OSCARS 2026 - THAT'S A WRAP

Well, another Academy Awards ceremony has come and gone.

The 98th annual Academy Awards are now officially in the books, and like I do every single year, I watched the whole thing, had a great time, yelled at the TV, complained, laughed, rolled my eyes, filled out my ballot, played a little Oscar bingo, and at the end of the night had a lot of mixed feelings, which is pretty much how I feel every single year about the Oscars.

Let me just say this right up front: the Academy Awards, in my opinion, have always been a bit of a joke. I’ve been watching this stuff for about 60 years now, and I can tell you that the Oscars very rarely actually reward the best movie or the best performances or the best technical achievements of a given year.

I mean, in my entire lifetime, I think they’ve gotten Best Picture right maybe seven times. Seven times. Out of sixty years.

The rest of the time it’s politics. It's timing. It’s campaigning. It’s narratives. It’s “this person hasn’t won yet.” It’s “this person’s turn.” It’s what movie fits the current cultural moment.

It’s almost never about what the best movie actually is.

You see it all the time. Someone will finally win an Oscar not because they gave the best performance that year, but because the Academy decides it’s “their time.”

Paul Newman finally winning for The Color of Money—a perfectly good performance, but not even close to the best work he ever did. That was a career award disguised as a competitive one. That stuff happens constantly.

And it happens even more now because social media has made everything about narratives and outrage and cultural chatter.

A single joke, a single comment, something taken out of context can completely shift momentum in a category. Suddenly it’s not about the performance anymore, it’s about whatever the internet is yelling about that week.

So yeah, the Oscars are shallow. Awards shows in general are shallow. They don’t actually represent the best of cinema most of the time.

But I still watch every single year. I love it. I love complaining about it. I love yelling at the TV. I love watching the red carpet. I love seeing what everyone’s wearing. I love the speeches. I love the awkward moments.

And most importantly, it’s live television.

That’s one of the biggest draws of the Oscars. It’s live, and you never know what’s going to happen. Anything can happen on live TV.

Some of the craziest moments in television history have happened on the Oscar stage: from the famous streaker in the 1970s that David Niven brilliantly handled with one of the greatest ad-libbed lines ever, to musical disasters like the infamous Rob Lowe/Snow White number from the late ’80s which remains one of the most embarrassing things ever broadcast on television.

So yeah… the show itself is always fun.

And this year, the 98th Academy Awards were actually a really entertaining telecast.

First of all, Conan O’Brien absolutely knocked it out of the park.

This was his second year hosting, and last year was rough because Los Angeles was literally on fire while he was trying to host the show. Southern California was burning and Conan was doing his best to keep the show together under incredibly strange circumstances.

He did a terrific job then, but this year he was completely unleashed. This was one of the best hosting jobs in Oscar history.

His monologue was terrific. His jokes were sharp. He managed to acknowledge how weird and screwed-up the world feels right now (politically, culturally, everything) without turning the show into a lecture. He had some genuinely heartfelt comments about art and why movies matter, and then five seconds later he’d hit you with a killer joke.

Nobody does self-deprecation better than Conan O’Brien. Nobody winks at the audience quite the way he does. The timing, the improvisation, the ability to react when something unexpected happens, and that’s what makes him such a great host.

One of my favorite moments was when someone giving a speech started getting played off and the producers lowered the microphone. Conan immediately jumped in and called it out, saying how rude it was to literally lower the mic on the guy mid-sentence. It was spontaneous and very funny.

The opening was fantastic too.

The pre-filmed bit where Conan is dressed as Aunt Gladys from Weapons (complete with wig and makeup) being chased by the possessed kids from the movie was hilarious. They recreated the chase through sets inspired by the nominated films, the kids burst into the theater, and Conan appears live to start the show. It was clever and really well done.

And honestly it warmed my heart a little that a horror movie (even a bad one like Weapons) was the centerpiece of the Oscar opening. Horror almost never gets recognized by the Academy, so seeing it front and center for the opening gag was a nice little moment.

