Oscars 2026: The Most Interesting Bits

The 98th Academy Awards was a mix of high fashion, subdued politics, flashes of humour and emotions running high. 

Hollywood's biggest night, held at the famous Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, teemed with excitement as well as anticipation of glittering stars, glorious victories and spontaneous exchanges hoping to launch into a thousand viral moments and memes.

The 98th Academy Awards was a mix of high fashion, subdued politics, flashes of humour and emotions running high. Sukanya Verma lists some of its standout bits.

Conan O'Brien's greatest 'weapon' in 'battle' mode

Conan's hilarious Weapons parody wherein he tried to pull off a Gladys looking like 'Bette Davis with Lupus' and popping up inside sequences of all the Best Picture contenders, including an animated avatar in K-Pop Demon Hunters, kick-started the ceremony on a hilarious note.

Wrapping up the show by recreating Lockjaw's final scene in One Battle After Another to droll effect made up for all the intermediate humour that didn't always land.

The Many, Many, MANY firsts

First Oscar for Norway (Best International Film, Sentimental Value); first Oscar for Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another); first for Ryan Coogler (Sinners); first K-pop song win (Golden, K-Pop Demon Hunters); first African American and lady cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw to win an Oscar (Sinners); first Irish actress to bag Best Actress -- Jessie Buckley (Hamnet); first ever Casting Director Oscar to Cassandra Kulukundis (One Battle After Another). It was a year of one momentous win after another.

Most confusing win

When actor-comedian Kumail Nanjiani announced a tie between The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva in the Best Live-Action Short Film category, only the seventh occasion in Oscar history, and insisted he was not joking it kind of felt like he was. The man's clumsy way of broadcasting the peculiarity of a straightforward scenario only made it weird.

Speeches straight from the heart

From 14 nominations to three wins, Paul Thomas Anderson was quite the scene stealer for his striking anti-establishment drama, One Battle After Another.

Ditto for his insightful, sensible speeches:

'I wrote this movie for my kids to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world -- we're handing off to them. But also with the encouragement that they will be the generation that hopefully brings us some common sense and decency.'

 

Jessie Buckley dedicated her trophy to the 'beautiful chaos of a mother's heart' reflecting her deeply poignant role in Hamnet.

'To know this incandescent woman, and journey to understand the capacity of a mother's love is the greatest collision of my life. It's Mother's Day in the UK today, but I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother's heart,' she said.

Buckley also spoke about her family, who were present at the ceremony, and thanked them for always encouraging her to follow her dreams: 'My family, my Irish family, they're all here tonight. Ireland bought them flights, where are you? Mom, dad, thank you for teaching us to dream and to never be defined by expectation, but to carve from your own passion.'

Woman with a vision and Sinners cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw gushed, 'I am so honoured to be here and I really want all the women in the room to stand up because I feel like I don't get here without you guys.'

 

A far cry from her wicked presence in Weapons, Amy Madigan was happy to acknowledge husband and fellow actor Ed Harris as the wind beneath her wings.

'None of this would mean anything if he wasn't by my side,' she said.

A whiff of politics, a dash of protest

O'Brien's handful digs on the Epstein files, Jimmy Kimmel poking fun at US President Donald Trump for wife Melania's documentary omission and Javier Bardem's No to War brooch made their stand clear on the sad state of affairs.

Meanwhile, Best Documentary Film winner David Borenstein (Mr Nobody Against Putin) further elaborated, 'What we saw when working with this footage is that you lose it through countless small, little acts of complicity: when we act complicit when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities, when we don't say anything when oligarchs take over the media and control how we can produce it and consume it, we all face a moral choice. But luckily even a nobody is more powerful than you think.'

Mostly though, celebrities steered away from talking about war or politics.   

Awkward moment of the night

A diplomacy-personified Priyanka Chopra Jones prudently smiling next to Spanish actor and co-presenter Javier Bardem while he exclaimed, 'No to war and free Palestine' to an applauding crowd made for one hell of an awkward sight.

And the Oscar for Best Fashion goes to

Sinners star Michael B Jordan donning a Louis Vuitton bandhgala teamed with David Yurman jewelry looked every bit the beau of the ball. Floral gowns announced the arrival of spring in style against Anne Hathaway's exquisite Valentino and Rose Byrne's Dior number.

Upset that no one is upset about

Despite early Oscar momentum, Marty Supreme's leading man and three time Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet returned home empty-handed. To make it worse, the trolling over his remarks shows no signs of stopping given how O'Brien made him a butt of his jokes or should one say 'bum drum'.

Tributes to remember

Billy Crystal talking about his friend and filmmaker Rob Reiner even as fellow collaborators like Meg Ryan, Demi Moore, Cary Elwes, Kiefer Sutherland, John Cusack and Kathy Bates joined in to celebrate his legacy.

83-year-old icon Barbara Streisand recounting working with the late legend Robert Redford and singing the title track of their romantic classic, The Way We Are.

Rachel McAdams paying emotional tributes to Diane Keaton and fellow Canadian Catherine O'Hara.

And SO many more.

Solemn reminders of all the mighty talent Hollywood has lost recently.

Reunions nobody asked for

Be it Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor celebrating 25 years of Moulin Rouge sans any camaraderie or the entire girl gang of Bridesmaids -- Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Ellie Kemper, Rose Byrne -- attempting to lighten the mood across meh humour, it was a reunion best served in a throwback post of Instagram.

No show of the night

Sean Penn's not much for Oscars. Remember the time he told Variety, 'I'll give them (his previous two trophies) to Ukraine. They can be melted down to bullets they can shoot at the Russians.'

Will his latest for Best Supporting Actor in One Battle After Another meet the same fate? The man skipped the ceremony and made his point. One could argue it was better off in the company of someone for whom it would hold Sentimental Value.

Promotion packaged as presenting

Cast of Avengers prepping us before Doomsday, Anne Hathaway and Anne Wintour hinting at The Devil Wears Prada sequel around the corner, Grogu's arrival on big screens in the Mandalorian movie, The Drama duo Zendaya and Robert Pattinson giving a glimpse of their chemistry before the romantic comedy arrives in theatres, Hollywood using its most prestigious platform for publicity just feels lame.

Except Channing Tatum -- the man's plain funny.

What's with the spate of standing ovations? The number of times the audience rose to their feet in a performer or performance's honour is cheering overkill.

Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff