I always love watching the Oscars. Sure, it’s self-important and The Academy can make bizarre choices that make no damn sense. Compels me though.

The Nominees

I wasn’t super upset about anything here. I was surprised F1 got a Best Picture nod, and even more surprised at Kate Hudson getting a Lead Actress nomination (justice for Amanda Seyfried!), but no major complaints.

The Broadcast

I like Conan and he generally does well here. You kind of need that talk-show-host energy to handle this occasion well. The host needs to not be intimidated by the people in the room so they can fire playful darts at them without worrying about making anyone mad. Conan (and Kimmel) walk this tightrope pretty well.

The overall production of this year’s show seemed, I dunno, off? It felt like the mics were all over the place, the sound mix was rough, and the direction was bizarre — cutting to things we didn’t need to see, missing things we wanted to see, etc. It felt like the production didn’t live up to the occasion.

The Awards

Actress in a Supporting Role

My Pick: Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas

Winner: Amy Madigan

I knew Inga had no shot, but I had to pick her anyway. Sentimental Value was one of my favorites of the year and every performance is incredible, but hers might be the most overlooked.

I haven’t seen Weapons and likely won’t, so I can’t speak to Amy Madigan’s legitimacy here. I loved seeing her and Ed Harris, though.

Animated Feature Film

My Pick: KPop Demon Hunters

Winner: KPop Demon Hunters

This was maybe the least surprising award of the night. I went into this movie with a lot of skepticism and it completely won me over. A deserved win.

Animated Short Film

My Pick: Butterfly

Winner: The Girl Who Cried Pearls

I’m a little salty about this one. The Girl Who Cried Pearls is good, but I don’t think it was the best of this batch. It’s super impressive from a technical perspective, but the story just didn’t quite come together for me. Some of the character design is also a little creepy in a way that doesn’t really match the story’s tone.

Costume Design

My Pick: Frankenstein

Winner: Frankenstein

These costumes were incredible. No complaints here.

Makeup and Hairstyling

My Pick: Frankenstein

Winner: Frankenstein

The “creature” makeup alone was probably enough to win the award, but everything else was great too.

Casting

My Pick: Sinners

Winner: One Battle after Another

This was a last-minute change on my part and I’m annoyed at myself. It was a tough award to predict since this is the first-ever Casting award (it’s about time! now do stunts!), but my logic was “Well, this is Chase Infiniti’s first movie and she was incredible and absolutely crucial, so the Casting Director who found her did an phenomenal job.” Thus, I picked One Battle after Another. Then I thought about it more and thought “Well, that same logic is true of Miles Canton, and he was arguably just as crucial to Sinners as Chase was to One Battle, so maybe it’ll be Sinners” and I changed my pick. Eh, what can you do. Both were probably deserving!

Actor in a Supporting Role

My Pick: Stellan Skarsgård

Winner: Sean Penn

Stellan’s is the type of performance that is so hard to actually do, but rarely wins awards. I had hope maybe The Academy would recognize it this time, but alas, no. Sean Penn was incredible, but I think I’m less drawn to flashier work. Maybe he got bonus points for believably playing a character so completely the opposite from his own politics?

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

My Pick: One Battle after Another

Winner: One Battle after Another

I like PTA’s work, I don’t love PTA’s work, but I’m glad to see him take home his first Oscar here. He’s undeniably one of the great talents of his generation and had too long gone un-awarded by The Academy.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

My Pick: Sinners

Winner: Sinners

Coogler! A generational talent both in the writing room and in the director’s chair. Super excited he got this.

Live Action Short Film

My Pick: Two People Exchanging Saliva

Winner: [TIE] The Singers, Two People Exchanging Saliva

A tie! Wild! I had forgotten it was even possible for ties to happen. Kumail handled it remarkably well considering he surely had no idea he’d have to deal with a tie. Both of these short films are great. I loved Two People.

Production Design

My Pick: Frankenstein Winner: Frankenstein

The Frankenstein sweep of the craft/design awards. This one was such a difficult category because all of the nominees were fantastically designed. Jack Fisk’s work on Marty Supreme was a stand-out for me. I fully believed I was in that time period. I feel like more recent-period work (as opposed to Victorian-era, or something) can get overlooked because, if you do it well, it just feels right and isn’t noticeable.

Visual Effects

My Pick: Avatar: Fire and Ash

Winner: Avatar: Fire and Ash

Of course it was going to be Avatar. They’re literally redefining the Visual Effects industry, how could it not be?

Documentary Short Film

My Pick: All the Empty Rooms

Winner: All the Empty Rooms

I haven’t seen this and I’m not sure if I can watch it. I think it’d make me too angry and sad. The gun laws in the U.S. are moronic.

