At Sunday’s Oscars, Timothée Chalamet won the award as Hollywood’s new designated whipping boy (Will Smith needed a break). Host Conan O’Brien joked that security had to be tightened to prevent attacks on Chalamet over resurfaced remarks he made in February, saying “no one cares” about opera and ballet. A literal “bum drum” was added to the orchestra as a symbolic Timmy ass-whup. During the fab musical number from “Sinners,” the American Ballet Theater’s principal dancer and Chalamet critic Misty Copeland appeared to major applause to show where Oscar stood on high culture.
Chalamet should have remembered what Blanche DuBois told her sister Stella in the Oscar-winning 1951 classic “A Streetcar Named Desire:” “Don’t hang back with the brutes.” Point taken. Right, Timmy? Now let’s move on. Whether or not you believe Chalamet deserved an Oscar for “Marty Supreme” (I sure did), this kid stays in the picture. Bet on it.
Otherwise, Oscar night 2026 went as expected, a heated contest between “One Battle After Another” and Sinners.” In the end, “One Battle” took home six Oscars—for picture, Paul Thomas Anderson for directing, and adapted screenplay, Sean Penn for supporting actor, Andy Jurgensen for editing and Cassandra Kulukundis for the new category of casting.
“Sinners” found forgiveness with four wins, Ryan Coogler for original screenplay, Michael B. Jordan for Best Actor, Ludwig Goransson for original score and Autumn Durald Arkapaw for cinematography—she became the first woman and first woman of color ever to win in this category. About effing time!
My two cents: No disrespect to Cassandra Kulukundis, but for me and practically everyone else in the Oscar predicting business, that new Best Casting prize was meant to go to Francine Maisler for “Sinners.” Had that happened, the final Oscar tally would have been five Oscars for both “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another.” A tie and a far more equitable result for two great films that ran a great race and ran it neck and neck. Hey, but that’s just me.
Among other thoughts...kudos to Conan O’Brien for being the host with the most for the second year in a row. From his opening drag gambit as Aunt Gladys from “Weapons” being chased through nominated movies to his signoff spoof of Sean Penn being iced in “One Battle,” O’Brien held court hilariously, especially concerning Trump slapping his name on everything: “Coming to you live from the Has a Small Penis Theater—let’s see him put his name in front of that!”
And presenter Kieran Culkin was dry wit personified when he announced that Sean Penn was a no-show to pick up his third Oscar, this one for Best Supporting Actor in “One Battle,” making him only the seventh person in history to win three golden boys. Said Culkin: "Sean Penn couldn't be here tonight—or didn't want to." Ouch!
And will someone please explain how a major event TV show has so many screwups? How do you not catch all the A-listers who lined up for a special tribute to the late, great Rob Reiner or show enough respect to Barbra Streisand to not drown out her touching memories of her “Way We Were” costar Robert Redford with music louder than anything in “F1?”
And yet a few of the acceptance speeches cut through the noise. The absent Sean Penn did it in his own way. The two-time best actor winner for Mystic River” and “Milk” skipped the ceremony to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to whom he gifted his "Mystic River” Oscar as a tribute. Penn has previously expressed discomfort with award show formalities and has criticized the Academy, even offering in 2022 to "smelt" his previous statues if the ceremony did not support Ukraine.
Audience reaction was warm and cuddly for Amy Madigan, 75, who took home her first Oscar as the scary-iconic Aunt Gladys in “Weapons.” It’s been 40 years since her last nomination. She thanked her husband Ed Harris to whom she’s been married for what she termed “a long-ass time” and a younger generation of actors she met on the Oscar campaign trail: “I was kind of traveling on my own, and they just kind of gave me a hug and said, ‘Yeah, come on in and let us know you and you can know us.’ So, I thank them.” I call that gracious incarnate.
As Jessie Buckley became the first Irish woman in Oscar annals to win Best Actress, she thanked her eight-month-old daughter and dedicated her win as the grieving mom in “Hamnet” to the “chaos of a mother’s heart.” Talk about knowing your audience.
Anderson, PTA to all in the room, addressed why he dedicated his wins for “One Battle” to his four mixed-race children with Maya Rudolph: “I wrote this movie for my kids, to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world and handing off to them. But also with the encouragement that they will hopefully be the generation that brings us some common sense and decency.”
And later, Michael B. Jordan, collecting his Best Actor trophy for “Sinners,” showed how humility and grace can come in one package: “Hoo, man, y’all. I stand here because of the people that came before me: Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, Will Smith. To be amongst those giants, amongst those greats, amongst my ancestors, amongst my guys. Thank you, everybody in this room, and everybody at home for supporting me over my career. I feel it. I know you guys want me to do well, and I want to do that because you guys bet on me. So thank you for keeping betting on me. And I’m gonna keep stepping up.”
Now that’s class. At its best, Oscar stepped up as well for its 98th birthday, awarding two movies set in the past that spoke eloquently to right this very minute.
Sadly, the ratings suffered a downward turn. The 98th annual Academy Awards drew 17.86 million viewers on ABC and Hulu, which makes it the least-watched Oscar telecast since 2022. The number is down 9% from last year’s 19.7 million viewers when “Anora”—the lowest-grossing Best Picture winner in 45 years—scored a five-year high for the telecast. Was it the nonstop sex? Despite this year’s dip, the 98th Academy Awards now rates as the No. 1 primetime entertainment telecast of the 2025-2026 season.
More good news: those crucial social impressions—the true standard of success for the cool kids—were up 42.4% this year (184,314,3702) and Academy social platforms were up to 21.6 million this year vs. 19.7 million last year, including more than 129 million video views throughout the night. So Timmy, don’t throw Oscar in the “no one cares” pile yet. There’s still life in that gold-plated doorstop.