Oscars 2026 highlights, analysis: ‘One Battle After Another’ wins best picture, ends night with six awards

Here are the top moments from the 2026 Oscars.

1. Conan O’Brien hits all the right notes

Dressed as Amy Madigan from “Weapons” (who went on to win the Oscar for best supporting actress), O’Brien opened with a dizzying montage paying tribute to many of the nominated films — including navigating through a “Marty Supreme”-style ping-pong match and appearing in animated form in a nod to “KPop Demon Hunters.” In his opening monologue, O’Brien balanced self-deprecating humour and a more serious tone, even veering into the political. “When I last hosted, Los Angeles was on fire. But this year, everything’s going great,” he joked, before later closing with: “We pay tribute tonight not just to film, but to the ideals of global artistry, collaboration, patience, resilience and that rarest of qualities today: optimism.”

2. ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ creator Maggie Kang and other Canadians are golden

Canadian artists walked away with a slew of awards, including sweeping the animation categories. Sheridan College alum Maggie Kang earned the prize for best animated feature for her Netflix blockbuster, “KPop Demon Hunters.” Meanwhile, “The Girl Who Cried Pearls,” a heart-tugging stop-motion fable from Canadian duo Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowsk, won the Oscar for best animated short. Set in Montreal at the turn of the century, the 17-minute film follows a poor boy who falls in love with a girl who cries pearls at night.

As well, Torontonians Jordan Samuel and Cliona Furey, along with Mike Hill, took home the best makeup and hairstyling Oscar for Guillermo del Toro’s Netflix epic “Frankenstein.” Fellow Canadians and “Frankenstein” creatives Shane Vieau and Tamara Deverell also won the Oscar for best production design.

3. Michael B. Jordan triumphs over Timothée Chalamet

One of the most nail-biting awards of the evening was the race for best actor. “Marty Supreme” star Timothée Chalamet, who played the titular table tennis phenom in Josh Safdie’s film, was long tipped to win his first Oscar after two previous nominations. Leonardo DiCaprio, riding on the wave of “One Battle After Another,” also had a path to victory. But, in the end, it was “Sinners” actor Michael B. Jordan who walked away with the coveted prize for playing the dual roles of Smoke and Stack Moore, twin brothers who hope to escape their criminal pasts by opening up a southern juke joint. In his acceptance speech, the grateful Jordan said: ”I stand here because of the people that came before me. Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, Will Smith.”

4. A historic — and ironic — tie for best live action short

For only the seventh time in the Academy Award’s 98-year history, voting in a category ended up in a tie. “The Singers” and “Two People Exchanging Saliva” both shared the award for best live action short. The last time this occurred was in 2013, when “Skyfall” and “Zero Dark Thirty” shared the prize for best sound editing. Kumail Nanjiani, the Pakistani-American comedian who presented the category, appeared shocked by the result before making light of the situation, saying: “Ironic that the short film Oscar is going to take twice as long.”

5. In memoriam segment is one of the best in recent memory

One of the most challenging segments of any awards show is the in memoriam tribute. But this year’s Oscars show-runners hit all the right notes — most importantly not rushing the segment. Billy Crystal opened the segment with a special tribute for his late friend Rob Reiner, crediting the chameleon director for his range while quoting films like “This is Spinal Tap,” “A Few Good Men” and “Misery.” Rachel McAdams honoured “A Mighty Wind” and her fellow Canadian “icon” Catherine O’Hara, before paying tribute to Diane Keaton “and her many hats.” Val Kilmer and Robert Duvall got big applause from the crowd as the clips continued, before Barbra Streisand came out to honour her “The Way We Were” co-star Robert Redford.

6. Political speeches and statements punctuate a rather bland evening

In an evening of mostly bland, drawn-out acceptance speeches — many pleasant yet boring, filled with obligatory “thank yous” to family, friends and collaborators — one stood out for its boldness: the speech delivered by the documentarians behind “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” about a Russian teacher who secretly records the actions of Vladimir Putin’s administration as it attempts to turn his small-town school into a war recruitment centre during the invasion of Ukraine. “‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’ is about ​how you lose your country, and what ​we saw when working with this ⁠footage is that you lose it through ​countless small, little acts of complicity,” said director David ​Borenstein. “When we act complicit, when a government murders people on the ​streets of our major cities, when ​we don’t say anything, when oligarchs take over media ‌and ⁠control how we produce it.” Later, Spanish actor Javier Bardem, while presenting the award for best international feature, shouted “Free Palestine!” to cheers from the audience, all while wearing a pin that stated, in Spanish, “No to war!.”

7. “Sinners” cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw makes history

Coogler’s “Sinners,” which entered Sunday’s ceremony with a record-breaking 16 nominations, was looking to make more history by winning 12 awards, which would be the most of any film in history. While it fell short of that mark, “Sinners” cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw shattered a major glass ceiling by becoming the first woman to ever win the Oscar for best cinematography, a category historically dominated by men. In accepting her award, Arkapaw asked the woman in the Dolby Theatre to rise to their feet, telling them that she would not be here if not for them.