Documentary Feature Film

My Pick: The Perfect Neighbor

Winner: Mr. Nobody Against Putin

I didn’t see any of these nominees, so I don’t have a ton to say here.

Music (Original Score)

My Pick: Sinners

Winner: Sinners

I see Ludwig Goransson, I pick Ludwig Goransson. He’s got two out of the last three and will almost certainly be nominated again next year for The Odyssey. The Sinners score was such a departure from what he’s done recently, but in a refreshing and great way. He’s right there with Coogler as a generational talent who knocks it out of the park every time he steps up to the plate. I wonder if he did the Leo point when the orchestra played the Mandolorian score at one point during the broadcast.

Sound

My Pick: Sirāt

Winner: F1

I went against the conventional wisdom here thinking it might be a massive upset. ‌Sirāt is a movie entirely created by its sound design. F1 is more of a straightforward narrative that just happens to have really great sound, so I was thinking maybe The Academy would get weird here. They didn’t. ‌Sirāt is super polarizing, so it was maybe naïve on my part to think they might pick it.

Film Editing

My Pick: One Battle after Another

Winner: One Battle after Another

This movie just never stops. The pacing is incredible. The way the car chase is cut is probably enough to win this award all by itself.

Cinematography

My Pick: One Battle after Another

Winner: Sinners

This was another I waffled on a ton. Outside of Frankenstein (which felt just like a well-shot movie with some beautiful images), all of the nominees here contributed a ton to what made their movies special. Train Dreams isn’t the same movie without the 3:2 ratio, naturally lit nature shots. Marty Supreme doesn’t work without the long-lens closeups, intensifying the claustrophobia and tension. One Battle after Another is grounded but gorgeous and oozes contrast and real light in a way movies rarely do. They even shot it on VistaVision! Sinners deploys the IMAX aspect ratio shift to incredible effect (better than even some of Nolan’s work) and it looks incredible. Any of these could’ve won and I would’ve been absolutely fine with it. What a year!

International Feature Film

My Pick: Sentimental Value

Winner: Sentimental Value

So glad this won! It’s one of my favorites of the year. This category was absolutely stacked.

Music (Original Song)

My Pick: “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters

Winner: “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters

Actually, maybe this the least-surprising result of the night. This song is an absolute bop and took over the world for a while. It was weird they only performed two of the original song nominees in the broadcast. It’s not like they were hurting for time considering how many random bits ran on for way too long. I’m also annoyed they cut off the second person who wanted to speak when accepting this award. C’mon, y’all! Let ‘em talk!

Directing

My Pick: One Battle after Another

Winner: One Battle after Another

Excited for PTA! I think this was between him and Coogler and either of them could’ve taken. Both made movies that, on paper, could’ve been complete messes, yet they both worked brilliantly. Directing!

Actor in a Leading Role

My Pick: Timothée Chalamet

Winner: Michael B. Jordan

Timmy made me sort of care about Marty despite hating everything he does, which is a pretty compelling case for it being a great performance. I think it’s his best work to date, but I felt a little off picking it because it just felt like it wasn’t quite enough for some reason. Maybe the performance is a little too one-note (until the last scene). Super happy for Michael B. Jordan! He created two distinct characters and had them play off each other so naturally I completely bought in and forgot about the artifice of it all. Love that he and Coogler both got their first Oscars on the same night for the same film.

Actress in a Leading Role

My Pick: Jessie Buckley

Winner: Jessie Buckley

Okay, maybe this is actually the least surprising result. As soon as Hamnet ended, my wife and I both said to each other “well she’s gonna win” and, sure enough, here we are. She’s my favorite part of Hamnet (except maybe lil Jupe). The range she shows from the “bigness” of reacting to unthinkable tragedy, to the final scene where everything is small and subtle… wow, hats off to her.

Best Picture

My Pick: One Battle after Another

Winner: One Battle after Another

The movie of 2025. As much as I loved Sinners and thought it might be able to pull off a ranked-choice upset, it really does feel like One Battle is the right choice here. We’ll look back on it decades from now as the definitive film for this moment in history.

Courage, Bob. Courage.

Final Thoughts

Overall, a bit uneven, but I can’t complain too much about any of the winners.

I wish the Academy, or the producers of the broadcast, whoever is making these decisions, would accept that the Oscars are becoming more niche and just lean into it. We don’t need bits to appeal to a general audience. We don’t need to nominate popular things to get people to watch. We don’t need to cut speeches or songs to show another Burger King commercial. We don’t care if it runs long. These people have worked their entire lives to get here. This is the crowning achievement of their careers. Let them talk as long as they want.