What Actually Mattered at the Oscars? |
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Oscar time, baby! Time to make sure the door is locked against vampires, crack a few small beers, and see how Hollywood chose to honor some "top-level shit" (as Mr. Chalamet likes to call it.) On Sunday night, I followed along as the 98th Academy Awards unfolded in real time. I've been covering the Academy Awards as a journalist since 2001, the year American Beauty took the top prize. Starting in 2004, when The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took best picture, the Academy started trusting me with a crew badge, allowing me to roam the backstage area just behind the curtain. The Oscars are a great assignment because it's full of emotion, most of it uplifting, but also fraught with tension and drama. Every now and then, the biggest movie stars in the world announce the wrong best picture winner, or stand up from the audience to slap a beloved comedian. I had guesses about how things would go down, but truly, anything can happen, including something as incredible as Michael B. Jordan winning Best Actor for his dual role in Sinners. For everything else that mattered on Hollywood's biggest night, follow along below. |
Sinners and One Battle After Another traded awards all night, but Best Picture ultimately went to Paul Thomas Anderson's film starring Leonardo DiCaprio (right) and Teyana Taylor (Left). / photo by: Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images |
Best Picture — One Battle After Another Sinners … or One Battle After Another? That's what it came down to, amid all the other worthy contenders. One Battle took it. Sinners fans will be heartbroken, but as I said at the top of this story, your favorite gets to be your favorite no matter what goes home with a trophy. My hope is that film fans celebrate all of these movies. When I was 13, watching the Academy Awards for the first time, alone in our living room, I was introduced to countless movies I hadn't seen but desperately wanted to experience. That's what made the Academy special to me. That's what the Oscars actually accomplish. They are bookmarks. Reminders to future generations about what mattered now. Sinners will be among them. It's good when your heart has room to love many things. "In 1975 the Oscar nominees were Dog Day Afternoon, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Jaws, Nashville and Barry Lyndon. There is no best among them," PTA says. Amen. |
Michael B. Jordan summed up how we all felt when he took home the best actor trophy: "God is good." / photo by: Kevin Winter/Getty Images |
Michael B. Jordan Wins Best Actor Hot damn. This was an intensely competitive race, and Timothée Chalamet was long considered the front-runner for Marty Supreme. His over-eager publicity campaign backfired, however, and indelicate disparaging comments about opera and ballet in recent weeks didn't help. The fact is: Jordan was at the top of his game in Sinners as the brothers Smoke and Stack, facing down Jim Crow and immortal evil all in the same night. "God is good," he says at the start, which should keep the vampires at bay. He thanked Warner Bros. for "betting on culture and original ideas." Warner Bros. studio bosses Pamela Abdy and Michael de Luca did that. Hopefully whoever takes over that studio now will allow them to keep up the good work. To Ryan Coogler, who directed him in Fruitvale Station, Black Panther, and Creed, Jordan said: "I'm so honored to call you a collaborator and a friend and you gave me an opportunity and a space to be seen." "Hoo, man … y'all." He thanked those "who came before": Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Will Smith. "Amongst my ancestors, amongst my guys, thank you. I know you want me to do well. You guys bet on me." "I'm going to keep stepping up and being the best version of myself I can be," Jordan said. That's truly all there is to say. |
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At the 2026 Academy Awards, Conan O'Brien cemented himself as one of the greatest hosts in the ceremony's storied history. / photo by: Rich Polk/Getty Images |