8. Jessie Buckley completes the awards season sweep

Irish actor Jessie Buckley, who played William Shakespeare’s wife Agnes in “Hamnet,” a meditation on grief and the personal cost of great art, completed the awards season sweep by earning the Oscar for best actress. Her win comes after she already claimed the three other major film acting awards earlier this season: the BAFTA, Golden Globe and Actor Award. “This is the greatest honour,” she said. “I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart.”

With files by David Friend, Kristjan Lautens and Briony Smith.

Correction – March 16, 2026

This article was updated from a previous version to note that the last time a tie occurred in a category was in 2013, not 2012, when “Skyfall” and “Zero Dark Thirty” shared the prize for best sound editing. As well, the article was updated to include that Shane Vieau and Tamara Deverell also won the Oscar for best production design.

The live action short category is typically known for ruining Oscar pools everywhere. The announcement generated plenty of gasps and frantic Google searching about the history of ties at the ceremony.

“I didn’t know that was a thing, the tie,” said “The Singers” director Sam A. Davis.

Previous ties

The first tie came in 1932, when Fredric March in “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and Wallace Beery in “The Champ” shared best actor, despite March actually earning one more vote. The Oscar rules meant that any result within three votes would end in a tie.

The next tie came in 1950 in the short-subject documentary category, as “A Chance to Live” and “So Much for So Little” shared the statue. The most high-profile tie came nearly 19 years later, in 1969, when screen legends Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand shared the best actress award, for “The Lion in the Winter” and “Funny Girl,” respectively.

The next instances were a tie for best documentary between “Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got” and “Down and Out in America” in 1987, before “Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Trevor” shared the short film Oscar in 1995.

Before Sunday, the last tie at the Oscars was in 2013 when “Skyfall” and “Zero Dark Thirty” split the best sound editing prize.

The narrative: With Hollywood — and the world at large — bristling under existential threat, the main contenders are all carefully crafted, politically charged, big-studio throwbacks. In other words, they’re the kinds of movies “they” don’t make anymore. And, depending on the impact of the Warner Bros. sale and the rise of A.I., the kind “they” might never make again.

Will win:“Sinners”

I’m going against the grain here, and against history. “One Battle After Another” has been lauded by so many critics’ organizations and craft guilds that experts and prediction markets alike still have it as the easy favourite. And yet: Ryan Coogler’s fearless vampire thriller was such an across-the-board success — raking in more than $400 million at the global box office amid all those admiring reviews — that it may overwhelm “One Battle” by sheer dint of accessibility. Juxtapose that populist leverage against an anxious social moment and lurking critiques of Paul Thomas Anderson’s muddled radical/racial politics, and a race that’s been hair’s-breadth close for the entire awards season may finally break for “Sinners.”

Should win:“The Secret Agent”

“Sinners” is a terrific movie, and so, for that matter, is “One Battle After Another.” Both are insightful about the relationship between popular culture and politics. Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s late-’70s period piece is more than that: it’s brilliant. The story of a mild-mannered intellectual trying to go underground below the noses of local authoritarian thugs is simultaneously transporting and sobering. Filho re-creates his country’s past in such granular, tactile detail that the film feels like a time machine even as its depiction of state violence and principled resistance feels as up-to-the-minute as our collective social media feed.

Should have been nominated:“28 Years Later”

Danny Boyle’s future-shock zombie thriller is formally wild, brutally violent and genuinely perceptive as a post-Brexit allegory. In a year when “Sinners” shook off the stigma that the motion picture academy tends to associate with genre cinema, “28 Years Later” was at least as deserving of celebration. That it wasn’t pegged suggests that the Oscars have only gotten so adventurous in the years since “Parasite.” Check back in 10 or 20 years to see which of 2026’s major releases have aged the best, and chances are it’ll be on the list (provided we all haven’t been infected by the Rage Virus by then).

Should have been left out: “Hamnet”

If you don’t have anything nice to say, it’s better to keep quiet. With this in mind, I have no comment on several of this year’s best picture nominees. But if we’re talking about an inverse ratio between perceived award-worthiness and actual quality, it’s hard to top Chloé Zhao’s sentimental Shakespeare-in-grief fanfic, a mealy piece of organic, farm-to-table Oscar bait designed to jerk tears by any means necessary.

Best Director

Nominees: Paul Thomas Anderson, Ryan Coogler, Josh Safdie, Joachim Trier, Chloé Zhao

The narrative: Paul Thomas Anderson is due — isn’t he?

Will win: Paul Thomas Anderson

The case for PTA as the great 21st-century American auteur is already rock solid, and “One Battle After Another”’s pedal-to-the-metal style broadens his appeal into the blockbuster arena. It’s never been a question of whether this particular filmmaker would hoist a statuette as when, and the idea that he’d spend his proverbial blank check on a movie that puts anti-establishment themes front and centre accelerates the urgency of official recognition.

