‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,’ ‘Becoming Led Zeppelin’ & More Nominated for 2026 AARP Movies for Grownups Awards: Full List

Prepare to feel old, even if you’re young: Movies about classic rockers are now contenders for AARP Movies for Grownups Awards.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, the biopic about a pivotal period in the life of Bruce Springsteen, is nominated for best period film, while its director, Scott Cooper, is up for best director. Becoming Led Zeppelin, a doc about Led Zeppelin, hard rock gods of the late ‘60s and ‘70s, is nominated for best documentary.

The Movies for Grownups Awards honor films and television projects that celebrate the voices and stories of those who are 50-plus. This year’s contenders for the top award, best picture/best movie for grownups, are Hamnet, A House of Dynamite, One Battle After Another, Sinners and Train Dreams.

Kathryn Bigelow, director of A House of Dynamite, and Paul Thomas Anderson, director of One Battle After Another, are up for best director, along with Cooper, director of the aforementioned Springsteen biopic, Guillermo del Toro (Frankenstein) and Spike Lee (Highest 2 Lowest).

Ethan Hawke is nominated for best actor for playing lyricist Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon. The film is set on the night of the opening of the groundbreaking musical Oklahoma!, which was created by Hart’s former collaborator Richard Rodgers and his new lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II.

Other nominees include Helen Mirren, recently announced as the 2026 recipient of the Golden Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille Award; two-time Oscar winner Sean Penn; and Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock.

Two documentaries directed by current stars that look at the lives of their parent(s) are also nominated for best documentary. They are Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, Ben Stiller’s film about his parents, the great 1960s comedy duo Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, and My Mom Jayne, actress Mariska Hargitay’s look at her mother, 1960s sex symbol Jayne Mansfield. The remaining nominees for best documentary are Cover Up, a look at investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, and Riefenstahl, about controversial filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl.

In the best TV series or limited series category, nominations go to Adolescence, Hacks, The Pitt, The Studio, and The White Lotus. 

“These nominees prove that powerful storytelling transcends age,” Myechia Minter-Jordan, CEO of AARP, said in a statement. “At AARP, we believe representation matters—not just for audiences, but for the industry itself. By honoring these actors and creators, we’re shining a light on the richness, depth, and diversity of experience that deserves to be seen and celebrated.”

The annual Movies for Grownups Awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, Jan. 10 at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, California. Alan Cumming, the Tony- and Emmy Award-winning  host of TV’s The Traitors, will return to host the show, which will be broadcast by PBS’ Great Performances on Sunday, Feb. 22 at 7/6c.

The annual awards show raises funds for AARP Foundation, which works to strengthen older adults’ financial resilience.

Here’s the complete list of 2025 nominees for the Movies for Grownups Awards:

Best Picture/Best Movie for Grownups

Hamnet

A House of Dynamite

One Battle After Another

Sinners

Train Dreams

Best Actress

Laura Dern, Is This Thing On?

Jodie Foster, A Private Life

Lucy Liu, Rosemead

Julia Roberts, After the Hunt

June Squibb, Eleanor the Great

Best Actor

George Clooney, Jay Kelly

Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another

Joel Edgerton, Train Dreams

Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon

Dwayne Johnson, The Smashing Machine

Best Supporting Actress

Regina Hall, One Battle After Another

Amy Madigan, Weapons

Helen Mirren, Goodbye June

Gwyneth Paltrow, Marty Supreme

Sigourney Weaver, Avatar: Fire and Ash

Best Supporting Actor

 Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another

Delroy Lindo, Sinners

Sean Penn, One Battle After Another

Michael Shannon, Nuremberg

Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value

Best Director

Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another

Kathryn Bigelow, A House of Dynamite

Scott Cooper, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

Guillermo del Toro, Frankenstein

Spike Lee, Highest 2 Lowest

Best Screenwriter

Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another

Noah Baumbach and Emily Mortimer, Jay Kelly

Bradley Cooper, Will Arnett, and Mark Chappell, Is This Thing On?

Julian Fellowes, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

James Vanderbilt, Nuremberg

Best Ensemble

 A House of Dynamite

Jay Kelly

Nuremberg

One Battle After Another

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

Best Intergenerational Film

Eleanor the Great

The Lost Bus

Rental Family

Rosemead

Sentimental Value

Best Period Film

Dead Man’s Wire

Marty Supreme

Nuremberg

Sinners

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

Best Documentary

Becoming Led Zeppelin

Cover Up

My Mom Jayne

Riefenstahl

Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost

Best Foreign-Language Film

It Was Just an Accident

No Other Choi

Nouvelle Vague

The Secret Agent

Sentimental Value

Best TV Series or Limited Series

Adolescence

Hacks

The Pitt

The Studio

The White Lotus

Best Actor (TV)

Walton Goggins, The White Lotus

Stephen Graham, Adolescence

Gary Oldman, Slow Horses

Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us

Noah Wyle, The Pitt

Best Actress (TV)

Kathy Bates, Matlock

Kathryn Hahn, The Studio

Catherine O’Hara, The Studio

Parker Posey, The White Lotus

Jean Smart, Hacks