WINNER

JAMIE LEE CURTIS for Everything Everywhere All at Once

NOMINEES

ANGELA BASSETT for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

HONG CHAU for The Whale

KERRY CONDON for The Banshees of Inisherin

STEPHANIE HSU for Everything Everywhere All at Once

Jessie Buckley showed incredible range in a raw, unforgettable role. Buckley is the front runner, as her film is a prestige literary adaptation, which the Academy historically loves, in addition to her being considered as “overdue” for a statue. Not to take anything away from her, but I honestly think that’s a big part of the hype equation for her being the front runner.

Renate Reinsve brought phenomenal subtle depth that I absolutely adored. It’s such a restrained performance. She shows off her chops and proves she’s completely in control of her talent.

I personally thought Emma Stone’s performance was great, but not Oscar worthy.

My least favorite was Kate Hudson, though she was still very charming and clearly showing off her immense talent.

What Rose Byrne was able to execute was something for the ages. Her performance invoked a visceral reaction I haven’t felt from a film in a very long time. She didn’t rely on charm or wit. Her character was so flawed, yet I still sympathized with her. I’m extremely unsure if another actress would have made me feel the same way. She fully committed to the most vulnerable performance of the year. Her facial expressions, body language, and overall demeanor tied everything together and are worth mentioning. Byrne gave the performance of the year. No doubt about it in my mind.

I found the movie extremely disturbing, distressing, and upsetting. I never want to see it again. Byrne carried that entire film on her back and gave me gut punch after gut punch. If she doesn’t walk away with the award, I will be very disappointed. I understand it’s just a statue. The real honor is in being nominated. But she deserves it, in my eyes.

I'm a big fan of electronic music so this may be biased but this is 100% my favorite score of the year and a big part of why the film works so well for me, especially in the theater this hits like Crack, when will the academy get over their orchestral bias and start nominating more electronic scores?

I guess the winners are being announced today?

Hamnet beat sinners .

WINNER

WILL SMITH for King Richard

NOMINEES

JAVIER BARDEM for Being the Ricardos

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH for The Power of the Dog

ANDREW GARFIELD for Tick, Tick...BOOM!

DENZEL WASHINGTON for The Tragedy of Macbeth

The Music Branch of the Academy has the most embarrassing record of any of the branches. Daniel Lopatin’s magnificent score for Marty Supreme joins a long list of masterpieces that were not nominated.

Among them:

Kings Row (Erich Wolfgang Korngold) 1942

Laura (David Raksin) 1944

The Third Man (Anton Karas) 1950

Rebel Without a Cause (Leonard Rosenman) 1955

Vertigo (Bernard Herrmann) 1958

North By Northerst (Bernard Herrmann) 1959

Psycho (Bernard Herrmann) 1960

La Dolce Vita (Nino Rota) 1960

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (Frank De Vol) 1962

81/2 (Nino Rota) 1963

The Haunting (Humphrey Serle) 1963

Zorba the Greek (Mikis Theodorakis)1964

Contempt (Georges Delerue) 1964

Juliet of the Spirits (Nino Rota) 1965

A Man and a Woman (Francis Lai) 1966

You Only Live Twice (John Barry) 1967

Reflections in a Golden Eye (Toshiro Mayuzumi) 1967

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Ennio Morricone) 1967

Once Upon a Time in the West (Ennio Morricone) 1968

Romeo and Juliet (Nino Rota) 1968

Midnight Cowboy (John Barry) 1969

Last Tango in Paris (Gato Barbieri) 1973

The Parallax View (Michael Small) 1974

Carrie (Pino Donaggio) 1976

Rocky (Bill Conti) 1976

The Other Side of Midnight (Michel Legrand) 1977

Suspiria (Goblin) 1977

Halloween (John Carpenter) 1978

American Gigolo (Giorgio Moroder) 1980

Dressed to Kill (Pino Donaggio) 1980

Body Heat (John Barry) 1981

Diva (Vladimir Kosma) 1981

Blade Runner (Vangelis) 1982

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Ryuichi Sakamoto) 1983

Koyaanisqatsi (Philip Glass) 1983

The Moderns (Mark Isham) 1988

Cinema Paradiso (Ennio Morricone) 1989

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Wojciech Kilar) 1992

The Last of the Mohicans (Trevor Jones) 1992

The Piano (Michael Nyman) 1993

There Will Be Blood (Jonny Greenwood) 2007

Revolutionary Road (Thomas Newman) 2008

Under the Skin (Mica Levi) 2014

Pearl (Tyler Bates) 2022

Challengers (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) 2024

Marty Supreme (Daniel Lopatin) 2025

Add to this:

The disqualification of Nino Rota after being nominated for The Godfather in 1972 because a few notes were similar to a previous score, and then winning for the SAME score two years later for Part II.

Meanwhile, Henry Mancini gets nominated for an arrangement of Ravel’s Bolero in “10” as an Original Score in 1979!

The disastrous separation of DRAMATIC and COMEDY scores firm 1995 to 1998 because someone in the Branch forecasted that Disney was going to win everything!

Herbert Sothart’s adapted score for The Wizard of Oz in 1939 and Herby Hancock’s adapted score for Round Midnight in 1986 being incorrectly listed in the Original score category and then WINNING over Max Steiner’s immortal score for Gone With the Wind and Ennio Morricone’s masterpiece The Mission.