Should win: Paul Thomas Anderson

Beyond the career narrative, “One Battle” is superbly well-made from first frame to last: a virtuoso exercise in technique that yokes moody character study to action-movie propulsion, all under the absurdist sign of Thomas Pynchon. It’s telling that the other most technically accomplished film in the category, “Marty Supreme,” has plenty of PTA in its DNA. Anderson is a supremely influential modern filmmaker: remember last year’s hype for “The Brutalist,” which felt like “There Will Be Blood” cosplay? At 55, Anderson is a lot younger than Martin Scorsese was when he got his de facto lifetime achievement award for “The Departed.” The timing seems right to reward him in his prime.

Should have been nominated: Kelly Reichardt for “The Mastermind”

“The Mastermind” is a perfectly calibrated dark comedy about a would-be thief who’s not as smart as he thinks he is. As usual, Reichardt — another great director, albeit one working on a fraction of the commercial scale as Anderson (or Safdie, or Ryan Coogler) — blends intimacy and distance. She’s such a funny, trenchant, observant filmmaker that you have to figure she’ll eventually make her way onto the academy’s radar, although it’s not as if she’s angling for approval. Part of her appeal is her determination to keep working on her own ornery, idiosyncratic terms.

Should have been left out: Joachim Trier

I didn’t like “Hamnet,” but Zhao certainly directs the hell out of whatever she’s got. However, the measured, quiet tone of Trier’s work on “Sentimental Value” — while admirable in its own right — simply pales in comparison to the other contenders. The problem isn’t subtlety, exactly. Rather, it’s the oscillation between strained self-effacement and formal gimmicks that just don’t work, like a foray into face-morphing special effects that belongs in a different film. Just because Trier is exceptionally savvy about checking off various middlebrow art-house boxes doesn’t mean he needs to be rewarded for it.

Best Actor

Nominees: Timothée Chalamet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ethan Hawke, Michael B. Jordan, Wagner Moura

The narrative: Are people sick of Timmy yet?

Will win: Michael B. Jordan

Another late-breaking development, but Jordan’s work in “Sinners” picked up steam after being hailed by his peers in the Screen Actors Guild, while Chalamet’s onscreen tour-de-force is in danger of being cancelled out by his over-the-top awards-season shtick. Jordan is a big star, and his dual performance is flashy without seeming like a stunt. If, as bettors are indicating, the Oscar that’s seemingly been Chalamet’s to lose since September is up for grabs, he’s got the best chance to seize it.

Should win: Wagner Moura or Ethan Hawke

This is a hellaciously competitive category, and it’s hard to decide between Hawke’s high-pitched histrionics and Moura’s low-key charisma. Both are essential to setting and maintaining the tones of the movies around them. In the spirit of generosity — and making things interesting — let’s call it a tie: the first one of its kind since Barbra Streisand and Katharine Hepburn in 1969.

Should have been left out: No one

That said, Chalamet’s jumpy, funny, entertaining performance doesn’t hold up as well in memory as DiCaprio’s shell-shocked Girl Dad, which, in another year, would have been a cinch to win.

Should have been nominated: Denzel Washington for “Highest 2 Lowest”

No actor chewed his dialogue — or the scenery — with more lips-smacking joy than Washington in Spike Lee’s bonkers Akira Kurosawa riff. Watching an icon take so many kamikaze risks as he enters his 70s is exhilarating.

Best Actress

Nominees: Jessie Buckley, Rose Byrne, Kate Hudson, Renate Reinsve, Emma Stone

The narrative: Will anybody other than Jessie Buckley bother writing an acceptance speech?

Will win: Jessie Buckley

Buckley is a powerhouse actress in a part that comes fully drenched in the kinds of bodily fluids deemed precious by awards voters: blood, sweat, tears and more. Whatever emotional heft there is in “Hamnet” resides in its star’s willingness to take her acting over the top and possibly beyond; every gesture and line reading seems to have been submitted for our consideration.

Should win:Rose Byrne

Maternal anxieties loom large in this category, and Byrne’s performance trumps Buckley’s because so much of it is torqued for dark, relatable, cringe-coded comedy — call it slapstick psychodrama. Byrne is in basically every frame of “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” and carries the film on her put-upon character’s slumping shoulders and buckling legs.

Should have been nominated: Amanda Seyfried

Mona Fastvold’s all-singing, all-dancing Shaker-heroine biopic, “The Testament of Ann Lee,” was done dirty by its distributor. There’s no reason Seyfried — a musical-comedy ace with serious dramatic chops — shouldn’t have been a serious contender. Her amazing, gravity-defying performance as 18th-century religious agitator Ann Lee keeps pushing a movie that’s threatening to become ridiculous into the realm of the sublime.

Should have been left out: Renate Reinsve

An admission: I haven’t yet seen “Song Sung Blue,” so I can’t say if Kate Hudson is as much of an outlier as she seems. Another admission: I just don’t get Renate Reinsve yet. Not in “The Worst Person in the World,” where she was convincing, in the wrong way, as an indecisive dilettante, nor in “Sentimental Value,” as a moody, mercurial actress. Yet another admission: everybody I know thinks I’m wrong on this one.

