The 2026 Oscars were the most entertaining in years Especially since Michael B. Jordan snatched the award right from under Timothée Chalamet's nose

For the 2026 Oscars we had anticipated great fun and so it was. It is good to clarify, however, what we mean when we use the word fun. We are not referring only to the sphere of entertainment, but to an entire spectrum of possibilities that one would expect from an event like that of the Academy, which this year lived up to expectations. We are not talking only about the winners of the statuette. It was the set of opportunities that the event had and did not fail to deliver that made it a night to remember, for the short time in which we tend to remember an Oscar win, obviously. 

The year of women

What filled the heart was seeing a woman triumph for the first time in the Best Cinematography category, an award that went to Autumn Durald Arkapaw for Sinners. A recognition that came to a woman ninety-eight years after the birth of the Oscars and that shows how it is possible to find professionals for high-level roles even where it was unusual to find them. Just as the emotion of the Best Casting award going to Cassandra Kulukundis for One Battle After Another, who unexpectedly beat her colleague Francine Maisler after the latter had already “conquered” laterally the award for best ensemble at the Actors Awards with Sinners, for a category where in her first year there were four women out of five among the nominees.

In addition to the milestones, the 2026 Oscars were the night of tears for Bob Reiner, Diane Keaton, Catherine O’Hara and Robert Redford, with a tribute no less than from Barbra Streisand. Yesterday was also the evening that officially crowned Emma Stone as the heir to Meryl Streep because, even though she had no chance of winning with Bugonia (that's fine, at thirty-five she had already earned two Oscars), she still had a reserved seat in the front row. Then there was the moment when the Academy vaguely wanted to imitate Sanremo, but instead of geese and ganders in AI it reproduced and broadcast a handful of serial Michael B. Jordans. The nightmare of Timothée Chalamet, one might say.

For the lead actors, Jessie Buckley takes home the statuette to no one's surprise but the joy of many for  Hamnet while Amy Madigan won the statuette as Best Supporting Actress for Weapons, marking the first of the confirmations/surprises in the actors' section of the Academy night, the most unpredictable categories that during this long awards season saw each of the most likely actors and actresses conquer at least one important prize. 

Sean Penn and the political issue

Sean Penn won, again for One Battle After Another, but his third Oscar in his career, after Mystic River and Milk, the performer did not show up following an unusual awards season where he was more or less present and, when he was, it was as if he were in another place, as when he smoked undisturbed in the Golden Globes theater. An empty seat because, according to the New York Times, Penn had planned or was preparing a next trip to Ukraine. The actor's positions have always been very firm from a political point of view, so much so that in 2023 he made a documentary titled Superpowers on what Russia had unleashed on Ukraine.

To take hold of the political discourse, despite the head-on entry also by the host Conan O’Brien with his opening monologue between implied conflicts and Epstein Files, was Javier Bardem, presenter together with Priyanka Chopra of Best International Feature Film. A halfway position by the Academy, like that of many during the evening. Not publicly exposing themselves, but letting others do the dirty work. And, by letting them do it, at least acquiescing in some way.

Entrusting Bardem with a stage and a microphone, an actor who for months has been exposing and denouncing what is happening in Gaza and in the world, means not letting him miss the opportunity to make a speech, presuming solidarity from the Oscar organization which not by chance reserved for him the slot of the international film in which titles like The Voice of Hind Rajab and A Simple Incident were competing. He could therefore only conclude with a “No to war and free Palestine” his presentation, amplifying what was reported by the conspicuous sign that he also flaunted on the red carpet. 

Michael B. Jordan vs. Timothée Chalamet

Following her was Michael B. Jordan for Sinners in what was one of the most galloping comebacks seen in recent years at the Oscars. Perhaps surpassed only by Mickey Madison who in 2025 conquers the statuette for Anora instead of the certain Demi Moore for The Substance. Let's clarify immediately: Jordan did not win because of Timothée Chalamet’s statements on opera and ballet (please, someone call Timmy to see how he is), which happened too shortly before the closing of voting, that is about twenty-four hours before the fact happened. 

That the double protagonist of Sinners had become the golden boy of the moment could be intuited in the last weeks, when Michael B. Jordan's discretion resounded more than the rants à la Marty Mauser of his interpreter Chalamet. The Chalamet debacle was nevertheless exaggerated, if not even unfair, while considering his exit on lyric and ballet unfortunate. With a very long marketing campaign, perhaps too long, whose result was ending up having the same Marty Supreme and its protagonist turned against him.

But mistaking the desire to achieve a goal with presumption in an environment like Hollywood is a bit like looking in the mirror and not (wanting to) see one's own reflection. An environment in which even just mentioning Marty Supreme or Timothée Chalamet made the room freeze, as when everyone is aware of that fact that one cannot help but whisper about. 

Happy anyway for the best lead actor and even more for every award won by Sinners. A title that made history in many ways: from the sixteen nominations conquered to the box-office success, from the cultural value that we will carry with us to the centrality of the theatrical vision. And that showed that it is still possible to think of original stories, without sequels, prequels, reboots or spin-offs. And it is ironic that it is a film that, like PTA's, comes from a Warner Bros. that has to be sold because it has accumulated debt over the years that has to be extinguished and was ending up in the hands of the king of streaming Netflix. Not that with Paramount now it is better, but that's another story. 

The other moments of the evening

For the rest, among the obvious awards like best song to Golden of K-pop Demon Hunters and visual effects to Avatar - Fire and Ash, One Battle After Another and Sinners conducted an honest head-to-head with PTA's film that overall beat Ryan Coogler's vampires six statuettes to four. Of these great screenwriters and directors two moments of the evening will remain: the restrained tears from Anderson at his first Oscar in thirty years of career (and fourteen nominations) and the glimpsed embrace between Ryan Coogler and Chloé Zhao, director of Hamnet, with the two who have known each other since the Sundance Labs times and both candidates with their films at the 98th edition of the ceremony. 

A final praise goes to Conan O’Brien, who despite the nice closing sketch of the evening (reference to PTA's film, for those who haven't seen it) we hope really takes the reins also of the next Oscars.

A true professional, as he immediately demonstrated with the frantic run to imitate Weapons in which he engaged, retracing all ten titles nominated for best picture and even a little more. A presenter who reminded us that last year during the evening Los Angeles was going up in flames, while in this 2026 “things are going well” winking at the camera. It is really true that a laugh or an Oscar (or a world crisis, a genocide, fanatical politicians) will bury us.