Awards season concluded with the 2026 Academy Awards ceremony on March 15, where many milestones were made in a historic night at the Dolby Theatre.
Hosted by talk show talent Conan O’Brien, a hilarious comedian, this year’s show delivered as an exciting and delightful watch. O’Brien’s opening bit as Aunt Gladys, a character that Amy Madigan played in Zach Cregger’s “Weapons,” was a great way to preview many of the nominated films.
It was therefore appropriate that the first award given out of the night was Best Supporting Actress. Madigan’s name was read out by last year’s winner, Zoe Saldana. Madigan’s win was the first Oscar-winning horror performance since Natalie Portman’s Best Actress win in 2011.
Despite Madigan having the least amount of screentime in comparison to the other four nominees, there was no doubt that her creepy performance as the movie’s villain deserved to be rewarded.
For the first time in Oscars history, the Best Casting category was awarded via the “Fab 5” format, where actors from each film that was nominated presented the nominees.
Being that breakout star Chase Infiniti from Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” was a presenter, it made sense that Anderson’s film won. Many believed the award would have gone to Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.” Both films had brilliant young actors making their film debuts, with 21-year-old Miles Caton starring in “Sinners,” so it could have gone to either one.
“One Battle After Another” snagged another award for Best Supporting Actor, as Sean Penn won his third Oscar. Penn was not present to accept it, so last year’s winner, Kieran Culkin, acknowledged the awkwardness, “Sean Penn couldn’t be here… or didn’t want to…”
Aside from Penn being Penn, it’s hard to be mad at this win. His performance as Colonel Lockjaw was the best performance in the film, and he carried a striking balance between drama and comedy throughout the runtime.
Both Anderson and Coogler took home both screenplay awards in their respective categories as predicted. Both directors gave shoutouts to their kids, making for humble, heartfelt speeches.
Ludwig Goransson won his second Oscar in a collaboration with Coogler and third overall for his original score in “Sinners.” Goransson will be looking to go back-to-back in next year’s ceremony, as he’s producing an original score for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film “The Odyssey.”
In a pleasant surprise, Autumn Durald Arkapow took home Best Cinematography for her work in “Sinners,” marking history as being the first woman to win, a fact that had O’Brien and me shaking our heads in disbelief over.
To take it a step further, she was the fourth woman ever nominated in the category, and the previous three nominations all came in the last 10 years. In her speech, Arkapow had all the women in the room stand up in a powerful moment that will go down in history.
“I feel like I don’t get here without you guys,” Arkapow said. “I have felt so much love from all the women on this whole campaign and gotten to meet so many people. I just feel like moments like this happen because of you guys, and I want to thank you for that.”
It was a toss-up between Kleber Mendonca Filho’s “The Secret Agent” and Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value” for Best International Feature Film, but ultimately Trier took home the award. “Sentimental Value” received nominations in directing, editing and screenplay, so this wasn’t all that surprising, but nonetheless a satisfying win for the utterly sincere film.
The winners from the original song “Golden” in “Kpop Demon Hunters” were played off by music in their acceptance speech, which was the biggest lowlight of the evening. One benefit of having the ceremony on YouTube starting in 2029 will be the lack of restraints in cable television’s tight schedule.
This was followed by another award for Anderson, his first in Best Directing. This was Anderson’s fourth directing nomination in his tenth feature-length film.
“You make a guy work hard for one of these,” Anderson said.
If any acting category was the most up for grabs, I’d say it was Best Actor. The winner was unveiled as Michael B. Jordan for his dual roles as Smoke and Stack in “Sinners.” Undeniably, Jordan made the twin brothers distinguishable characters and put in the work to earn this accolade.
As for Timothee Chalamet, some predict he may earn another Best Actor nomination next year in the conclusion of Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi trilogy, “Dune: Part Three.”
Jessie Buckley completed her awards season sweep for her leading role in Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet.”
While I wish “Sinners” could have taken the win in Best Picture, “One Battle After Another” was a deserving counterpart. The way Teyana Taylor embraced Anderson as they walked up to the stage showed how much the cast loved being a part of that film.
Overall, it was a solid year at the Oscars, with plenty of well-deserving winners from a great list of Best Picture nominees. Fortunately for us film buffs, it looks like next year’s slate will be even better.