Best Supporting Actor

Nominees: Benicio del Toro, Jacob Elordi, Delroy Lindo, Stellan Skarsgård, Sean Penn

The narrative: Will “One Battle After Another”’s dual nominees cancel each other out?

Will win: Delroy Lindo

Lindo is 73, with a legacy of superlative supporting performances across multiple eras, and his role in “Sinners” as a veteran bluesman is showy and soulful enough to push him into the winner’s circle.

Should win: Benicio del Toro

It should be said that if Lindo loses, it’ll likely be to Sean Penn as the wack job Colonel Lockjaw in “One Battle After Another” — this even though del Toro’s work in the same film, as a self-described “Latino Harriet Tubman,” displays exponentially more finesse. Del Toro is one of those rare actors who changes the temperature of the movies he’s in; this is the coolest he’s ever been on screen.

Should have been nominated:Paul Rudd for “Friendship”

The pairing in “Friendship” of Apatow-era avatar Rudd opposite niche-comedy genius Tim Robinson is one of those conceptual casting coups that makes you shake your head in admiration. The pleasure of seeing Rudd liberated from his recent day job as the wackiest Avenger can’t be overstated.

Should have been left out: Jacob Elordi

Elordi’s doe-eyed exquisite corpse is the best thing about “Frankenstein,” but the movie sells him out; there’s no real menace in Guillermo del Toro’s too-sacred monster, and, as a result, no truly complex humanity, either.

Best Supporting Actress

Nominees: Elle Fanning, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Amy Madigan, Wunmi Mosaku, Teyana Taylor

The narrative: Is Amy Madigan’s candy-coloured crone act in “Weapons” the best chance in years for a truly left-field winner?

Will win: Teyana Taylor

There’s been plenty of criticism of the character of trigger-happy activist Perfidia Beverly Hills in “One Battle After Another,” much of it justified. Whatever the role’s contradictions, however, it’s widely agreed that Taylor inhabits them fully.

Should win: Teyana Taylor

It’d be fun to pick Madigan here, since she’s clearly the not-so-secret-weapon in “Weapons.” Her suburban enchantress put her in the canon of great recent horror-movie villains. Taylor’s role, however, has the higher degree of difficulty.

Should have been nominated: Diane Kruger for “The Shrouds”

I restrained myself from picking David Cronenberg’s late-style masterpiece in other categories because it’s simply not the sort of movie that gets Oscar nominations — c’est la vie. Still, Kruger’s compartmentalized performance as a series of three women — one living, one dead, one digital — is so amazing that I’ve thrown plausibility to the winds.

Should have been left out: No one

Everybody in this category did very good work. Honestly, no notes.

“Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud” (Crave)

This pair of short docs pays tribute to two paragons of kindness: war photographer Brent Renaud and abortion clinic security head Tracii. Each of them plies their trade with astonishing warmth and compassion. In his 50 years on earth, Renaud traversed the globe, capturing some of history’s most scarring horrors so that others could bear witness. Tracii spends her days at a busy Atlanta abortion clinic, where women come from all over the country seeking health care. They are welcomed with dignity and respect by Tracii, who must grapple with hordes of screaming protesters (and the threat that one may kill her) every day. — Briony Smith, culture and lifestyle reporter

Documentary feature

“Come See Me in the Good Light” (Apple TV)

In the throes of terminal ovarian cancer, poet Andrea Gibson still insisted their story was about happiness. This documentary follows the final year of Gibson’s life while they fought to put on one last spoken-word performance with the help of their wife and fellow writer, Megan Falley. It’s all propped up by the couple’s inherent likability, as they stare down early death with inside jokes and lessons about appreciating the little things in life. Everyone should hope for an ending that births a piece of art so devastating, heartwarming and empowering. — Kristjan Lautens, staff reporter

Visual effects

“The Lost Bus” (Apple TV)

Matthew McConaughey casts off his carefree surfer-dude persona to portray real-life California school bus driver Kevin McKay. With an ailing mother and a troubled teen son at home, McKay faces a third hurdle when he must save 22 children from the deadliest wildfire in the state’s history. “United 93” director Paul Greengrass brings nail-biting urgency to the screen adaptation of Lizzie Johnson’s 2021 book, “Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire,” using his signature documentary-style cinematography. — David Friend, culture reporter

Actor in a leading role and original screenplay

“Blue Moon” (available for rent)

Sad-sack songwriter Lorenz Hart, played by bald-capped Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke, is a man left behind. Richard Linklater’s latest is an imagined tale about the “Blue Moon” lyricist coping with the success of his ex-collaborator Richard Rodgers on the opening night of “Oklahoma!” In between the barrage of musical-theatre references are Hart’s rambling barroom speeches about love and art, which slowly crystallize the bleak future ahead of him. The nominated script, by Robert Kaplow, captures all the painful yearning of the 1934 song that gives the film its title. — Kristjan Lautens

Actress in a leading role

“Song Sung Blue” (available for rent)

