On Sunday, March 15th, 2026, the 98th annual Academy Awards was held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The event was overall a very memorable experience, with several shocking moments, well-deserved wins, and multiple broken records.
The 2026 Oscars was hosted by Conan O’Brien, who gave a lively and comforting performance. He was able to switch from cheerful to solemn in mere moments to support the mood, creating a very well put-together event. O’Brian did a great job of hosting, continuing from his participation last year.
The biggest winners of the show were Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, which took home six Oscars, including Best Picture, and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners which won four Oscars, including Best Actor for lead Michael B. Jordan.
There were controversies surrounding Michael B. Jordan winning the Oscar over other notable actors, such as Timothee Chalamet for Marty Supreme, or Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another. Michael B. Jordan’s award was well-deserved, as he not only has been putting extreme effort and dedication into his 25 year career, but also put on an outstanding performance in Sinners, becoming the sixth Black actor in history to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. He joined the likes of Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, Denzel Washington and Sidney Poitier, sealing his name forever in history.
This segment of the event was perhaps the most interesting, as Best Actor was one of the few awards during this ceremony that could’ve gone either way between Chalamet and Jordan. Earlier in the year, Chalamet won Best Actor at the Critics Choice Awards, leading many to believe that he might walk away with the Oscar as well. Although many believe DiCaprio was a very strong contender, it ultimately came down to either Chalamet or Jordan.
The Oscars, though, still had its issues. For starters, the pacing seemed poor, with several bits and sections dragging on. Unfortunately, this has been a complaint with the Oscars every year, and not much was done to fix it this year. Additionally, the telecast was at times sloppy with poor microphone audio and other technical issues throughout the event.
One of the most disrespectful things throughout the night occurred during the speeches for the movie K-Pop Demon Hunters for their award for Best Original Song. Just as songwriter, Yu Han Lee began to speak, he was abruptly interrupted by the orchestra, which continued to play over him as the Oscars crew transitioned into the next segment of the event. I believed this to be incredibly rude as they decided to silence the writer during one of the most significant moments of their life. Although it was true that they were running overtime and needed to wrap up their speeches, the way the team handled the issue was overwhelmingly unprofessional.
Overall, this year’s Oscars was far more tame and low energy than other award shows have been in the past, such as this year’s Grammy Awards. This was done because everyone including O’Brian tried to avoid controversy. Although, I believe that they attempted to keep it far too tame. There was nothing that really stole the show, or was a big attention grab for the audience at home or for those attending the event itself, as the producers tried to prioritize professionalism over spectacle. Although this may have been good from a critics point of view, as a home viewer, it made the event very boring at times, with the slow pacing not helping. Not only that, but the show was very predictable with One Battle After Another unsurprisingly pulling away a lot of the awards, and the majority of categories having a very clear front-runner, creating a lack of energy and excitement upon the winners being revealed. The speeches, which are one of the most heartwarming parts of the event, were cut short. All these components diverted time from what the people truly wanted to see.
However, the live musical performances were memorable, such as the Oscar winning song “Golden” from K-Pop Demon Hunters, being performed live. The entire audience interacted with it, as all the crowd members were waving around light sticks to the beat of the song. This created a wholesome moment within the entire community, and brought everyone there closer together in support of their peers. Although this year’s Oscars had its ups and downs, it proved a success by the end of the night.
