The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is no stranger to controversy. Marlon Brando’s infamous declining of his award for his role in The Godfather in 1973; to the attempted removal of the cinematography category in 2018; to the highly controversial 13 nominations for Emilia Perez in 2025, a critically polarizing film which was panned by the majority of audiences.
The 98th Academy Awards were presented last Sunday, on March 15, 2026. Controversy is a difficult thing to avoid especially when giving subjective awards to art, but for the most part, it was a pretty good night.
One Battle After Another led with six wins (the inaugural award for Best Casting, Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn, Best Film Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director, both for Paul Thomas Anderson, and Best Picture) from a total of 13 nominations. This was a big night for Anderson, after nominations for writing and directing There Will Be Blood in 2007 and Phantom Thread in 2017.
Sinners, the other favorite of the night, had four wins (Best Original Score for Ludwig Gorransson, Best Original Screenplay for Ryan Coogler, Best Cinematography, and Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan) out of a record 16 nominations. Between One Battle and Sinners, the competition was stiff, but it evened out pretty well in the end. It was a historic night for Black filmmakers, with Coogler and Jordan winning major awards, and director of photography Autumn Durald Arkapaw becoming the first woman, as well as the first woman of color, to win the award for Best Cinematography (Rachel Morrison was the first woman to be nominated, for Mudbound in 2017).
Frankenstein scored three wins (Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling) out of nine nominations, while other Best Picture nominees Hamnet, Sentimental Value, and F1 walked away with one each (Best Actress for Jessie Buckley, Best International Feature Film for Joachim Trier, and Best Sound, respectively).
To be completely honest and subjective, Jessie Buckley was the only acting award I, and many other people, were sure would win. Many of the other categories, like Supporting Actress, were a lot more difficult to guess.
KPop Demon Hunters (which I have yet to see), won two awards (for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Song for “Golden”). The vast majority of anyone who paid any attention to movies in 2025 knew this one was going to win, whether or not they had seen it or not.
The rest of the Best Picture nominees (Bugonia, Train Dreams, The Secret Agent, and Marty Supreme) ended up with 0 wins. Between Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent, the International Feature film category was a tough race, as was the cinematography category (for which Marty and Train Dreams had nominations). I was partial to Marty Supreme getting the production design award, as I found it to be incredibly subtle and effective because it was not over done, but the category is usually swept by period pieces or fantasy films (for which Frankenstein is, and is a great looking film as well).
After last year, where horror films The Substance and Nosferatu received several nominations but only walked away with one (Best Makeup for The Substance) and were considered to be snubbed, it was insane to see Amy Madigan win Supporting Actress for her role as Aunt Gladys in Weapons, and Sinners win multiple major awards. Still no Best Picture win for a horror film, but it is a great step forward to prevent snubbing certain categories, and subjectively, as a fan of the horror genre, it makes me happy to see these wins.
Lesser-known categories, such as awards for Live-Action Short Film, Animated Short Film, Documentary Short, and Documentary Feature, saw wins for The Singers, The Girl Who Cried Pearls, All the Empty Rooms, and Mr. Nobody Against Putin. While these categories are often forgotten about (and I feel uncomfortable commenting on them too much as I have yet to see these films), they are important categories because these films, with emphasis on the documentary films, tell incredibly timely stories that could not otherwise be told in a narrative format, and it is unfortunate they are shortchanged so frequently because there are not big-name actors in them.
Overall, it was an exciting broadcast, with Conan O’Brien hosting again, which is always fun to see him on stage; a heartfelt In Memoriam segment; and two live performances, of “Golden” and “I Lied to You” (from Sinners). I enjoyed seeing Miles Caton on stage, because even though he was not nominated, he was my pick for Best Supporting Actor, as great as Sean Penn was in One Battle.
Now, to delve into some of my issues:
The big one for me was the music cues and cutting off of winners while they were talking. In particular, one of the producers of KPop Demon Hunters was loudly interrupted by the orchestra and Maggie Kang, the director, attempted to silence the orchestra before the camera zoomed out and cut to a commercial break while the man was still talking. And it was not an Adrien Brody-style seven-and-a-half-minute-long acceptance speech. The man had just started.
I also do not particularly care much for the repeated marketing for The Bachelorette, either. A part of this is that there were award winners whose speeches were cut off to save time so that the next episode of a reality TV show could be aired on time, and perhaps it is my general apathy towards reality TV, but I find it somewhat distasteful to be concerned with promotion for something like that while simultaneously undermining the work of a dedicated artist.
Some controversy has surrounded the Best Actor category, especially since Timothee Chalamet’s comments surrounding opera and ballet during a Variety interview. Chalamet was long considered to be the favorite to win, though it was a tough call with Wagner Moura winning at Cannes and the Golden Globes (for The Secret Agent), and Michael B. Jordan winning at the Actor Awards (formerly the SAG awards). With Jordan’s win, however, there seems to be the general consensus that Jordan was not the most deserving of the award. Personally, I have no issue with it, though for intensity’s sake, I would have given it to Chalamet or Moura. Perhaps this opens Chalamet up for a nomination and maybe a win for his role in Dune Part Three, who knows at this point.
As it stands, though, I thought 2025 had some great films, and it was a tight race. All of it is purely subjective and I would encourage any interested parties to watch these films and decide for yourself which ones you like the most. There were some aspects of the broadcast I was unhappy with, but as a celebration of artists, it did its job. A satisfying enough close to a tumultuous awards season.
