2026 Oscar Reactions
I write this article with (figurative) tears rolling down my face. Oh Timothée. I guess this is just setting up his Leo arc. Best Actor for ‘Dune: Part Three’ it is.
For a guy who cares so much about the Oscars, I SUCK at predicting them. There really were no awards I was shocked by, but I tried to take some chances with my predictions, none of which paid off. Next year I may just have to play it safe because my current track record is 69% correct at the 96th Awards, 52% at the 97th Awards, and this year a 54% hit rate. That’s not good.
The categories I got correct were Picture, Director, Actress, Original Screenplay, Visual Effects, Production Design, Sound, Original Score, Original Song, International Feature, Makeup & Hairstyling, Costume Design, and Animated Feature. So 13 out of 24.
Overall, I thought the Oscars did a solid job this year with their show. There were definitely some hiccups, but there were also some really good moments. Maybe the highest high is Conan O’Brien. Just let him keep hosting. He did so good last year, and did so good this year, and I absolutely loved his monologue.
I really, really hope the switch to YouTube results in not having to cut people off during their speeches. It really sucks when they do that and then let presenters spend 3 minutes talking about nothing relevant. The little bit with Jane Lynch and the YouTube ads was so random and so perfect.
Now let’s take this category by category and I’ll give you my thoughts.
I’m torn on the Amy Madigan win for Best Supporting Actress. I personally would not call it a career win and I think it’s funny people are saying that just because she’s older. I don’t think she had the best performance in the category. In fact, I’d probably put her at 4. But I do like the Academy awarding a performance they wouldn’t typically, and one that can definitely be defined as ‘Supporting.’ I’m glad they went back to the clips, even though I think some of the clips they chose were odd choices.
Best Animated Feature didn’t shock me at all, and my only thought about this is that it’s weird that Will Arnett is taller than Channing Tatum (they were the presenters of this award).
I actually really like the Best Animated Short win. ‘The Girl Who Cried Pearls’ was my pick, though I didn’t predict it. Cool win though and good acceptance speech.
Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Production Design were the three least shocking awards of the show. Good for ‘Frankenstein’ taking home three awards, making it one of only four films to take home multiple Oscars last night.
Best Casting actually shocked me a tad, but I really liked the presenting format. I think they should’ve done that for Costume and Makeup & Hairstyling like they did last year. But I do like the video packages they did for the various awards, so I’ll give them that.
Shoutout to Kumail Nanjiani, he handled the tie for Best Live Action Short really well. Only the 7th tie in Oscars history! I like that Conan forced the showrunners to let the second group of winners finish their speech, but found it cheesy that the recipient took that extra time to take a shot at another nominee.
Don’t like the Sean Penn win for Best Supporting Actor. The performance was fine, though wouldn’t have been my choice. And I don’t think they should ever mess with the results, regardless of the recipient, but I hate awarding the performer that didn’t show up. And someone that has been outspoken about not caring. But either way, Penn became only the 4th ever male actor to win 3 Oscars. Good for him. I really liked Kieran Culkin’s response to Penn’s win.
I really, really loved both of the Best Screenplay wins. Coogler & PTA are both deserving of the Awards, as are their films. No issues there. And I really liked the video packages, with the inclusion of the two non-English films having their original language onscreen. That was cool. And fun fact: this is the 15th straight year that the winner of Original Screenplay was also the director of the film. But the RDJ & Chris Evans presentation was rough. It was a waste of time, was irrelevant (the 14th anniversary of a movie?), and not remotely funny. This hurts me as a big MCU fan and it also makes me even more nervous for Doomsday.
GREAT JOB with the In Memoriam. One of the highlights of the show! RIP to some major legends.
Best Visual Effects was the actual least surprising Oscar. Avatar for the win once again!
I was pretty shocked by the Best Documentary win (maybe the most shocking award for me) and not really shocked at all by the Best Documentary Short win.
I thought the ‘Bridesmaids’ bit was good, even though it was random and a little long. I think the Best Sound win was well deserved for ‘F1.’
Ludwig Göransson is a legend already. Dude just locked up his 3rd Oscar for Best Original Score in less than a decade. He’s already surpassed Hans Zimmer’s 2 wins and it’s worth noting that he’s 3 for 3 on his nominations.
Best Editing was expected, even though I didn’t predict it, because I was trying to go out on a limb again.
I think it’s great that Autumn Durald Arkapaw won Best Cinematography. It’s both really great, but also really overdue that she’s the first woman and first black person to win the Award. I really loved seeing Ryan Coogler run down with her son so he could watch her give her speech up close. So sweet.
Best International Feature was another one I wasn’t shocked by and actually got correct. And shoutout to Javier Bardem, he got straight to the point and I really respect that.
I think it’s cool that such a popular song won Best Original Song and man it’s crazy how catchy ‘Golden’ is, even though I was routing for ‘I Lied to You.’ And here’s my thoughts on only have two of the songs performed. If you’re not going to show them all then fine. But I think showing a QR code for the other nominees is pretty crazy. My overall thought is that if you don’t think the song is good/entertaining enough to be performed, then don’t even nominate it. I do think the other 3 nominees were pretty weak, so I get the choice. I mean do we really want to hear a song from a documentary nobody’s heard of about opera, something nobody cares about? ;)
Okay dang RPat and Zendaya presenting Best Director. Big time. Good for PTA again.
Best Actor. Any other year I’d be ecstatic for Michael B. Jordan. ‘Sinners’ is a cool movie. He’s a cool dude. Good actor. Good win. But man I hate to see Chalamet lose. My only other thought about this is that after the mess of Adrien Brody’s speech last year, I appreciated him poking fun at himself this year. He was a good sport for that.
Best Actress was another one of the least shocking wins. Good for Jessie Buckley.
And Best Picture was no surprise. Again, shoutout to PTA who finally locked up those 3 Oscars after 14 nominations. Well deserved. With that win, Warner Bros. ties the most wins by a studio at a singles Oscars with 11 total (6 for OBAA, 4 for Sinners, 1 for Weapons)!
The last thing I want to say is that I love Leonardo DiCaprio’s mustache. It looked really good.
