From flat jokes, to politics, to red-carpet dazzle: 5 experts unpack the 2026 Oscars

Despite Conan O’Brien joking he was the last human Oscars host, the 2026 edition was exceptionally human – with folly, filler and an f-bomb (ironically during the Best Sound acceptance speech). This 3.5-hour marathon will seem quaint in 2029, when YouTube takes over and every segment feels like 20 seconds.

Many speakers faced the same dilemma: how can we justify celebrating escapism in a war-ravaged world that only agrees on liking animated Korean popstars?

The world feels harsh in 2026. Even K-Pop Demon Hunters wasn’t immune, with the Golden song team harshly played off the stage – a policy only applied to them.

It was tough to watch Billy Crystal’s tribute to his murdered friends Rob Reiner and Michelle Singer Reiner – a note of real horror. Reality intruded again with the documentary Oscar for Mr Nobody Against Putin, about a teacher who used the Kremlin’s demand for video surveillance of his school to expose that process. Despite Jimmy Kimmel’s Melania gags, it was clear who the bravest guy in the room was.

Even Conan went dark. His Casablanca re-enactment featuring clunky plot-point repetition eviscerated smartphone culture. I loved his random arrival with a leaf-blower, which he should’ve deployed during Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans’ lame banter. Ironically, the flatness of the bit perfectly illustrated the value of scripting – while the pair honoured the nominees for Best Screenplay.

Sinners and One Battle After Another won most major awards, as tipped on an anticlimactic night. In a dour final sketch, Conan was gassed, and replaced by Mr Beast – a pointed end to a ceremony that acknowledged legitimate questions about whether the Oscars even matter any more.

Autumn Durald Arkapaw brought a rare moment of joy as the first female cinematography winner, while the funniest presenters were the stars of Bridesmaids – who should host next year – especially if Stellan Skarsgård is available as a sight gag.

– Dominic Knight

A good film – not the best film – for Best Film

Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is a good film. It’s not as good as Anderson’s Boogie Nights or The Master, and can’t hold a candle to this year’s other Best Picture nominee Sentimental Value, but it’s a rollicking romp of a yarn, more comedy than thriller, beautifully shot on 35mm film.

Indeed, several nominees this year used film, proving again what we already know – film looks better than digital.

The performances are solid. Sean Penn has had a great career, but here, as the buffoon Colonel Lockjaw, he is the weakest link, and shouldn’t have won Best Supporting Actor. But his hammy caricature is offset by the excellence of Leonardo Di Caprio, Benicio del Toro and Chase Infiniti, who effectively balance comedic elements with the kind of dramatic intensity necessary to bring the viewer along for the ride.

And a fun ride it is.

– Ari Mattes

Read more: The Oscars are usually a mess, but this year’s Best Picture nominees are strong. Here’s who should win

A big year for big scores

2025 was a year for big film scores, either in terms of the size of the orchestra, their length, or their wealth of musical material. Perhaps Hollywood is finally getting over the ascendency of the Hans Zimmer-inspired chugga-chugga of interminably repeated minor thirds over low-pitched synth loops, and is embracing musical complexity again.

The ceremony itself had only a few musical moments of note. The Best Score announcement was hijacked by a Bridesmaids reunion and an overlong comedy routine that had nothing to do with music. At least we were shown the orchestra playing a short suite of the scores.

Sinners, the winner, is one of Ludwig Göransson’s most complex scores, drawing on various musics of the American South in a rich thematic tapestry. I hope its success might spur on more musical risk-taking in large-budget films.

The In Memoriam segment is always musically tricky. The producers need to find music that doesn’t pull focus from the people being remembered, but is engaging enough to keep the audience interested. The use of the love theme from Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride was a good choice; the sappy reharmonisation of Amazing Grace was less inspiring; Barbra Streisand ended the sequence with a few croaky phrases from The Way We Were.

The Best Song nominees this year were mostly unmemorable – recognised by only two being performed during the ceremony. Golden (which won the award) brought some necessary KPop energy to the last hour of the show, but needed another verse to make its musical and dramatic point. A good decision in terms of the structure of the broadcast was marred by the structure of the arrangement itself.

This was also true of the chaotic performance of I Lied to You from Sinners. Considering the poor pacing and overlength of some of the comedy segments, this stuck out as especially misjudged.

– Gregory Camp

One extraordinary, and one earnest, performance

How does one assess performance across films of mixed qualities? This question is brought to the fore by this year’s Oscar winners for Best Actor and Actress.

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is a riot of a film, following blues musicians and gangsters duking it out with vampires and rednecks in 1930s Mississippi. There’s nothing serious about it – it’s an absurd film from an absurd premise that just works from opening to closing images. And the performance by Michael B. Jordan, playing twin gangsters who are similar in temperament – but not the same – is extraordinary.

His intense and muscular energy drives the film, perfectly complemented by the standout music. Watching him on screen is always pleasurable, but in Sinners he’s finally been matched with a technically masterful film.

Hamnet, in contrast, is a very earnest, very serious film, and it proudly displays its earnestness at every turn. But earnestness in art is not particularly interesting (or, perhaps more accurately, not sufficient to make a film interesting), and the whole thing feels like a self-important Instagram post. The result is a film alternately pretentious, dreary and annoying.

Now Jessie Buckley is fine (as is Paul Mescal) – they’re both great actors in a big Hollywood movie – and, though Renate Reinsve’s performance in Sentimental Value was, like the film at large, much more compelling, it’s difficult to begrudge Buckley her Oscar.

Then again, film is a collaborative medium, so perhaps actors should also bear some of the brunt of critical wrath …

– Ari Mattes

A whole new award category

The introduction of the Academy Award for Best Casting this year marks the first new Oscar category since Best Animated Feature was introduced in 2001. The creation of this award reflects a long-overdue recognition of casting directors as core creative contributors to filmmaking.

Casting directors help shape performance, cast chemistry and, ultimately, the emotional credibility of a film – often through their identification of actors who can bring something unique to the role. By honouring casting as a distinct craft, the Academy is acknowledging the artistry involved in building ensembles, discovering new talent, and discovering performers who align with a director’s vision.

Cassandra Kulukundis’s win for One Battle After Another is a clear recognition of the importance and complex nature of casting large-scale ensembles. Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson is known for his distinctive tonal and stylistic approach, particularly to performance. Kulukundis has worked with Anderson since 1999’s Magnolia. Her filmography speaks to her ability to balance star power with character actors who enrich the world of the film.

From my perspective, One Battle After Another’s critical and commercial success lies not only in its narrative scope but also in the authenticity with which its performers inhabit a world that is at times hyperbolic and at other times very relatable to the contemporary moment.

Kulunkundis’s win can also be traced to her ability to identify relative newcomers who can command the screen, such as One Battle’s feature film debutant Chase Infiniti, and Best Supporting Actress nominee Teyana Taylor.

– Adam Daniel

Costume designers who stole the (fashion) show

The Guardian’s fashion editor Morwenna Ferrier summed up this year’s Academy Awards fashion: “A lot of brown. A lot of feathers. A lot of Chanel.”

To this, I would add: a lot of white, a lot of brooches and a lot of red lipstick.