Oscars<\/a> from its 13 nominations, including best picture, director and adapted screenplay. The film also won for editing and brought a third acting Oscar to Sean Penn. Perhaps the evening\u2019s most unexpected milestone came with the Academy\u2019s inaugural casting Oscar, awarded to Cassandra Kulukundis.<\/p>\n\n\tAnd yet the final outcome was far from inevitable.<\/p>\n
\n\tHeading into the last category of the night, the best picture race still felt uncertain. Warner Bros. controlled the two defining titles of the season \u2014 \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d and \u201cSinners\u201d \u2014 and the outcome genuinely felt like a coin toss. Ultimately, the film that accumulated the strongest precursor momentum across the season carried the night.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut like most Oscar seasons, the story was never about a single winner. One of the ceremony\u2019s most powerful moments came when Michael B. Jordan won best actor for \u201cSinners.\u201d With the victory, he became just the sixth Black man to win the award, joining Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker and Will Smith \u2014 all of whom Jordan acknowledged in a heartfelt speech.<\/p>\n
\n\tFor much of the evening, however, the mood inside the Dolby Theatre was one of cautious anticipation. As category after category passed without a win for \u201cSinners,\u201d phones across the industry lit up with text messages from voters and observers wondering if the season\u2019s most nominated film might walk away with less than expected.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn retrospect, that arc may define the season as much as any single win.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cSinners\u201d ultimately fell short of best picture, and the Academy now enters its 99th year without a Black winner in the best director category. But the film\u2019s place in Oscars history remains secure. The closing images of the night \u2014 Michael B. Jordan, Ryan Coogler and Autumn Durald Arkapaw standing together with their statuettes \u2014 represented something larger than a single category.<\/p>\n
\n\tArkapaw\u2019s victory for \u201cSinners\u201d was historic. She became the first woman \u2014 as well as the first Black person and first Filipina \u2014 to win best cinematography, and the 22nd Black woman to win an Oscar overall. With this winning moment, a woman has now won in every single non-gendered Oscar category. <\/p>\n
\n\tPlaced in context, the moment reflected a broader shift unfolding across the industry. In recent years, Black women have broken barriers in production design through Hannah Beachler and in costume design through Ruth E. Carter. Now cinematography joins that list. Each of those milestones came through films directed by Ryan Coogler, underscoring how the filmmaker\u2019s influence extends beyond storytelling into reshaping opportunities behind the camera.<\/p>\n
\n\tThere was something particularly poignant when Coogler won original screenplay, asking his cast to stand up and allow him to pay his respects. It was as if he knew how the evening would ultimately end, and this would be his one and only opportunity to share his admiration and love with the team that shattered records across the Oscar stage. Coogler himself became only the second Black screenwriter to win original screenplay after Jordan Peele for \u201cGet Out\u201d (2017).<\/p>\n
\n\tThe acting races delivered additional firsts.<\/p>\n
\n\tJessie Buckley became the first Irish winner of best actress for her performance in Chlo\u00e9 Zhao\u2019s \u201cHamnet,\u201d closing out a season in which literary adaptations once again proved fertile ground for Oscar recognition. This marks the seventh best actress-winning performance directed by a woman, and Zhao is the first female director to do it twice following Frances McDormand for \u201cNomadland\u201d (2020).<\/p>\n
\n\tLike every awards year, the race also produced its share of heartbreaks.<\/p>\n
\n\tEarlier in the season, many observers believed Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet was on a clear path to victory for his performance in \u201cMarty Supreme.\u201d By the time the final ballots were counted, however, the 30-year-old star left the ceremony without a win. His film also went home empty-handed, including for its four-time nominated creative force Josh Safdie, cited for producing, directing, writing and editing.<\/p>\n
\n\tAwards campaigns have always been part art and part personality. As Oscar watchers often say \u2014 only half-jokingly \u2014 the race can sometimes feel like 51% performance and 49% prom king or queen.<\/p>\n
\n\tThat balance doesn\u2019t always apply evenly.<\/p>\n