On first glance, “Song Sung Blue” seems like it could be the stuff of nightmares: Hugh Jackman and Oscar nominee Kate Hudson portray the members of a Neil Diamond tribute band? But this unique film — inspired by a documentary — is guaranteed to win you over with its rollicking musical numbers and one of the year’s most touching screen romances. Surrender to the cheesy-biopic camp and you will fall for Lightning and Thunder and their sweet (Caroline) love story. — Briony Smith

Benicio del Toro should win the Oscar (and maybe Leo, too)

There’s the old saying that the academy loves to give out Oscars not for the best acting but the most acting. It also loves bestowing what is effectively an lifetime achievement award on shaggy old thespians. Early supporting-actor favourite and industry vet Stellan Skarsgård gave a good performance, but nothing overly memorable, while potential new front-runner Sean Penn went full ham for his. But it was Benicio del Toro who offered the kind of subtle, sublime performance that the academy so rarely rewards. He suffused “One Battle After Another”‘s Sensei Sergio with warmth, compassion and quirk, and gave one of the best line readings of the new century with “a few small beers.” And his co-star Leonardo DiCaprio would be a great choice for best actor; he loves going all Serious Actor, but arguably, his true talent lies in his comedic skills, which he shows off to brilliant (and affecting) effect. — Briony Smith

“The Secret Agent” secretly stinks

“The Secret Agent” seemingly has everything going for it: a beautiful tropical locale, a charismatic lead in Wagner Moura, handsome hit men, en vogue political themes. So why is it so boring?! I support filmmakers eschewing traditional story structure in favour of a tone-poem vibe or meta social-justice commentary, but even if you toss out plot and pacing, there’s one thing you need to keep: the viewer’s interest. The film’s scene-setting and character development are non-existent, so there’s nothing to cling to, and the remaining potential fun stuff (the crime element) comes off as slapdash. It’s sort of the point, sure, since the film is about the twin evils of societal corruption and the cheapness of human life, and I’m glad the Oscar attention is helping a non-English film with political themes get more widespread interest … but did it have to be this one? — Briony Smith

“Sinners” may have great music, but “One Battle After Another” deserves to win best score

With “Sinners,” Ryan Coogler may have given us the horror movie of the year. But the real horror of this Oscars campaign is how “Sinners” composer Ludwig Göransson seems practically guaranteed to win best original score over “One Battle After Another”‘s Jonny Greenwood, whose work everyone seems to have conveniently forgotten. While Göransson’s score is certainly accomplished and perhaps more accessible than that of his fellow nominees — it’s a bluesy feast that conjures up the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of a southern juke joint — it pales in comparison to Greenwood’s extraordinary achievement. Underscoring almost the entire film, his music is a feverish, sonic manifestation of a world crumbling apart. Pedal tones cut through the silence and ratchet up the tension — with melodic lines darting about as if an abstract artist were spurting paint on a canvas. Without this score, “One Battle After Another” wouldn’t be half the film it is. — Joshua Chong

The academy needs to quit obsessing over weepies like “Hamnet”

But unlike Chase, who is notoriously prickly, Mr. O’Brien is the affable tour guide we need to distract from a world that feels like it’s in Act 2 of a dystopian tragedy. The wars in Ukraine and Iran. The gas crisis. The schizophrenic markets. The upended global order. The cost of living. The polarizing politics. The Billy Bishop brouhaha. The Toronto Maple Leafs.

Conan won’t mention any of this on Sunday.

When he strides on stage, a 6’4” beanpole made of Silly Putty and topped with a pompadour that screams red tsunami, he will not be there to lecture, conjecture or hector a certain world leader who rhymes with Ronald Grump.

Last year, in his first go-round as Oscar host, O’Brien got through the four hours without once mentioning the White House troll by name. That feat alone deserved an Emmy. He landed one veiled shot after “Anora” won its second Oscar: “I guess Americans are excited to see somebody finally stand up to a powerful Russian.”

That was it. Subtle, trenchant and unlikely to lose viewers in the red states.

As O’Brien explained during a press conference this week: “My job is to always try and hit this very, very thin line between entertaining people and also acknowledging some of the realities. So it is a dance.”

Yes, a tango. That’s why all award show hosts should be liberated from the resistance. Conan, you tell jokes about “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another.” You poke fun at Timothée Chalamet, as you did last year when his neon yellow attire and boyish mug inspired great crowd work: “Love that suit. You will not get hit on your bike tonight.”

Hollywood loves a good villain. But there is no upside for an award show host to turn Ronald Grump into Lord Voldemort this year. He will be watching on Sunday, his tiny thumbs ready to blast posts on Untruth Antisocial should any jab get under his thin orange skin.

Poor Trevor Noah told one Epstein island joke at the Grammys this year and Ronald Grump threatened to sue. When Jimmy Kimmel hosted the Oscars in 2024, Ronald Grump was live-posting his negative review of “the worst host.” Against the pleas of producers, Kimmel then read Ronald Grump’s post on air and added, “Isn’t it past your jail time?”

The crowd roared. And … that was the last time Kimmel hosted.

We’ve reached the point in the cultural timeline when it makes more sense for award show hosts to focus on entertainment and leave the Ronald Grump bashing to late night comedians, podcasters and opinion columnists.

There is enough TDS left in my skull to power an AI supercluster long after Ronald Grump shuffles off this mortal coil to rip off the ghosts of subcontractors while starting new trade wars in purgatory.

The Oscars should be goofy escapism, not a reminder of bad news.

Besides, when it comes to the Academy Awards, the show always goes on.

The show went on in 1942 after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The show went on in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The show went on in 1981 after the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. The show went on during COVID and the Vietnam War.

Even if there are scheduling or operational snafus — during World War II, a metal shortage forced the Academy to bestow painted plaster statuettes — the show always goes on.

Conan understands Sunday is less about current events and more about the gossamer tether to nearly a century of the Oscars as global sensation.

He is not a freedom fighter. His job is to make real life retreat for a night.

As he recalled this week, past hosts could be funny during turbulent times.

“There was one year when the Oscars was, of course, running long and Johnny (Carson) took the stage and it was during the hostage situation in Iran,” said O’Brien, referring to the 1980 telecast at his press conference on Wednesday.

“‘Nightline’ was doing, ‘It’s Day 300,’ ‘Day 310,’ and Johnny said, ‘Well, it is Day 444 of this Oscars.’ And it was such a funny, topical joke that touched on something everyone was thinking about … got a big laugh and was unifying.”

While he has twice hosted the White House Correspondents Dinner, political comedy is not Conan’s natural instinct. There aren’t boxes of policy punchlines and vicious put-downs stashed under the captain chair in his wheelhouse.

He is an absurdist who realizes there is no way to satirize the most absurd White House in history. It’s similar to when O’Brien was president of the Harvard Lampoon and realized there was no way to satirize the National Enquirer.

The key to his comedy is self-deprecation, a trait he shares with the late Bob Hope who hosted the Oscars a record 19 times. Conan can masterfully flip any dynamic to make himself the butt of the joke.

Here’s what he told me in 2004 while in town to film four late night shows at the Elgin Theatre: “The purpose of the show is not to reinforce people’s bad impression of Toronto, it’s to reinforce their bad impression of me. My goal is for people to think Toronto is a really nice place but that Conan should really get some help.”

So what will happen on Sunday when he hosts the Academy Awards? Conan O’Brien will yield the spotlight to the winners and presenters while serving as the silly conductor of fun. He will be mindful of viewers at home and stars in the auditorium. He will rely upon three months of prep, including weeks in the writers room and nights on the road, test-driving material in small comedy clubs.

Then he will give a silent reminder to all award show hosts in these dark times:

The doomscrolling can restart in the morning.

Could cat lovers scratch the Oscar away from Jessie Buckley? The “Hamnet” star looks like a sure thing for best actress, if you believe the earlier awards, yet a flippant remark about cats has landed with all the grace of a hairball on a Persian rug. Even Britain’s estimable The Guardian has coughed up a story about “kitty karma.” It stems from a Buckley podcast interview, in which she said she gave her husband an “it’s me or the cats” ultimatum after the pets pooped on her pillows.

Buckley felt obliged to address the ensuing uproar on a recent “Tonight Show” appearance, telling host Jimmy Fallon she’s a cat fancier, not a hater. “I am a lover of cats,” she insisted. “I woke up this morning (thinking), ‘Does the world think that I really don’t love cats?’ And it’s really weighed on me all day. I felt sick.”

2. No plié for Timothée

Buckley’s catty comments aren’t the only self-inflicted wounds on the Oscars campaign trail, as Timothée Chalamet also discovered the dangers of an unforced error. The best actor nominee for “Marty Supreme” drew unwelcome attention to himself during a CNN/Variety Town Hall chat with Matthew McConaughey, where, while arguing for cinema, he gratuitously suggested that “no one cares” about ballet or opera.

Chalamet quickly ping-ponged to soften the blow by adding, “all respect to the ballet and opera people out there,” but the damage had been done. Ballet and opera houses immediately clapped back, with responses ranging from generous “free tickets on us” to a zinger from Brazilian dancer Victor Caixeta, who said ballet and opera “have survived for centuries … Let’s see if your movies are still being watched in 300 years.” Believe or not, Chalamet comes from a dance family: his mother and sister studied at the School of American Ballet, which definitely still cares whether people care.

3. Horror has risen from the grave

Is Oscar ready to be frightened out of his invisible pants? Genre films historically don’t get much academy love, but this year is scary different. It is the first time more than one horror film has been nominated for best picture: vampire-ridden “Sinners” and monster-making “Frankenstein.” “Sinners” is the odds‑on favourite, with a record 16 nominations.

This is doubly weird because if “Sinners” wins the top prize, it would be only the second horror film to do so, after “The Silence of the Lambs” in 1992. You could argue there are actually three horror films in contention, since “Bugonia” is pretty frightening in spots.

4. Where’s “Wicked”?

It’s not unusual to see a film with a slew of nominations get completely blanked when the gold is handed out. “The Turning Point” and “The Color Purple” both went 0-for-11 in wins to noms, sharing the ignominy of the biggest fails in Oscar history.

