98th Academy Awards Recap

What a year.

We kinda knew where this one was going early, with two films getting 13 and 16 nominations. It also seemed very early on that it was gonna be a relative One Battle After Another sweep. And for anyone holding out hope it was gonna end up about even, that Casting win sure put to bed any possibilities of a change in that. And other than that, we got mostly chalk. No real major surprises. A tie, but even those two were the two choices most people were figuring. Nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Brief notes on the ceremony — Conan was great. That opening was fantastic and he landed a couple of really great jokes throughout. The performances were great too. Probably not the best idea to put “Golden” on so late. There’s nothing that says Song can’t be given out early. It’s a TV show. If you cared about the flow of the show, you’d have made wholesale changes years ago. Also, Javier Bardem is a real one. Respect to him forever.

Otherwise, I think the right film won, and most of the right stuff won. There’s nothing that happened that made me upset. It’s rare you get through an awards season like that.

Best Picture: One Battle After Another

I think it was the best picture of the year. I think it’s legitimately one of the best winners they’ve had this century. I think this is going to hold up as a terrific winner. It was also the pace car throughout the entire race and so it winning should come as no surprise to anyone.

Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another

Finally his time. Took them long enough. Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, The Master, Inherent Vice, Phantom Thread, Licorice Pizza, One Battle After Another. What more needs to be said.

Best Actor: Michael B. Jordan, Sinners

I mean… damn, Timothée. You had it in the bag. Happy for Jordan, though. Big moment for him. But fuck. All-time collapse. This and Cinematography kept the night from being a total loss for Sinners.

Best Actress: Jessie Buckley, Hamnet

The only category that was locked from the jump. This was one of, if not the biggest lock of the night. Good for her. Also funny that she’s the only winner from the film, because had this got made any time before 2013, the film would have fared very differently than it did this year.

Best Supporting Actor: Sean Penn, One Battle After Another

I know some people have feelings about him winning and him having three wins, but I’ll be honest — Steven J. Lockjaw is one of the great screen villains. That character was immediately memorable in the way Anton Chigurh was. The character winning is a fantastic decision. Past that — is what it is. I think this is a good winner. If you wanna argue, I’ll argue that he shouldn’t have won for Mystic River. But there’s nothing to be done about that.

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Madigan, Weapons

She was the presumed winner, I just wasn’t convinced it was going to happen. Only nominee from her film, a horror movie at that, and one not with the visibility of the other films out there. But she’s a veteran, and I wasn’t sure how much people were gonna rally around the others. I still thought it would be Taylor, but I guess maybe enough people actually watched the film to think she was worthy. So that’s a good thing. Also, Amy Madigan is awesome. Very happy for her.

Best Original Screenplay: Sinners

16 overall nominations, he better have gotten this. VERY happy for him. Whatever you feel about the script for the film, consider what the man did with Fruitvale Station, Creed and Black Panther. And this. He made an original movie that made a bunch of money, got people into theaters and was a monster hit. The man deserves everything. Truly thrilled he got this moment to cap off everything he did with the film (and for film).

Best Adapted Screenplay: One Battle After Another

It’s finally his time. His sixth Screenplay nomination, coming 28 years after Boogie Nights. Previously lost for that, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, Inherent Vice and Licorice Pizza. (Wasn’t nominated for Phantom Thread, by the way.) We all knew this was coming, and I’m glad it did. Regardless of how the rest of the night turned out, he should have gotten this one. And I’m happy for him.

Best Editing: One Battle After Another

Yeah, once it won this, it was over. Deserved. INCREDIBLY deserved, but very much a sign of what the night was gonna be, if people didn’t already know. And they backloaded all the categories it was gonna win, too, to really drive the point home. But yeah, great win. Terrific work in the film.

