The 98th Academy Awards ceremony has ended in Los Angeles. The best film was “Battle after Battle” by director Paul Thomas Anderson, and the Oscar in the “Best Documentary” category went to “Mr. Nobody vs. Putin” by American director David Borenstein and a videographer from the city of Karabash in the Ural region, Pavel Talankin. Film critic Anton Dolin talks about these and other results of the award, as well as why so many directors from the theater spoke about children.
It was one of the best celebrations in years. Predictable in the good sense of the word – most awards were handed out exactly as critics, viewers and the industry wanted. At the same time, it is full of surprises, bright emotional episodes, and successful production decisions. There weren’t a lot of funny jokes, but that can be forgiven.
As is usually the case, the nuances overshadowed the main thing: Paul Thomas Anderson’s victory in “battle after battle.” Six Oscars out of thirteen nominations are deserved and without exaggeration. The most relevant film, which describes today’s America (and perhaps the entire world) with painful accuracy and dark humor, was recognized as the best of the year. It is a rare case when a completely mainstream award and prestige is given to a truly important work of art, whose language and style are by no means conventional.
Anderson, one of the most important masters of modern cinema, won European festivals – remember Magnolia’s win at the Berlinale – but never took home an Oscar. He is now a three-time winner: as a screenwriter, director and producer. His speeches from the stage were clearly improvised and humble, without any political overtones and with endless thanks to everyone, including his less fortunate rivals. However, Anderson honestly admitted: considering that they are no less worthy, he is glad that the Oscar is still given to him.
The film also received awards for editing and acting (a new nomination, the award was awarded for the first time!). The surprise was the absence of Sean Penn, who won his third Oscar for acting. The reasons remain unclear: as Kieran Culkin, last year’s laureate, said when he announced the award, “Ben couldn’t or didn’t want to attend.” One way or another, Warner Bros. has the right. Not only to be proud of the victory, but also to forget the questionable commercial outcome of “Battle after Battle” – a film that is too long, too clever and too complex to be a real movie.
Not a big deal, because the same producers had “Sinners.” “Vampire Blues,” the Ryan Coogler musical that made all of America fall in love with it, lost to Battle After Battle, but took home four statuettes in the most important categories. This, of course, is the music of Ludwig Göransson (it is a pity that Jonny Greenwood, who wrote for “Battle after Battle”, lost to him, but the Swedish composer honestly received his third Oscar), and the original text – so Coogler was allowed to enjoy a personal victory, as well as very impressive victories in the categories “Cinematography” and “Leading Male Role”.
The first female cinematographer to win an Academy Award in the history of the American Academy is the incredibly talented Autumn Dorald Arakboy, who is from California with Creole and Filipino roots. “God is good,” her co-star, actor Michael B. Jordan, said from the stage. For his role as a twin gangster fighting Irish vampires, he received the statuette that all the punters had promised Timothée Chalamet ten days earlier. Maybe it is Bad note About opera and ballet was the last straw. “Marty the Great” received nothing, and what’s more, host Conan O’Brien openly mocked Chalamet and added a drum set shaped like the actor’s butt to the orchestra (the musician hit it with ping-pong rackets, a reference to the film). As if to take down Timothy, ballet star Misty Copeland joined a stellar group of guitarists and singers for an undeniably great song from “Sinners.”
At the same time, the best song was awarded not to the blues great “I Lied to You”, but to the song “Golden” from the movie “K-Pop Demon Hunters”, an original cartoon that celebrates the cultural diversity of the present-day United States – a fruitful collaboration between Netflix and Sony Animation. It also won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. Perhaps nothing more striking was created last season than this. Korean-Canadian animator Maggie Kang dedicated her team’s win to all Koreans, no matter where they live.
Other important multiple award winners in 2026 include Guillermo del Toro for his film “Frankenstein” (and again among the Netflix winners!). Unlike “The Shape of Water” and “Pinocchio”, the Mexican narrator did not receive a personal statuette, but was undoubtedly awarded three important awards in the so-called “technical” categories – production design, costumes, make-up and hairstyles. Known to be a perfectionist, del Toro pays attention to every prop, every shade of fabric, and more than that, every set. This is especially noticeable in the lushly ornate “Frankenstein” – the fulfillment of the director’s long-standing dream.
The cultural diversity of the ceremony (the two main winning films turned out to be almost overgrown American ones!) was underscored by the presence of Norwegian “sentimental value” in nine nominations. Joachim Trier’s film won an Oscar in the international category. No matter how sad we feel when we see his victory in a fight with the sharper, more dramatic and more original “Simple Chance” of the Iranian Jafar Panahi, we have to admit that the American Academy is perhaps closer to the soft tones and soothing tone of the Scandinavian. Moreover, last spring in Cannes, the jury ruled differently, awarding Panahi first place and Trier second place. Here is the long awaited revenge.
The most anticipated win of the ceremony – apart from the Formula 1 Academy Awards for Best Sound and for Avatar III for visual effects – was awarded to Irishman Jessie Buckley for her role as Agnes, Shakespeare’s wife in Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet.
In a poetic and expressive speech, the wonderful actress dedicated her Oscar to “the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart.” Not just pretty words, but a real leitmotif for the year. Paul Thomas Anderson, who came out to accept one of the three Oscars, also spoke about children and asked for forgiveness for the mess in which they, as parents, leave the current world for the sake of their grandchildren. The co-writers of the winning documentary “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” brought this topic to a head in their speeches. “This is a film about losing your country,” noted American David Borenstein, not so much about Russia as about America. Former Ural-Karabash teacher Pavel Talankin called in Russian, in the name of the future and in the name of the children, to immediately end all wars.
It was from the kids that in a rather witty introduction to the party, host Conan O’Brien, who created the character of the nightmarish Aunt Gladys from the horror film “Guns,” ran away. Did he know that just minutes later, 75-year-old Amy Madigan, who played the creepy witch, would win her first Oscar for supporting actress? Thus, she unexpectedly beat out her husband, Ed Harris, who had been nominated several times (but never awarded the award).
In the unusual American Academy Award for a character actress of this variation on the Pied Piper of Hamelin legend, one can also see a message to the future: children one day will tear apart the evil old men who change their fates today. In any case, hope for such a happy ending was given by a comedic finale, in which Conan O’Brien, who was supposedly appointed Oscar host for life, repeated the unenviable fate of Colonel Lockjaw from “Battle after Battle” – the loser father who lost the battle for his daughter.