Well, The Oscars 2026 was not a spectacular one but for those of us survivors of the B*FTAS 2026, its sheer slicky professionalism was like a warm bath of glitzy ease. What it lacked in teeth – the politics was curiously dialled down – it made up for in light entertainment.
Here’s all the big moments:
Host Conan O’Brien speaks onstage during the 98th Oscars at Dolby Theatre on March 15, 2026 in Hollywood, California.
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A solid host, an old pro with enough confidence to ride out the jokes that didn’t land – which was a fair few in his opening monologue – and to convincingly take charge of proceedings up there. When the short film award winners rudely had their speeches cut short when the production team dropped the mic down and turned off their spotlight, he simply refused to do his next bit until they could continue – and then ticked off the floor manager, “We’re tight, but what was that?”
His best joke in the monologue was the Epstein one: “For the first time since 2011, there are no British actors nominated. But at least they arrest the paedophiles over there.”
There was a nice feint when he seemed to mention the threat of Iran retaliations at the ceremony – “there is extra security tonight” which turned into a dig at Timothee Chalamet: “There’s concerns about attacks from the ballet and opera communities.”
His later Trump line was also great: “Welcome back, we’re coming to you live from the ‘Has a Small Penis Theatre’… Let’s see him put his name in front of that!”
Rachel McAdams speaking during the In Memoriam segment of the Oscars (Chris Pizzello/AP)
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This was nicely done. Instead of the usual carousel of those who had died this year, there were special – and very moving speeches – which felt appropriate given some of the Hollywood legends lost. It began with Billy Crystal giving a personal tribute to Rob Reiner, recounting his astonishing run of films, as well as mentioning his wife Michelle Singer, saying how, “Rob and Michelle became the driving force for marriage equality in the United States.” Then the screen rolled back to reveal cast members from his films on stage and visibly moved – including Christopher Guest and Michael McKean from This Is Spinal Tap, Kathy Bates from Misery, Demi Moore from A Few Good Men, and Meg Ryan, who held hands with Crystal for a When Harry Met Sally reunion.
This was followed by Rachel McAdams paying tribute to Diane Keaton – they were co-stars in The Family Stone – and Barbara Streisand giving a speech about Robert Redford, with whom she starred in The Way We Were. She went on to sing a section of the title track from the film, but nevertheless this remained a touching and sensitively rendered section.
Conan O’Brien made a gag about Netflix chief Ted Sarandos being present. “His first time in a theatre… [puts on a Bond villain voice] ‘Why are they all together enjoying themselves? They should be home alone, where I can monetize it.”
And yes there was a sense of a new era creeping into film-making. O’Brien introduced himself as “the last human host of the Oscars.” He followed it throughout the night with digs at the two-screening young folk, the way streaming ‘content’ endlessly repeats plot points to keep half distracted viewers up to speed – a version of Casablanca explaining the ‘love triangle’ during WW2. ‘The one with Hitler’ – and the fact the Oscars will be on YouTube next year; cue, infomercials crashing in over O’Brien.
While the sheer quality of films this year has kept audiences coming to cinemas, it does all feel like that time in publishing awards shows when the digital teams – websites! – started creeping into the categories. We all sensed then that we were in trouble… reduced to late night content creation… moving on…
Well, it won lots of production awards. It did look fantastic, production design and make-up deserved to be recognised. But let’s face it, the film wasn’t great was it? Doesn’t matter how good it looks if it is largely nonsensical.
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Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans were bad together – a laboured skit about Downey Jr forgetting a gift for Evans to mark the anniversary of the first Avengers theme was doomed from the start – but away from those two, the other odd couple presenters were funny. Sigourney Weaver looked down to see Kate Hudson with Grogu (Baby Yoda, for non-Mandalorian fans) and misquoted her famous Alien line, “Stay away from him you bitch.”
Anna Wintour also proved to have seriously good comic timing during her segment with Anna Hathaway. When Hathaway asked Wintour’s opinion on her dress, she stepped to the mic and said, “And the nominees are…” Well, you had to be there.
Notably going where perhaps O’Brien was afraid to, Kimmel had a edge to him as he presented the documentary categories, and talked about the importance of “the truth” and the role these films play for “Some countries whose leaders don’t support free speech… I’m not at liberty to say which, but let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS.”
He followed it up with a killer moment when he introduced Best Feature-Length Documentary, mentioning no names but saying, “Is he going to be mad his wife wasn’t nominated for this… “
Paul Thomas Anderson winning
He first received a standing ovation for winning for Best Adapted Screenplay, his first Oscar win after years of knocking out the most interesting films in Hollywood. His speech was political in an understated way: “I wrote this movie for my kids, to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world we’re handing off to them. But also with the encouragement that they will be the generation that hopefully brings us some common sense and decency.”
But then came the big one, for Best Director for One Battle After Another. “You make a guy work for it,” he said wryly.
First Female Cinematographer Winner
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When Autumn Durald Arakpaw won for Best Cinematography, the theatre rose as one to salute her, and she gave one of the best speeches of the night in which she asked the women in the audience to get to their feet in a memorable moment from the night.
And also made a touching tribute to Cooglar: “Whenever I say thank you to Ryan, he replies and says, ‘No thank you, thank you for believing in me and thank you for trusting me.’ And that’s the kind of guy who I get to make films with.’
Sinners winning some things
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Sinners broke records for the most number of nominations with 16. Ryan Coogler brought home the first one, his Best Original Screenplay nod was met with a standing ovation. In fact, the goodwill around Sinners was palpable all night, particularly during the best musical moment of the night when cast and musicians from the film – including Jack O’Connell – turned the Oscars stage into a Mississippi speakeasy.
Then Michael B. Jordon brought the house down by winning Best Actor. There was no more popular winner. He mentioned Black actors who came before him, “my ancestors,” and he thanked fans for supporting Sinners, something many folk forget to do: “Thank you guys, I love you.”
She’s been picking up gongs wherever she went in awards system, but this was the big one. They will be partying back in Killarney for days. It was a winningly personal and heartfelt speech in which she mentioned that it was Mother’s Day in the UK and dedicated the award to “the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart… a lineage of women who create against all odds… this is the greatest honour, I can’t even believe it.” She forgot to thank Paul Mescal, her co-star, but he was beaming as she left the stage so no bad blood there probably.
Best Film: One Battle After Another
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Well the goodwill was with Sinners all night but it would have been a major surprise if it had won. And it didn’t, One Battle After Another took home the big prize and it’s hard to argue with that. What a film, one which felt both very of the moment and an immediate classic, this was the dream of incredible story, incredible performances, just great brilliant stuff.
Anderson was gracious in the win for the film, pointing to 1975 when Nashville, Jaws, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Barry Lyndon and Dog Day Afternoon were nominated, saying there is no best film, only what mood you might be in to watch them. “Let’s have a martini…” he said in closing, and cheers to that.