With the announcement of this year’s Oscar winners, an exhaustively long awards season has finally come to a close. While most categories went according to plan, we had a couple of surprises, albeit nothing you’d call a huge shocker. And certainly none you’d call a bad decision.
My final predictions went 21/24, with the three categories I predicted incorrectly going to the nominee in my #2 spot. I’d call that a win all around.
As is tradition, let’s take a closer look at everything that went down with the good, the bad, and the ugly of the 98th Academy Awards.
THE GOOD
One Battle After Another dominates. It led the way all season, so it was no surprise to see Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed masterpiece take six Oscars, including Best Picture. Unlike many other early frontrunners of the past, the film somehow rode through the entire season unscathed. No mud slinging. No hit pieces. Just a damn fine modern American classic that rightly won. After 10 unsuccessful nominations over the years, PTA took home all three Oscars for which he was nominated. Is anyone out there really unhappy with this result?
A bunch of history-making firsts. Autumn Durald Arkapaw (Sinners) not only became the first woman to win Best Cinematography in the 98-year history of the Academy Awards, she’s also the first Black cinematographer to win the award, too. Jessie Buckley (Hamnet) is the first Irish actress to win Best Actress. Amy Madigan (Weapons) broke the record for the longest gap between a first nomination (Twice in a Lifetime in 1986) and first win. Sentimental Value is Norway’s first-ever win for Best International Feature. KPop Demon Hunter’s “Golden” is the first Kpop song to win Best Original Song. For only the seventh time in history, there was a tie, with both The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva winning Best Live Action Short.
Jessie Buckley. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It wasn’t a shock to see Buckley win. She won literally everything this season. And you know why? What she delivered in Hamnet is one of the greatest performances of all time. Her Oscar may have been essentially preordained since September, but it was no less satisfying to see her take to the stage.
That Amy Madigan win. Something that seemed genuinely impossible months ago became a reality tonight. Just getting Madigan a nomination was an uphill battle, but the fact that she was able to win is simply extraordinary. Madigan’s performance is the very embodiment of what should constitute a supporting win. She stole the film with 15 minutes of screen time. She ate up every moment she was on screen. This was not a “career win.” This was a supporting performance being simply too sublime to ignore.
And that Michael B. Jordan win. Again, a nomination for Jordan wasn’t exactly a certainty at the start of the season, so his eventual win is just as special. Yes, it’s true Jordan’s chances were elevated once a certain someone else couldn’t keep their foot out of their mouth (we’ll get to that). But few could deny that Jordan pulling double duties in Sinners with duel performances was something we should have always known could (and should) end in an Oscar win. He’s the nicest guy in town. He’s a bona fide movie star. And tonight was his deserved coronation.
The tie. Statistically speaking, a tie in an Oscars category is nigh-on impossible. An organisation of over 11,000 people ends up being exactly evenly split on two nominees. Just unfathomable. But it meant that both The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva went home winners. If you’ve seen these two short films, you know this result was so staggeringly deserved. Can we somehow get more ties happening in the future?
Conan O’Brien’s opening. He’s not the first Oscars host to insert himself into a bunch of the nominated films (Billy Crystal routinely would open the show in such a way), but from the moment Conan appeared dressed as Aunt Gladys, you knew we were in for something hilarious. The rest of Conan’s hosting was hit and miss, but the man never stopped trying. He wasn’t overbearing, and that’s the best you can ask for with hosting something like this.
The In Memoriam segment. Given how many major names had passed away in the last 12 months, we knew the Academy would pull out something special for the annual tribute section of the ceremony. But they went a step further, and it took up an entire section of the broadcast this year. From Billy Crystal remembering his pal Rob Reiner, which led to an assemblage on stage of numerous actors who’d worked with the director, to Rachel McAdams paying tribute to her idol Diane Keaton, it was an overwhelming moment. And then Barbra Streisand emerged to remember her cherished co-star and friend Robert Redford before surprising us all with a rendition of “The Way We Were.” Please make this an annual tradition instead of a rushed clips package. Take a proper moment like this to reflect, mourn, and celebrate.
Guillermo del Toro’s face whenever Frankenstein won something. Like a beaming-with-pride papa, del Toro’s joy at seeing his team of artisans be rewarded was beyond gorgeous.