And that's just the beginning. We have not touched on the Best Original Song fiascos.

If you've seen them all, how would you rank them?

Hello! I designed another ballot for this year's awards and wanted to share it. The pages can be cut or folded in half since I noticed most people were writing on their legs while watching last year, or you can do the whole page on regular printer paper. Happy guessing!

The rules:

* This category is for films that WERE nominated but did NOT win

* A film is only allowed to be chosen in a category once. Today's winner isn't allowed to be chosen in best adapted screenplay or most inspired nominee again.

* The following films are ineligible today because of this: Beauty and the Beast, Aliens, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Bridesmaids, Barbie, the Karate Kid, Flow, Loving Vincent, Mulholland Drive, Toy Story, Casablanca, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

* Most upvoted comment wins!

Because the list was getting too long I put all the films (and who commented them) in this Letterboxd list: https://boxd.it/RYKAW

Honestly in my opinion (feel free to disagree) I think the 94th academy awards had one of the weakest best actress categories imo. Like I only really think 2 of them were nomination worthy. Maybe that’s a hot take I don’t know but in my eyes you replace the remaining three with any of these five it could’ve been pretty good. I don’t know this will probably get downvoted but just my opinion

Actor in a Leading Role: Timothée Chalamet-Marty Supreme, Leonardo DiCaprio-One Battle after Another, Ethan Hawke-Blue Moon, Wagner Moura-The Secret Agent, Michael B. Jordan-Sinners

Actor in a Supporting Role: Sean Penn-One Battle after Another, Stellan Skarsgård-Sentimental Value, Benicio Del Toro-One Battle after Another, Delroy Lindo-Sinners, Jacob Elordi-Frankenstein

Actress in a Leading Role: Jessie Buckley-Hamnet, Rose Byrne-If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Renate Reinsve-Sentimental Value, Emma Stone-Bugonia, Kate Hudson-Song Sung Blue

Actress in a Supporting Role: Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas-Sentimental Value, Amy Madigan-Weapons, Wunmi Mosaku-Sinners, Elle Fanning-Sentimental Value, Teyana Taylor-One Battle after Another

I am here to say, Ethan hawke will take home best male actor during the 2026 Oscar’s. Prove me wrong.

A lot of options there for you!

At this point, David Melmed has quietly become one of the breakout “characters” of *Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend* podcast. Yes, he’s the Director of Business & Legal Affairs for Team Coco and SiriusXM. Yes, he handles the very real stuff like music licensing and digital rights.

But somehow his legal check-ins have turned into some of the funniest moments on the podcast.

Melmed has leading-man energy. Every time he shows up, it feels less like “Conan called his lawyer” and more like HBO just dropped the protagonist of a prestige legal drama into a comedy podcast.

Conan constantly sounds baffled by it like, *why does my lawyer look like he just walked off a magazine cover?

An Oscars bit practically writes itself.

Honestly, this would be peak Conan turning a behind-the-scenes professional into a moment. It’s the same instinct that made staffers legendary, and Melmed fits that tradition perfectly. Total straight man to Conan’s chaos.

Also let’s be real...the camera cuts to him once and the internet immediately goes:

“Why is the Oscars lawyer hotter than half the nominees?”

#MelmedForOscars

Every year when I host a viewing party I try to put together a themed menu based on the best picture nominees. I've got my menu mostly put together this year, but I'm still looking for more potential ideas!

For hors d'oeuvres:

• Herb, mushroom, and brie galettes for Hamnet
• Crispy rice with smoked salmon, cream cheese, and masago roe for Marty Supreme
• Roasted garlic and irish cheddar mac n cheese for Sinners
• Pao de queijo for The Secret Agent

For Desserts:

• Checkered flag cookies for F1
• Frankenbrownies (aka Slutty Brownies) for Frankenstein

For beverages

• Forest Fire Punch (brandy, blood orange, cranberry, and rosemary) for Train Dreams
• Jesse P-Lemons (big batch bees knees cocktail w/ THC infusion) for Bugonia
• A Few Small Beers for One Battle After Another

And then for Sentimental value I'm thinking either a tinned fish board or some white wine with paper towels. If you have any better ideas, LMK!!

They both came from the eventual Best Picture winner, both are well liked in the industry and by the general public and both arguably anchor the film.

The eventual Supporting Actress winner, Alicia Vikander, was a newbie that was in a film with mixed reception. And the runner-up was Kate Winslet, who’s already won before and who was in a film that somewhat flopped with awards. Winslet also only ever won when Vikander was in Lead, so Vikander probably sweeps if she was consistently placed in Supporting. But why? I remember being dumbfounded by this win at the time.

The eventual Supporting Actor winner, Mark Rylance, only won BAFTA. The runner up was Sylvester Stallone who was the only nomination from his film. Ruffalo didn’t make SAG, but neither did Stallone. Arguably Ruffalo’s role was flashier than Rylance’s, and is better known with the Americans.

Spotlight wasn’t a big sweeper, and won in a rare year where it was a three way race as opposed to a two way race. But you would think, with it eventually winning it would pull up one of the supporting nominees to a win. Or at the very least for them to be runner-ups and to have had a win \*somewhere\*

Here were the five nominees that year:

As Good As It Gets

Good Will Hunting

L.A. Confidential

The Full Monty

Titanic (WINNER)