What’s exceedingly strange, and perhaps unprecedented, is this year’s whiplash-inducing collapse of affection for the “Wicked” saga. Though the original “Wicked” scored 10 nominations and two wins just last year, the sequel, “Wicked: For Good,” crashed like a house on an unsuspecting witch when this year’s nominations were announced. Was it something the “Wicked” folk said, or sang? Incidentally, one of this year’s nominated shorts is titled “A Friend of Dorothy,” which feels like the Academy’s idea of a joke, given the sudden lack of love for all things Oz.

5. Getting the runaround

The March 15 date for this year’s Academy Awards isn’t the latest ever — that record goes to the COVID-delayed April 25 show in 2021 — but it may just be the one that inconvenienced the most people.

That’s because the 2026 Los Angeles Marathon had already announced March 15 as its run date before the Academy staked its claim to the same day. The Oscars are held at the Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, directly on the route for 25,000 runners plus thousands of volunteers, which would have turned the city into one long, slow‑moving traffic snarl. There was a six-week standoff over the date until the marathon finally blinked and shifted to March 8. This is the first time since 1999 that Oscars night has landed on the third Sunday in March, and both sides now swear they will try not to do this again.

6. Don’t call it a comeback

There are four actors in the gold hunt with double-digit gaps between their previous nominations, making for an unusually high — and possibly record — number of comeback contenders in this year’s slate.

Kate Hudson’s surprise best actress nod for “Song Sung Blue” is her first in 25 years, since “Almost Famous” in 2001. Benicio del Toro has also waited nearly a quarter century, between his 2004 supporting actor nomination for “21 Grams” and this year’s supporting nod for “One Battle After Another.” Sean Penn is back in the Oscars race for the first time in 17 years after his 2009 best actor win for “Milk.” Ethan Hawke’s best actor nomination for “Blue Moon,” meanwhile, comes a relatively brief 11 years after his previous nod, for “Boyhood.”

7. Animated discussion

The best animated feature category used to be the nearest thing to a lock for Disney and its subsidiary Pixar. The two animation giants still dominate the history books, with 15 wins in the 24 years the category has existed, but they have not won for the past three years, and last year’s “Flow” became the first indie to take the gold, and the first Oscar win ever for Latvia. On Sunday, does Disney’s “Zootopia 2” or Pixar’s “Elio” stand a chance against “KPop Demon Hunters”?

8. Casting confusion

The new Oscar for achievement in casting is the first new Academy Awards category in a quarter century. Many people are happy to see actors and casting directors getting more recognition, but others are wondering what signals the prize sends out. The debut nominees — the casting masterminds behind “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme,” “One Battle After Another,” “Sinners” and “The Secret Agent” — are all for films that are also nominated for best picture. Will there be similar syncing going forward? And is the prize meant to honour casting directors for uncovering great talent — such as Chase Infiniti in “One Battle After Another,” who somehow missed out on her own nomination — or simply to reward them for assembling the most star‑saturated ensembles?

9. International films get complicated

The old foreign-language film category was rebranded as best international feature a few years back, with individual countries competing for the Oscar. This year’s slate suggests the Academy considers “international” a synonym for “smorgasbord.” Jafar Panahi’s Iranian-made “It Was Just an Accident,” with dialogue in Persian and Azerbaijani, represents France; Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value” is competing for Norway but leans heavily on Swedish and English dialogue; and French-born Oliver Laxe’s “Sirāt,” representing Spain, is in Spanish, French and Arabic.

10. For titles, second time is not the charm

Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet” is nominated for best picture, among other prizes. If it wins the top Oscar, it would arguably be the first best picture to share a title, more or less, with an earlier winner, since Laurence Olivier’s “Hamlet” took the prize in 1949. A text note at the start of “Hamnet” points out that the two names were synonymous in Elizabethan England, which will please pedants and puzzle pesky space aliens.

Duplicate titles are nothing new on the ballot — think “Mutiny on the Bounty,” “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “A Star Is Born” and “Little Women” — but to date, the academy has resisted giving the same handle two best picture trophies.

Stream it on Prime Video. Rent it on Apple TV or YouTube.

“Bugonia” wants to be a movie about a bunch of different things at once: the combatants and casualties of the culture war, the dangers of ideological echo chambers, the ambient despair tied to impending environmental collapse. Will Tracy writes like a nursing student trying and failing to tap a vein; he keeps jabbing until you’re prickly and irritable and wishing for somebody with more precision to show up and draw blood.

Read Adam Nayman’s full review of “Bugonia.”

F1

Stream it on Apple TV. Buy it on Prime Video or YouTube.

Brad Pitt has become Hollywood’s hero in a can, a reliable star who can be called upon to improve any story, like a pantry staple bolstering a weak stew. Once again, Pitt’s services are sorely needed and obligingly supplied in “F1 The Movie,” which plunks him into a vroom-vroom car and a story as messy as a kid’s toy box. The film is more like an extended ad for Formula One racing — and innumerable product placements — than it is narrative drama. But “F1” is a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced summer blockbuster directed by “Top Gun: Maverick” helmer Joseph Kosinski. We know going in that it’s about dazzling the eyes rather than the brain.