\n\tPenn, already an Oscar winner for \u201cMystic River\u201d and \u201cMilk,\u201d did not attend the ceremony as he became only the fourth male performer to win three acting Oscars, joining Daniel Day-Lewis, Jack Nicholson and Walter Brennan. While his work in \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d drew admiration throughout the industry, the result also reignited discussion about long overdue recognition for veterans such as Delroy Lindo and Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd, both first-time nominees in their 70s still awaiting their first Oscar.<\/p>\n
\n\tIf one win captured the unpredictable spirit of the Academy, it belonged to Amy Madigan. Her supporting actress victory for the horror film \u201cWeapons\u201d instantly entered the pantheon of delightful Oscar surprises \u2014 perhaps the most unexpected since Marisa Tomei won for \u201cMy Cousin Vinny\u201d (1992). Madigan was the film\u2019s sole nominee, missed key BAFTA nom (when eligible) and logged the least screen time among the contenders. That she ultimately prevailed speaks to the Academy\u2019s occasional willingness to embrace instinct over momentum.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe documentary race offered another late-season twist. \u201cMr. Nobody Against Putin,\u201d examining how Vladimir Putin has cracked down on free expression during the Russo-Ukrainian war, won best documentary feature over the widely favored \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor,\u201d which had been acquired by Netflix out of Sundance but struggled to dominate the major precursor circuit.<\/p>\n
\n\tElsewhere, \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d made its own bit of history by winning both animated feature and original song. The double victory helped Netflix tie its personal record of seven Oscars in a single year, matching its 2021 haul that included wins for \u201cMank\u201d and \u201cMa Rainey\u2019s Black Bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tCraft categories also had a clear winner, with \u201cFrankenstein\u201d picking up three Oscars for production design, costume design and makeup and hairstyling. One moment not seen on television came when director Guillermo del Toro stood up to enthusiastically encourage the crowd to applaud the \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d team. The Oscar-winning filmmaker behind \u201cPinocchio,\u201d long a champion of animation, delivered a small but telling reminder of the camaraderie that still defines the industry.<\/p>\n
\n\tEven the ceremony\u2019s statistics reflected the unpredictable nature of the season. For only the seventh time in Academy history, a category ended in a tie when \u201cThe Singers\u201d and \u201cTwo People Exchanging Saliva\u201d both won best live-action short film.<\/p>\n
\n\tOne studio executive joked to Variety in the lobby, \u201cIf you needed any other proof that only 200 people vote in the shorts, there you go.\u201dThe last Oscar tie occurred in 2013 when \u201cZero Dark Thirty\u201d and \u201cSkyfall\u201d shared the award for sound editing. The most famous tie remains the 1968 best actress race, when Katharine Hepburn for \u201cThe Lion in Winter\u201d and Barbra Streisand for \u201cFunny Girl\u201d shared the trophy.<\/p>\n
\n\tLooking back, the 2025\u201326 awards season played out much like the Oscars themselves: a little unpredictable, a bit more emotional and occasionally contradictory.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe 2026 Oscars marked a record-breaking night for horror films, with the genre collecting eight Academy Awards. \u201cSinners\u201d led the way with four wins, while \u201cFrankenstein\u201d claimed three craft prizes, and Madigan for \u201cWeapons.\u201d The total surpasses the previous record of five wins, all earned by \u201cThe Silence of the Lambs\u201d (1991).<\/p>\n
\n\tVariety\u2019s final predictions correctly called 18 of the 24 categories \u2014 a respectable 75% success rate \u2014 but the larger lesson of the season may be simpler.<\/p>\n
\n\tFor all the statistics, precursors and narratives that shape the race, the Academy still has a way of reminding everyone that the story isn\u2019t finished until the final envelope is opened.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut the season is over. We can rest up now and look to newer, greater cinematic endeavors down the road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the final envelope was opened at the 98th Academy Awards, it served as a fitting end to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4907,8,9,3478,3296,3480,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-5933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-awards-circuit-column","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-one-battle-after-another","12":"tag-oscars","13":"tag-sinners","14":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116240123365366444","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}