Best Cinematography: Sinners

I think we need to talk about the fact that a woman won this award. That is the only thing we need to talk about here. This wasn’t gonna affect the rest of the night, so this is just about the work and the person who won. Well-deserved award and INCREDIBLE to see a woman get up there for work behind the camera. It does not happen often enough and I’m glad it happened for a deserved piece of work too. I am VERY happy about this one.

Best Original Score: Sinners

Imagine if it lost this too at the moment when they announced the category. Whoo boy. That would’ve been something.

I said it in the Ballot article, but Ludwig Göransson has now won three Oscars in eight years for Black Panther, Oppenheimer and this. What a trilogy of vastly different scores. Good on him.

Also, not sure why the orchestra playing the scores as they introduce the category isn’t something they do every year.

Best Original Song: “Golden,” from KPop Demon Hunters

I cannot fathom why they would put this song on at nearly 10pm when its target audience was likely in bed or asleep. Crazy choice. Just absolutely insane show structure.

That said, we knew this was winning. It was the #1 song in the country for a time this year. Did we really think it was losing? If you made me pick five stone locks on the night, they’d have been (in no particular order): Buckley in Actress, Avatar in VFX, this here, Frankenstein in Makeup and Sinners in Score.

Best Production Design: Frankenstein

The first of three obvious wins for this. It was the third handed out, so my thoughts are out of order on this. But essentially it’s a good win that we all saw coming, and I’m happy for them. Anyone who thought this (or the other two) were gonna go anywhere else wasn’t paying attention. This was easy. And deserved.

Best Costume Design: Frankenstein

This was the only real winner here. The other ones didn’t have costumes in the sense of what usually wins. This was always gonna walk away with it, and you know what? Guillermo really makes sure the craft of filmmaking is on display in his films, so I can never begrudge anything that wins from his films in production design or costumes or makeup. Ever.

Best Makeup & Hairstyling: Frankenstein

This was the best makeup of the year. The creature work is stunning and if there was anything this was going to win, it was going to be this. And again — Guillermo really makes sure the craft of moviemaking is on display in his films. While you can say something else would also have been a good winner, you can never be mad when one of his wins a category like this.

Best Visual Effects: Avatar: Fire and Ash

I love that we all knew this was winning and it wasn’t even in question, despite being up against two Best Picture nominees and it not being nominated. That Best Picture rule was ironclad until it ran up against James Cameron. This was one of the biggest gimmes on the night.

Best Sound: F1

They announced this one late, after Sinners lost Casting, so there was pretty much no way it was gonna jump up and win this. But also, winning this would’ve put back in play for those bigger categories. But F1 was always the favorite and obvious choice here, so nothing really shocking. It continued the chalk coming in on the night.

Best Casting: One Battle After Another

This was the first ‘uh oh’ of the night. We all thought this was a lock for Sinners, and here we are with One Battle After Another getting the first win. I get it. It was gonna be one or the other. I guess the casting of Chase Infiniti stood out to them more than Miles Caton. Says a lot that they’d rather give out the award to the person who discovered Chase Infiniti than for Chase Infiniti for actually giving the performance (though I do think she legitimately may have won Supporting Actress had they campaigned for her there).

I don’t know yet what their methodology is going to be in voting for this, but this was a good winner. There were a lot of non-professional actors in this film. So I’m fine with this. But it is gonna be a few years before we know what this category is gonna be. I can’t really have many takeaways from this without other winners.

Best Animated Feature: KPop Demon Hunters

It’s a phenomenon. Was it truly the best piece of animation of the year? No. But was Zootopia some kind of masterpiece? Also no. And since they were never gonna vote for Arco or Little Amelie, this is a massive win and the deserved choice. Historically, this is a huge win. So I’m very good with this.

Best International Feature: Sentimental Value (Norway)

9 nominations. I understand why people doubted it, with The Secret Agent also being nominated in Picture, but you have to remember — last year Emilia Perez was a villain. Sentimental Value is not that. So it was always gonna be the favorite here and likely winner. I’m happy for them. Between Worst Person in the World and this, I don’t think we can be upset at Joachim Trier having won something.

