Hollywood gathered once again beneath the glittering lights of the Dolby Theatre for the 98th Academy Awards, and while the ceremony stretched late into the evening—as Oscar nights inevitably do—it unfolded with unusual energy, humor, and a sense that the industry had rediscovered how to entertain itself. Hosted by Conan O'Brien, the evening balanced sharp comedy with genuine celebration of filmmaking, producing one of the tighter ceremonies in recent memory even if the clock still drifted well past its scheduled ending.
By Allan R. Ellenberger
O’Brien set the tone immediately with a lively opening sketch that had the audience roaring. In a playful parody, he stepped into the persona of Aunt Gladys from Weapons, shuffling through exaggerated recreations of scenes from several of the nominated films. The bit was gleefully absurd and affectionate toward the nominees, and it drew some of the night’s biggest laughs—exactly the sort of self-aware humor that the Oscars occasionally forget how to deploy.
Once the comedy subsided, the ceremony moved quickly into its central purpose: honoring the films that had defined the past year. One of the evening’s most celebrated triumphs belonged to Sinners, the ambitious drama directed by Ryan Coogler (Best Original Screenplay winner), which emerged as one of the ceremony’s most significant winners.
The film captured several major honors, most notably Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan, whose demanding dual performance as twin brothers anchored the film’s powerful narrative. Jordan’s victory was widely viewed as long overdue recognition for an actor whose career has steadily expanded from blockbuster franchise roles into increasingly complex dramatic territory.
His emotional acceptance speech—thanking Coogler for their years of collaboration and acknowledging the risks involved in taking on such a challenging role—became one of the evening’s most memorable moments.
But Sinners made history in another way that reverberated throughout the industry. The film’s cinematographer, Autumn Durald Arkapaw, won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, becoming the first woman ever to win the category in the Academy’s nearly century-long history.
The moment drew a prolonged standing ovation inside the theater. For decades, cinematography had remained one of the Academy’s most male-dominated categories, with women often struggling to gain recognition despite their contributions to visual storytelling. Arkapaw’s victory represented a historic breakthrough, both symbolically and artistically. Her work on Sinners—with its moody lighting, richly textured interiors, and striking visual contrasts—had already been praised by critics as one of the year’s most visually distinctive achievements. The Oscar confirmed that assessment while also marking a turning point in the recognition of women working behind the camera.
The film’s success underscored how strongly it had resonated with Academy voters. Critics had praised Sinners throughout awards season for its bold storytelling and its visual ambition, and the Oscar wins reinforced its reputation as one of the year’s defining cinematic accomplishments.
Elsewhere in the ceremony, the evening’s biggest overall winner proved to be One Battle After Another, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, which captured Best Picture along with several additional awards including Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and the Academy’s newly introduced Best Casting category. The film’s sweeping victory confirmed what many critics had suspected in the final weeks of the awards race—that Anderson’s ambitious production had quietly gathered enormous support within the Academy.
Among the acting categories, another highlight came when Jessie Buckley won Best Actress for her haunting portrayal of Agnes Shakespeare in Hamnet, a performance critics praised for its emotional restraint and quiet power.
Perhaps the most widely celebrated acting moment of the night came when veteran performer Amy Madigan won Best Supporting Actress for her eccentric and unsettling performance as Aunt Gladys in Weapons. The award arrived more than forty years after her first nomination, and her emotional speech drew one of the ceremony’s most heartfelt standing ovations.
The Best Supporting Actor award went to Sean Penn for his role as Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw in One Battle After Another, marking the third Oscar of his career and placing him among the rare performers to achieve that distinction. Penn was not present at the ceremony, and the award was accepted on his behalf.
Beyond the acting prizes, the ceremony also highlighted the Academy’s growing embrace of international and independent filmmaking. Norway’s Sentimental Value captured Best International Feature Film, while the political documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin won Best Documentary Feature.
Animation also enjoyed a moment in the spotlight when KPop Demon Hunters won both Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for the exuberant track “Golden.”
Technical categories brought their own surprises. The visually striking Frankenstein dominated the craft awards, winning Production Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, and Costume Design, demonstrating the Academy’s continuing admiration for grand-scale cinematic artistry.
Meanwhile F1 captured Best Sound, and Avatar: Fire and Ash took home Best Visual Effects, reinforcing the continued technical dominance of large-scale spectacle filmmaking.
One Battle After Another's Paul Thomas Anderson took home three Oscar's for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture.
Critics covering the ceremony generally praised the show’s pacing and tone. Many reviewers noted that Conan O’Brien’s hosting style struck a welcome balance between satire and genuine enthusiasm for movies. The opening sketch—particularly his comic turn as Aunt Gladys—was widely singled out as one of the funniest Oscar openings in years.
Film commentators on YouTube echoed similar reactions. Several prominent channels remarked that the ceremony “felt shorter even when it wasn’t,” crediting O’Brien’s quick wit and the Academy’s tighter structure for keeping the evening lively.
But as always, Oscar night produced its share of debates about surprises and snubs. Some critics had expected Timothée Chalamet to win Best Actor for Marty Supreme, making Michael B. Jordan’s victory one of the evening’s most discussed upsets. Others pointed to the imaginative science-fiction drama Bugonia, which entered the ceremony with strong critical support but ultimately left without major above-the-line awards.
The cast of the Best Picture winner, One Battle After Another
Yet by the time the final statuette had been handed out, the prevailing mood inside the Dolby Theatre was one of celebration. The ceremony may have run long—as Oscar nights always do—but the combination of humor, historic wins, and genuine enthusiasm for filmmaking gave the evening an energy that has sometimes been missing in recent years.
By the end, the applause inside the theater suggested that Hollywood had once again managed to honor its art while putting on a show worthy of its own mythology. And for one night at least, beneath the bright lights of Hollywood Boulevard, the dream factory celebrated itself with confidence, laughter, and just a touch of the old magic.
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