This past Sunday, March 15, the 98th Academy Awards were hosted by Conan O’Brien at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California. This year’s Oscars held a lot of surprises, some upsets, and some memorable moments; so here’s a recap of what the 2026 Academy Awards had in store.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” dominated with six Oscar wins last weekend, sweeping up some major awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. This was an impressive feat as “Sinners” was its biggest competition this year.
A win that was surprising to some was Michael B. Jordan’s victory for Best Actor, which some believed could have gone to Timothee Chalamet. However, recently there has been controversy surrounding Chalamet after, in a conversation with Matthew McConaughey for Variety, he criticized ballet and opera, claiming “no one cares about this anymore,” which gained him a lot of negative attention. Voting for the Academy Awards did not close until March 5, so could the comments made by Chalamet back in February have affected his Oscar win? There’s no way to be sure—but some people certainly believe so.
Other notable wins last weekend included Jesse Buckley winning Best Actress for “Hamnet”; “Kpop Demon Hunters” winning Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for the viral hit “Golden” Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” winning three Oscars for costume design, production design, and makeup and hairstyling. Additionally, Autumn Durald Arkapaw made Oscar History as the first woman to win Best Cinematography for her work on “Sinners”.
One of the most interesting awards presented for the night was actually for Best Live-Action Short Film, where two lucky winners got to take home the Oscar. Yep, that’s right. There was a tie for this Academy Award. This extremely rare occurrence was only the seventh time ever for an award to result in a tie at the Oscars. So, the two winners, “The Singers” and “Two People Exchanging Saliva”, got to share the glory of this little piece of Oscar’s history.
Unsurprisingly, there were a few political statements made at the show about President Donald Trump, Palestine, the wars, and the general state of affairs in the U.S.
Javier Bardem, a Spanish actor who presented an award alongside Priyanka Chopra, made one of the biggest statements of the night through not only his words, but his clothing as well. Bardem donned a Palestine pin on his suit jacket, as well as a badge that read “No a la guerra,” meaning no to war. Just before presenting the award, Bardem said, “No to war and free Palestine.” While other attendees may not have been as vocal as Bardem in their political stances, “Ice Out” pins and “Artists4Ceasefire” pins could still be seen around the crowd of the Dolby Theater on Sunday night.
Whether the night is remembered for the historical tie in the short film category, or “One Battle After Another” cleaning up with six Oscar wins, the 98th Oscar ceremony was one for the books.
