2026 Oscars

This year Audrey and I managed to watch all ten Best Picture nominees before the Oscars, which made the awards cermemony more entertaining than many other years where we haven't.

I found the nominees to be a real mixed bag this year, but I enjoyed all the movies to some degree or another. Being a plot junkie, I normally dislike a movie where (effectively at least) nothing actually happens, but Train Dreams really drew me in with its languid storytelling, brilliant characterizations and luminous cinematography. Alas, it was shut out though. 

I was gratified to see Sinners take home a few trophies, including Original Screenplay for Ryan Coogler, Score for Ludwig Goransson and Actor for Michael B. Jordan.

I've never read Thomas Pynchon but I loved the Illuminati-esque vibe that permeated One Battle After Another, and was gratified to see it take home seven wins including Best Picture and Best Director.

Seeing the, what, seventh? Oscar tie in history was pretty cool as well, when Kumail Nanjani announced that both Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva had won for Live Action Short.

I took six shots for March of the Dead* this year so I wish I had better recall of some of the speeches and quips, but recall Jimmy Kimmel observing how mad a certain president would be that his wife's documentary wasn't nominated, and host Conan O'Brien joking they were broadcasting from the "Has a Small Penis Theater - let's see him put his name in front of that."  

I remember being touched by the sincerity and depth of many of the acceptance speeches, especially when Documentary Short winner All the Empty Rooms, about the bedrooms of school shooting victims, had a mother of a child shot in Uvalde take about how gun violence is now the number one killer of youth in America. The moment when the subject of Mr NobodyVersus Putin, a teacher who had to leave Russia after documenting how pro-war/ anti-Ukraine propaganda changed the students and parents at his school, pleaded for an end to wars, was also haunting.

Most critically though, it was nice to have a dozen people in the same room who love movies, regardless of who won! Out choir director Margaret (and mother of last year's draw winner!) surprised herself in getting the most correct guesses (13).

Each correct guess gets you a ticket in the raffle for movie tickets (so everyone doesn't just pick the predictions from GoldDerby), and my nephew Mark won that.

The brisket turned out well and the pot luck was outstanding as usual - the early start also means I can finish this post well before midnight. See you next year!

* Tom Stoppard, Lalo Schifrin, TK Carter, Lee Tamahori, Diane Ladd and Cory-Hiroyuki Tagawa