By Sophia Noya | Staff Writer
The post-Oscars analysis everybody was waiting for: mine.
This past Sunday was the 98th Academy Awards, with late-night veteran Conan O’Brien hosting for the second year in a row. “One Battle After Another” was named Best Picture at the end of the night, capping off a ceremony filled with historic wins, a brand new category, and something called a bum-drum.
Film in 2025 produced the tightest awards season in recent memory– the Golden Globes, Actors Awards, and BAFTAs could not carve out clear Oscar frontrunners, except Best Actress and Best Picture.
One thing that was certain was O’Brien’s success as a host.
My year revolves around The Oscars, and I haven’t missed a broadcast since the womb, so I have plenty of emcees to compare Conan O’Brien to. Without a doubt, he’s been one of the best of this century.
O’Brien’s absurdist, witty humor is exactly the right kind of energy for the ceremony. He’s been phenomenal at comedic monologues and skits since his late-night years, which helped keep liveliness up the entire night. I am crossing my fingers and hoping his contract has been renewed indefinitely.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” took home the coveted Best Picture win in one of the few sure-fire bets of the night.
OBAA taking the win was both expected (PTA has been walking around all awards season picking up trophies as if he were grocery shopping) and well deserved. Following an ex-revolutionary searching for his daughter while a corrupt military officer hunts her down, the film’s frenetic pulse pulls you in and doesn’t let go, demanding your attention for the entire runtime.
But it was Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet”, an emotional imagining of how William Shakespeare was inspired to write “Hamlet”, that stole my heart last year. I would have given it Best Picture without thinking twice.
Jessie Buckley is Best Actress in every timeline of the multiverse. There is no reality where she loses the award for her performance as Agnes in “Hamnet”, where she delivers a profoundly moving performance as her character navigates devastating grief and her relationship with her husband.
The Best Actor award had me biting my nails since awards season started, and it seems like nobody else could make up their mind on who was going to win, either.
Timothée Chalamet enjoyed being Oscar’s Sweetheart for only a couple of months before he and “Marty Supreme”, his anxiety-producing drama about ping-pong, both suffered a dramatic fall from grace. Balletgate was the final nail in the coffin–evidently, people do care about ballet and opera.
Michael B. Jordan, on the other hand, enjoyed immense and consistent success for his performance in “Sinners”. He took on both roles of twins Elijah “Smoke” Moore and Elias “Stack” Moore, who struggle against supernatural forces in the Mississippi Delta.
Although there was plenty of debate about who would take the win, the award was Michael B. Jordan’s from the start.
Chalamet did not deliver a bad performance as Marty Mauser by any means (It was one of his best, actually), but nothing could have eclipsed Jordan’s undertaking of two vastly different characters. The Smokestack twins each had their own mannerisms, personalities and ways of speaking, and not once did Jordan’s performance ever fall short or compromise the identity of his characters.
The success of “Sinners” was part of an unusual spotlight on horror movies this year, a genre that the Academy usually snubs.
Amy Madigan took home Best Supporting Actress for “Weapons”, a rare appreciation for horror performances. I was rooting for Madigan, although I skipped “Weapons” (I’ve got the nervous system of a rabbit), but would have been pleased to see the award go to either her or Teyana Taylor for OBAA.
Best Supporting Actor going to Sean Penn for his role as Colonel Lockjaw in OBAA felt inevitable, but incorrect. It was undoubtedly a standout performance, but I would have gone for Benecio Del Toro, whose role as the charming Sensei Sergio went underrated all awards season.
Although I’ve got minor disagreements with some of the outcomes, it was a fulfilling and exciting night. One could nitpick at the details of The Oscars for hours—I definitely could—but overall, audiences can have the satisfaction that Hollywood’s biggest night was a big success.
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