The presenters were mostly good. One of the funniest bits involved Kumail Nanjiani the presenter for the short film category, which ended up in a rare tie, something that hasn’t happened in ages. Kumail joked that it was ironic that the “short” category was suddenly going to take twice as long because there were two winners. Perfect line.

There were also some spontaneous and weird moments, which is exactly what makes live TV fun.

Amy Madigan won an Oscar for Weapons, which honestly was ridiculous because the movie is not good and the performance is pretty ridiculous, but I love Amy Madigan. She’s been around forever, she was nominated 40 years ago, and this felt very much like a “career moment.”

Plus she’s from Chicago and married to Ed Harris, so I was happy for her even if the award itself made no sense.

Michael B. Jordan winning Best Actor for Sinners… I don’t even want to get into it. He absolutely did not deserve it.

Timothée Chalamet’s performance in Marty Supreme was easily the best performance by any actor last year. Not even close. But because of some stupid throwaway joke Chalamet made about the ballet and the opera (completely and ridiculously blown out of proportion by social media nonsense) his momentum evaporated.

That’s the Oscars. Politics. Narratives. Internet outrage.

Meanwhile Sinners winning Best Original Screenplay is one of the most unintentionally hilarious moments in Oscar history because that movie is about as “original” as a photocopy.

It’s basically a weak mash-up of From Dusk Till Dawn, The Thing, Night of the Living Dead, and Crossroads. It’s one of the most derivative movies I’ve seen in decades. So naturally it wins the award for “original” screenplay.

That’s the Academy Awards in a nutshell.

There were some really nice moments though. Sean Penn winning Supporting Actor was terrific, even though he wasn’t there because he’s currently doing humanitarian work in Ukraine. Kieran Culkin made a joke about Penn not showing up which felt a little unnecessary considering why he wasn’t there.

The Bridesmaids reunion was one of the best bits of the night. Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy, Ellie Kemper, and Rose Byrne came out together and absolutely killed. They were hilarious. Honestly, after watching that, I thought they should just host the show next year.

The musical numbers were mostly fine. The K-Pop Demon Hunters performance worked. The big musical sequence from Sinners was actually decent, mostly because it recreated the one sequence in that movie that doesn’t completely stink.

And it was great to see Chicago legend Buddy Guy on stage, even though the camera barely focused on him.

The show ran long (about forty minutes too long) but oddly it didn’t feel like it dragged. Julie and I were watching while doing a live chat on Substack, playing Oscar bingo, filling out ballots, and we were having a blast.

The In Memoriam segment was enormous this year because a lot of legends passed away. Billy Crystal delivered a beautiful tribute to Rob Reiner and his wife, which was genuinely moving, and seeing a whole group of actors from Reiner’s films on stage together was wonderful.

Rachel McAdams’ tribute to Diane Keaton and Catherine O'Hara was lovely.

Barbra Streisand… well… Barbra Streisand being Barbra Streisand. Her tribute to Robert Redford somehow turned into a tribute to herself, which is very on brand.

And as always, they left people out of the In Memoriam, which happens every single year and drives people crazy.

But the biggest takeaway from the night (the thing that shocked me more than anything) is this: For once… the Oscars actually got it right. It doesn’t happen often. But this year it did.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another won Best Picture.

And it absolutely deserved it.

There was a lot of talk that Sinners (which somehow got a ridiculous 16 nominations) might pull off an upset. The fact that it was nominated that many times is already a joke. It shouldn’t have even been in the Best Picture lineup.

But the Academy actually did the right thing.

One Battle After Another won.

Paul Thomas Anderson (one of the greatest filmmakers of the last 30 years) finally won Oscars after being nominated fourteen times over his career. The guy who made Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread, and my all-time favorite movie Magnolia finally walked out with three Oscars for producing, writing, and directing.

And every one of those awards was deserved.

So yeah… I still think the Oscars are ridiculous. I’ll still complain about them. I’ll still yell at the TV.

But this year, for once, the Academy actually honored the best movie of the year.

And that almost never happens.

So with that in mind, here is the complete list of nominees and winners from the 98th Academy Awards.

THE WINNERS:

Actress in a Supporting Role

Elle Fanning — Sentimental Value

Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas — Sentimental Value

Amy Madigan — Weapons  [WINNER]

Wunmi Mosaku — Sinners

Teyana Taylor — One Battle after Another

Animated Feature Film

Arco

Elio

KPop Demon Hunters  [WINNER]

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain

Zootopia 2

Animated Short Film

Butterfly

Forevergreen

The Girl Who Cried Pearls [WINNER]

Retirement Plan

The Three Sisters

Costume Design

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Frankenstein  [WINNER]

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

Sinners

Makeup and Hairstyling

Frankenstein  [WINNER]

Kokuho

Sinners

The Smashing Machine

The Ugly Stepsister

Casting

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

One Battle after Another  [WINNER]

The Secret Agent

Sinners

Actor in a Supporting Role

Benicio Del Toro — One Battle after Another

Jacob Elordi — Frankenstein

Delroy Lindo — Sinners

Sean Penn — One Battle after Another [WINNER]

Stellan Skarsgård — Sentimental Value

Live Action Short Film

Butcher’s Stain

A Friend of Dorothy

Jane Austen’s Period Drama

The Singers [WINNER]

Two People Exchanging Saliva [WINNER]

Adapted Screenplay

Bugonia

Frankenstein

Hamnet

One Battle after Another [WINNER]

Train Dreams

Original Screenplay

Blue Moon

It Was Just an Accident

Marty Supreme

Sentimental Value

Sinners  [WINNER]

Production Design

Frankenstein  [WINNER]

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

One Battle after Another

Sinners

Visual Effects

Avatar: Fire and Ash [WINNER]

F1

Jurassic World Rebirth

The Lost Bus

Sinners

Documentary Short Film

All the Empty Rooms [WINNER]

Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud

Children No More: “Were and Are Gone”

The Devil Is Busy

Perfectly a Strangeness

Documentary Feature Film

The Alabama Solution

Come See Me in the Good Light

Cutting through Rocks

Mr. Nobody against Putin [WINNER]

The Perfect Neighbor

Original Score

Bugonia

Frankenstein

Hamnet

One Battle after Another

Sinners [WINNER]

Sound

F1 [WINNER]

Frankenstein

One Battle after Another

Sinners

Sirāt

Film Editing

F1

Marty Supreme

One Battle after Another [WINNER]

Sentimental Value

Sinners

Cinematography

Frankenstein

Marty Supreme

One Battle after Another

Sinners [WINNER]

Train Dreams

International Feature Film

The Secret Agent — Brazil

It Was Just an Accident — France

Sentimental Value — Norway [WINNER]

Sirāt — Spain

The Voice of Hind Rajab — Tunisia

Original Song

“Dear Me” — Diane Warren: Relentless

“Golden” — KPop Demon Hunters [WINNER]

“I Lied To You” — Sinners

“Sweet Dreams Of Joy” — Viva Verdi!

“Train Dreams” — Train Dreams

Directing

Chloé Zhao — Hamnet

Josh Safdie — Marty Supreme

Paul Thomas Anderson — One Battle after Another [WINNER]

Joachim Trier — Sentimental Value

Ryan Coogler — Sinners

Actor in a Leading Role

Timothée Chalamet — Marty Supreme

Leonardo DiCaprio — One Battle after Another

Ethan Hawke — Blue Moon

Michael B. Jordan — Sinners [WINNER]

Wagner Moura — The Secret Agent

Actress in a Leading Role

Jessie Buckley — Hamnet [WINNER]

Rose Byrne — If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Kate Hudson — Song Sung Blue

Renate Reinsve — Sentimental Value

Emma Stone — Bugonia

Best Picture

Bugonia

F1

Frankenstein

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

One Battle after Another [WINNER]

The Secret Agent

Sentimental Value

Sinners

Train Dreams

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