Best Documentary Feature: Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Perfect Neighbor was the better doc, but I get that they went for subject matter. Sure. Had it as the second choice, so nothing to be upset about there. Great speech, too. Straight chalk most of the night so far. Even the tie was chalk.

Best Documentary Short: All the Empty Rooms

Yeah, this makes sense. Wow. We got almost all favorites in Shorts. That’s been a minute. But yeah, this was the one I’d have told you I felt best about in all Shorts categories. It was a no brainer, given the subject matter. Happy for them.

Best Live Action Short: (TIE) The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva

Well this is interesting. Everybody wins! I’ll say this — those were my #1 and my #2. So I think that makes me doubly right here. Either way, there were not many categories where I’d have been legitimately disappointed had something not won, but this was one of them. Two People Exchanging Saliva was such a terrific short and I’m really happy it won. This is just a benefit to the Shorts categories, getting extra winners in there. There’s no downside here

Best Animated Short: The Girl Who Cried Pearls

Oh hey, I would’ve voted for this one. I dropped this down to third at the last minute because I was convinced they wouldn’t do it. But I’m glad they did. This was a lovely piece of animation and it deserved the win.

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Award breakdown:

• One Battle After Another — 6 wins (Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Casting)
• Sinners — 4 wins (Actor, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Score)
• Frankenstein — 3 wins (Production Design, Costume Design, Makeup & Hairstyling)
• KPop Demon Hunters — 2 wins (Song, Animated Feature)
• F1 — 1 win (Sound)
• Avatar: Fire and Ash — 1 win (Visual Effects)
• Hamnet — 1 win (Actress)
• Mr. Nobody Against Putin — 1 win (Documentary Feature)
• Sentimental Value — 1 win (International Feature)
• Weapons — 1 win (Supporting Actress)
• And then, All the Empty Rooms won Documentary Short, The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva won Live Action Short, and The Girl Who Cried Pearls won Animated Short.

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Scorecard:

• Best Picture: +1
• Best Director: +1
• Best Actor: +1
• Best Actress: +1
• Best Supporting Actor: +1
• Best Supporting Actress: +2
• Best Original Screenplay: +1
• Best Adapted Screenplay: +1
• Best Editing: +1
• Best Cinematography: +2
• Best Original Score: +1
• Best Original Song: +1
• Best Production Design: +1
• Best Costume Design: +1
• Best Makeup & Hairstyling: +1
• Best Visual Effects: +1
• Best Sound: +1
• Best Casting: +2
• Best Animated Feature: +1
• Best International Feature: +1
• Best Documentary Feature: +2
• Best Documentary Short: +1
• Best Live Action Short: +1
• Best Animated Short: +3

I went 19/24 straight up. Good year. Casting and Doc Feature didn’t go my way. Cinematography didn’t go my way. Animated Short — happens. And I deliberately did not guess the obvious in Supporting Actress. So that’s all fair. At best I was only gonna get one more right. So I’m cool with all that. I try to get 18 or better, so I’m right in line with what I hope to do.

In terms of Scorecard, I was +6. 30. Among the best I’ve ever done. And you know what — could’ve only done 1 better. But that one I switched out at the last minute was also cancelled out by something I switched to be right at the last minute. So it’s all relative. Happy with this all around. I did well.

• 2010: +12 (36)
• 2011: +14 (38)
• 2012: +10 (34)
• 2013: +5 (29)
• 2014: +8 (32)
• 2015: +9 (33)
• 2016: +11 (35)
• 2017: +5 (29)
• 2018: +9 (33)
• 2019: +3 (27)
• 2020: +13 (36)
• 2021: +4 (27)
• 2022: +6 (29)
• 2023: +7 (30)
• 2024: +13 (36)
• 2025: +13 (36)

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(P.S. My Oscar trivia article is updated with the results from this year.)

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