Acting clips for all four categories. Praise be. You listened to the complaints from last year. Never cut them back again.
“Sean Penn couldn’t be here tonight…or didn’t want to, so I’ll be accepting the award on his behalf.” Bless you, Kieran Culkin.
The Bridesmaids reunion. Enough said.
THE BAD
Timothée Chalamet. An Oscar campaign collapse like we haven’t seen in some years. You can cry all you want about the fact an Oscar win should just be about the performance and nothing else. That hasn’t been the case for literally decades. It’s a game. It’s a beauty pageant. And, after two previous Best Actor nominations, Chalamet would be well aware of this by now. It’s why the last few weeks of disastrous press at his own hands make absolutely no sense. It was like he was actively campaigning for members to vote for someone else. And they did.
The sound issues. How, in the year 2026, and with a show as expensive to produce as the Oscars, were we subjected to continual audio problems? Barbra Streisand sounded like she was talking underwater. Melissa McCarthy was muffled as all hell. Audio in some of the In Memoriam clips was out of sync. The main microphone constantly sounded like people were talking in a tin can. Something was clearly very wrong. Inexplicably, it was never fixed.
Cutting three Best Original Song performances. Yes, we all knew that the category was coming down to a battle between “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters and “I Lied to You” from Sinners, but choosing to only have these two songs performed during the ceremony is such a slap in the face to the other three nominees. One could argue that two weepy ballads and one operatic aria may have altered the pace of the show, but why should it matter? These songwriters were nominated for a reason. They deserved to have their moment.
The Grogu bit. Shameless advertorial placement from Disney to force poor Kate Hudson to sit next to the Baby Yoda puppet for a gag that was totally pointless and nothing more than a promo for The Mandalorian & Grogu. Sure, there was a slight thrill in having Sigourney Weaver alter her iconic “Stay away from her, you bitch!” line from Aliens for the skit. But the whole thing just ate up time that could be better spent elsewhere.
Sean Penn’s no-show. After his absence at both the BAFTAs and The Actor Awards, it was no surprise to see Penn fail to show up to collect his third Oscar. But, after winning at both those ceremonies, one would have thought he might bother to show up this time. Evidently not. It’s rather baffling the only ceremony he attended this season was the Golden Globes in January, where he didn’t even win.
THE UGLY
The orchestra play-offs. I hate to sound like a broken record. This was my exact same “ugly” point last year. But cutting winners off felt even more aggressive and egregious this year. Many of us say this every year, yet the Academy continues to fail to hear us. We watch the Oscars to see who wins and hear what they have to say. Why do you continue to attempt to shorten these moments?
There comes a point when an orchestra play-off is absolutely necessary. Someone has waffled on for five minutes. They start thanking their dog walker and the woman who cuts their hair. They need to be told to wrap it up. I appreciate that. But it takes a certain talent to know when that moment has arrived and when we’re not even close.
Case in point – the winners of Best Original Song. Okay, there were six songwriters. They can’t all get a chance to speak. Fine. But you wouldn’t even let a second person speak after Ejae had finished? Even though he clearly had written something he wanted to say? Shameful.
You could hear the disappointment from people in the audience that the mic had been cut off. They wanted the producers to turn it back on. Instead, the music got louder, the spotlight above the winners was cut, and we were subjected to a moment of excruciating awkwardness as no one on stage knew what the hell to do.
Why are we still doing this? Why are we not giving each winner the time they’ve earned to enjoy their moment and thank the people who helped them get there? The producers will say it’s about timing and keeping the show from dragging on too long. But that makes no sense when you seem to have ample time for skits and gags, but not giving the winners the dignity they deserve.
It’s beyond frustrating to a viewer who couldn’t care less about being “entertained” and just wants to enjoy the glory of seeing winners gush and cry and be present in this incredible career achievement. I said it last year, and I will say it again. Winning an Oscar is one of the greatest moments in an artist’s career. They have achieved the highest honour in their industry. And they deserve to have their moment.
Maybe this will be the one good thing about the Oscars moving to YouTube in two years. An extended running time will not be so “problematic” for producers without network executives breathing down their necks.
