Review: How the 2026 Oscars delivered anticipated awards for Hollywood’s biggest films

The 98th Academy Awards shined a light on Hollywood’s biggest films by awarding actors and crew and throwing in Conan O’Brien’s trademark humor.

By: Jesse Illanes, Managing Editor & Valley Life Editor

Conan O’Brien hosted the 98th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre and opened his monologue by joking that he may be the Oscars last human host.

“Next year, it’s going to be a Waymo in a tux,” O’Brien added.

Stars from this year’s popular films like “Sinners,” “One Battle After Another,” “Frankenstein” and “Marty Supreme,” walked the red carpet, ready for a night filled with awards, skits and emotional acceptance speeches.

With the event starting at 4 p.m., host Conan O’Brien led with clever jokes, reminiscent of his previous talk shows, and seemed more comfortable his second time around. O’Brien upped the game with raunchier jokes than last year, to greeting multiple regions in the world in Spanish such as Spain, Argentina and even Los Angeles, alluding to issues like the Epstein files and other political conflicts.

The Oscars in recent years have been a hub for political commentary and this year was no different as Conan’s monologue was briefly paused as a continuing, roaring applause came over the mention of the best documentary short film. All the nominees in this category featured some kind of political statement as the winner of the category being “All the Empty Rooms” documented the bedrooms of children who were killed in school shootings.

Actors also stated their views while accepting or presenting awards, as the most prominent example of this year’s show being Javier Bardem stating “no to war, and free Palestine” before he presented the award for best international film. This reflects how the show that awards storytelling provides a platform for grievances that inspired these stories to be heard.

Most actors who were previous winners from last year’s Oscars introduced their category like Zoe Saldaña introducing best supporting actress, winning from last year in her role in Emilia Pérez. However, with some Oscars in past years, would pair presenters in themes like classic actresses with young starlets, this year, other presenters who weren’t previous winners were fun cast reunions, as Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. reunited from the Avengers films and Anna Wintour and Anne Hathaway reuniting from The Devil Wears Prada.

Amy Madigan won best supporting actress, which was astonishing as this was her second Oscars nomination in 40 years. With her speech describing the gap in years and shouting out “Weapons” director, Zach Cregger. This was a big Oscars win for horror, as historically, the show always snubs the genre. 

Michael B. Jordan won his first nomination for best actor in “Sinners,” joining his movie colleagues — Ryan Coogler, Ludwig Göransson and Autumn Durald Arkapaw — as Oscar winners. It feels like a long time coming for Jordan and Coogler’s team, as Jordan has been a frequent collaborator. It’s about time he won an Oscar. 

Jordan playing the identical twins Smoke and Stack in “Sinners” was such a marvel to see on the screen, with high credit due to Jordan’s performance and Coogler’s directing and writing. Arkapaw being the first female recipient of the best cinematography award feels like the perfect ending to “Sinners” in this award season, as the racially inclusive film ended with a first for equality at the Oscars.

The star of the show was “One Battle After Another” as the moment finally arrived to recognize the San Fernando Valley’s own, Paul Thomas Anderson. Many films of his take place in the Valley, I hoped his Oscar win would be a film highlighting our community. But on a wider level, “One Battle After Another” hit almost every mark of commentary in this current political climate, such as immigration, policing, morality of what’s right etc. The film is also great at being an edge-of-your-seat action movie, with PTA’s unique flair of humor.

In total, “Frankenstein” won three awards, “Sinners” with the most nominations in Oscars history won four awards, and “One Battle After Another”  six awards. “The Secret Agent” was a magnificent film that the Star reviewed, but ended up getting no awards out of its four nominations, which is similar to the fan favorite “Marty Supreme” which didn’t win anything with its nine nominations.

Overall, the award winners were acceptable and fine. Last year, Anora sweeping was unprecedented but just in terms of the awards given, it’s kind of what you’d expect if you’re an avid movie fan and following the trends of the previous awards given this awards season. Here’s hoping that Conan continues being the host, and upcoming films make for next year’s award season an even closer race.