The Documentary Category Throws Trump Shade "Man, is he gonna be mad his wife wasn't nominated for this," Jimmy Kimmel said before announcing Mr. Nobody Against Putin as the winner of the best documentary feature prize. Yeah, don't hold your breath waiting for Brett Ratner's Melania to be honored next year. The winning movie is about a school teacher who secretly filmed the Russian government's efforts to conscript young men into its war against Ukraine. Director David Borenstein's speech was a warning to America about losing freedom. "You lose it through countless small little acts, through complicity," he said, including "when Oligarchs take over the media and control how we produce it and consume it." Pasha Talankin, the subject of the film spoke in Russian through a translator, describing his experience since his homeland started its invasion against Ukraine: "For four years, we look at the sky for shooting stars to make a very important wish," he said. "But there are countries where instead of shooting stars they have shooting bombs and shooting drones. In the name of our future, in the name of all of our children, stop all of these wars now." The doc category is often a place where politics takes center stage at the Oscars (everybody remembers Michael Moore's incendiary—but correct—warnings as he held his Academy Award two decades ago.) Once again, this is what the show does best. It speaks to the heart. By Anthony Breznican |
Paul Thomas Anderson won Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture for One Battle After Another. photo by: Patrick T. Fallon / Getty Images. |
So, what did you make of the Oscars this year? The awards show generally stuck to the traditional format and leaned on host Conan O'Brien to provide the laughs. It certainly helped that Sinners and One Battle After Another kept the Best Picture race interesting until the very end, and I appreciated that the broadcast didn't arrive following a hundred complaints to "fix awards shows" this time around. Let me know what you thought of the Oscars this year, and if you're worried about the show's move to YouTube in 2027, by writing to me at josh.rosenberg@hearst.com. Did someone forward you this email? Sign up here. |
The Continuing Adventures of the Esquire Entertainment Desk |
Sinners producer Sev Ohanian spoke to writer Max Cea about how you should never bet against Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan. "For a movie to really work you have to think about hooks, plural," Ohanian says. " The idea of Michael B. Jordan playing twin brothers, that feels like an event. And the idea of introducing vampires into this lore and what they represent... The blues music, the modernized music, the dance sequences. We were trying by design to deliver a movie that delights audiences over and over again." Read the full interview here. Margo's Got Money Troubles is star-studded, smart, and sexy. Eric Francisco caught the new Apple TV dramedy starring Elle Fanning at SXSW in Austin, Texas this week, where he wrote that the series about a struggling writer who turns to OnlyFans "has all the right makings of another modern TV classic." Read the full review here. |
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Miles Caton's live performance of "I Lied to You" from Sinners was spectacular. / photo by: Robert Gauthier/Getty Images |
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The Cliff-Hanger's Winners and Losers of the Week (Oscars Edition!) |
Winner: Horror! Is the Academy finally coming around to respect horror films? Not only did Amy Madigan win an Oscar for her creepy performance as Weapons' witchy villain Aunt Gladys, but Sinners' vampire-filled thriller took home some major awards of the night as well. Now that we're adding new awards, I'd love to see honors like Best Scream and Best Jump Scare at next year's show. Loser: Grogu's Tiny Arms Baby Yoda can't clap? As host Conan O'Brien pointed out last night during a bit for the upcoming Mandalorian & Grogu movie, the little guy's arms are too small for his tiny body. After the skit, someone even came and collected him… seat and all. Winner: Opera and Ballet Revenge! After Timothée Chalamet dismissed the two art forms in a resurfaced interview, the Marty Supreme actor seemingly lost the momentum for his first Best Actor win. The award went to Michael B. Jordan (Sinners) instead—and deservedly so! Sorry, Timmy. Think about playing two guys and fighting some vampires next time if you really want to win. Loser: Channing Tatum's New Name Move over Adele Dazeem, Tanning Chatum has arrived. Robert Downey Jr. mispronounced the Josephine actor's name on the Oscars stage while presenting an award on Sunday night, and I'm making it my personal mission to not let his flub be forgotten. Winner: Ending the Night by 11 p.m. (ET) As someone who works during these awards shows, I thank O'Brien and the Academy for calling it a night before the clocks changed to Monday. Though as the host joked on one occasion when a winner's speech was cut off: "I know we're tight, but to retract a microphone on a man as he's speaking is hilarious." |
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