The Oscars 2026, one for the books?
Whilst the 98th Academy Awards may not have been as electric as previous years; the events of the night have still given us plenty to talk about. The ceremony began with a short opening film, in which ourhost, Conan O’Brien, was revealed, dressed as Gladys Lilly (played by Amy Madigan) from the 2025 horror, Weapons. We saw O’Brien chased by a hoard of school children, running through the sets ofvarious Oscar nominated films, including Marty Supreme, Hamnet and even Sentimental Value, where he displayed some surprising Norwegian proficiency. The skit was a nice touch, acting as a whistle stop tour of the “big hitters” in this year’s awards. However, it was perhaps one of the better moments of entertainment that O’Brien had to offer, with his approach to hosting coming across as fairly unremarkable, his jokes landing short of the mark at times.
O’Brien did well to acknowledge the incredible international success of this year’s Academy Awards, with 31 countries across 6 continents being represented. He called for the Oscars to not just be a tribute to film, but also to the “ideals of global artistry, collaboration […] and that rarest of qualities today, optimism”. A compelling way to commence the awards ceremony.
O’Brien’s choice of alter ego became rather fitting, with Amy Madigan accepting the first award of the evening for Best Supporting Actress. Whilst many may have expected Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners) to take the stage, it was amazing to see Madigan recognised for her performance, having waited forty years since her last nomination. Next came the award for Best Animated Feature Film, which unsurprisingly went the way of the global sensation, Kpop Demon Hunters. Indeed, the only potential competition for this award was the late-comer, Zootopia 2, which was the highest-grossing film of the night, despite being released in late November last year.
It was then a true privilege to receive a live performance of “I Lied to You” from Sinners, the enchanting nature of which was effortlessly translated from screen to the stage by the incredible Miles Caton, his fellow cast members and all the talented musicians involved. Rather fittingly, Sinners went on to receive the award for Best Score, accepted by the wonderful Ludwig Göransson (Oppenheimer, Black Panther). It certainly gets my vote for best live performance of the evening, outshining a later rendition of the chart-topping and Oscar winning “Golden”, performed by EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami.
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein claimed back-to-back wins for both Best Costume Design and Best Hair and Makeup, putting it in a good position for Best Picture. It was hard to not have Frankenstein as the favourite for these two awards, considering all the time and effort that both departments gave on and off set – including the 400 hours spent transforming Jacob Elordi into the incredible “Monster”.
For the first time in 25 years, the Oscars welcomed a new category, Best Casting, awarded to Cassandra Kulukundis for One Battle After Another. It will be interesting to see how a category of such fine margins takes shape over the next few years. In fact, the night continued to set new records, featuring the third ever “tie”, for winner of Best Live Action Short Film. Following two sets of speeches, we saw the production team using a new tactic to shoo the winners off stage, with poor Alexandre Singh, co-writer of Two People Exchanging Saliva, having the microphone disappear into the floor mid-speech.
The next awards saw the absent Sean Penn (Best Supporting Actor) and Paul Thomas Anderson (Best Adapted Screen Play) recognised for their contributions to One Battle After Another. Whilst the incredible Ryan Coogler (Sinners) received a standing ovation upon his acceptance of Best Original Screenplay. Indeed, it very quickly turned into one battle after another as the two films contested for most awards of the evening. Sinners went on to win Achievement in Cinematography, accepted by Autumn Durald Arkapaw, the first female recipient of the award, and Best Actor, awarded to the staggeringly gifted Michael B. Jordan. Meanwhile, One Battle After Another claimed Best Editing, Best Director and even overcame the likes of Sinners, Frankenstein and Hamnet for the title of Best Picture, consolidating its victory with 6 Oscar wins.
The night was considerably less successful for Timothée Chalamet and Marty Supreme, winning no awards despite being nominated in 9 categories. With this being my pick for biggest upset, I give the biggest win to the extraordinary Jessie Buckley, who was crowned as Best Actress for her haunting performance in Hamnet. Buckley, who at this point was well-practiced in acceptance speeches, dedicated her award to the “beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart”.
Therefore, although we may have not had the “host with the most” in Conan O’Brien, the 98th Academy Awards certainly offered some fun surprises, whilst also highlighting both individual and global progress in the film industry. I enjoyed this year’s awards, not just on account of my bias for Jessie Buckley, but for the way it simultaneously celebrated film as a community and promoted new names, voices and nationalities.
Words by Harry Youlten
Image courtesy of Mirko Fabian via Unsplash
