benefit from the absence of sustained coordination between the two governments. 

A durable solution would require intelligence sharing, verifiable commitments and a political understanding that militant groups targeting one state cannot be compartmentalised as peripheral concerns by the other.

Such coordination remains elusive, in part because the broader diplomatic relationship is unsettled. Questions of recognition, sanctions and international legitimacy continue to shape Kabul’s external posture. Pakistan’s engagement has oscillated between cautious accommodation and visible frustration. 

The resulting ambiguity has limited the development of institutional mechanisms to manage cross-border threats more effectively.

Pakistan cannot relocate itself away from Afghanistan, nor can it insulate its western provinces from developments across the frontier. In security terms, adjacency compresses reaction time and magnifies perceived threat. When militant attacks accumulate, strategic restraint is weighed against domestic expectations of response, and the balance shifts accordingly.

Whether the current cycle stabilises or intensifies will depend less on rhetorical condemnation and more on demonstrable action against groups operating in border regions. Without credible steps to address sanctuary concerns, episodic military measures are likely to recur. They are imperfect instruments, but they reflect a state confronting a security environment in which passivity carries its own risks.

For Pakistan, the issue is practical containment. The sustainability of any alternative approach will rest on evidence that cross-border militancy is being curtailed in measurable ways. Until such evidence materialises, Islamabad’s actions will continue to be shaped by the logic of proximity and the imperative of internal security rather than by external preference for restraint.

The writer is a non-resident fellow at the Consortium for Asia Pacific & Eurasian Studies. He tweets/posts @umarwrites

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this piece are the writer’s own and don’t necessarily reflect Geo.tv’s editorial policy.

Originally published in The News