Read Peter Howell’s full review of “F1.”

Frankenstein

Stream it on Netflix.

With “Frankenstein,” monster maestro Guillermo del Toro finally gets to tell the Mary Shelley horror story of his boyhood dreams. The Toronto-filmed epic is a thing of grotesque beauty, body horror of such operatic spectacle and emotional impact, it makes you want to applaud with two severed hands. A teenage Shelley wrote in the preface to her 1818 novel that her tale of a lonely humanoid pieced together from stolen corpses is more than “merely weaving a series of supernatural terrors.” Indeed it is, much more.

Read Peter Howell’s full review of “Frankenstein.”

Hamnet

Rent it on Prime Video or YouTube.

Directed and co-written by Chloé Zhao, and adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s acclaimed novel of historical imagination, “Hamnet” finds its soul in the story of Shakespeare’s lost son, whose name, interchangeable with Hamlet in the 16th century, echoes with grief and artistic realization. You want a challenge? Try keeping your eyes dry as the plague known as the Black Death casts its shadow and love yields to mourning, building to a third-act catharsis like no other movie in recent memory. Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal anchor an awards-worthy ensemble, conjuring magic, anguish and whispered secrets in a world trembling between history and legend.

Read Peter Howell’s full review of “Hamnet.”

Marty Supreme

Rent it on Apple TV, YouTube or Prime Video.

Think of classic movie grifters, such as the characters played by Paul Newman in “The Hustler,” Robert Preston in “The Music Man” and Richard Dreyfuss in “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.” They’re mere shrimps of scamming compared to Timothée Chalamet’s title swindler in “Marty Supreme,” a pleasing tale of hubris in motion from Josh Safdie (“Uncut Gems”), a director who, both as a solo filmmaker and with his brother Benny, never saw a scoundrel he didn’t want to get to know better.

Read Peter Howell’s full review of “Marty Supreme.”

One Battle After Another

Stream it on Crave. Rent it on Apple TV or Prime Video.

“One Battle After Another,” freely riffing on Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Vineland,” is a political satire-turned-urban warfare epic. If “The Master” was about spiritual combat and “There Will Be Blood” chronicled economic ruthlessness, Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest plunges headlong into literal battle, punctuated by rat-a-tat gunfire, shouted recriminations and constant generational and ideological crossfire. It may be Anderson’s best film; it’s certainly his most violent.

Read Peter Howell’s full review of “One Battle After Another.”

The Secret Agent

Stream it on Mubi. Rent it on Apple TV or Prime Video.

The title card at the beginning of Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent” identifies the film’s backdrop of Recife circa 1977 as a place of “great mischief.” Like everything else in this vivid period thriller, the phrase is laced with a wry and devastating understatement. “Mischief,” in this case, is a euphemism for widespread and dangerous institutional corruption, for the corrosion of the social order under an increasingly venal military dictatorship. It also serves, more happily, as a description of the director’s sensibility: if it’s possible for a movie to somehow be grave and playful simultaneously, “The Secret Agent” fits the bill.

Read Adam Nayman’s full review of “The Secret Agent.”

Sentimental Value

Stream it on Prime Video. Rent it on Apple TV.

Renate Reinsve and Elle Fanning are like two sides of a golden coin in Joachim Trier’s tangled family drama, in which a celebrated filmmaker (Stellan Skarsgård) tries to use his art to reconnect with the family he abandoned long ago. When his daughter (Reinsve), a stage actress, turns down a role in the film she deems too close for comfort, it’s taken up by an American star (Fanning), who doesn’t realize the doppelgänger dynamics she’s getting into. Fantastic performances across the board — especially by Reinsve and Fanning — and a keen sense of the meaning of the title make this film a bittersweet pleasure to watch.

Read Peter Howell’s full review of “Sentimental Value.”

Sinners

Stream it on Crave. Rent it on YouTube, Apple TV or Prime Video.

“Sinners” was filmed in Louisiana, an appropriate locale given that it’s a gumbo of music and ideas. The movie takes its time getting going and then seems in a bit of a rush during its blood-soaked finale, but at no point is it just another vampire tale. This is horror with a sense of purpose and an appreciation of music and history, grooving the body and gnawing at the conscience even as it nibbles on the neck.

Read Peter Howell’s full review of “Sinners.”

Train Dreams

Stream it on Netflix.

Clint Bentley, co-writer of the Oscar-nominated “Sing Sing,” returns with a bold, ravishing reimagining of Denis Johnson’s Pulitzer-nominated 2011 novella. What begins as a classic Western steadily deepens into frontier myth. The film breathes both tragedy and wonder, echoing hard truths and aching beauty of Thomas Hardy novels. Joel Edgerton gives a deeply felt portrayal of an ordinary man, Robert Grainier, a logger and railroad worker, who is caught between the wild and the civilized, watching his world transform faster than he can reckon.

Read Peter Howell’s full review of “Train Dreams.”