The world of pop culture comes together to celebrate each year’s films—shaping the media and the pulse of the nation.
This year was no different, with the 98th Academy Awards taking place on March 15. 2025 was a great year for cinemas, and the ceremony last night reflected the hard work and impact these films had on pop-culture and on society.
This year’s awards broke records and put new artists, genres, and communities forward as they celebrated the best films of the year.
Here are the highlights from the 2026 Academy Awards:
Conan O’Brien’s Astounding Skits
Conan O'Brien, a comedian famous for his self-titled late-night show, was the host of the Oscars last night for the second year in a row.
As before, his charm and taste for effortless comedic humor led to a night filled with amazing skits about the nominees and the state of film overall.
His opening skit, a parody of the film “Weapons,” where he dressed as Aunt Gladys from the movie as he runs through scenes from multiple nominees from this year’s lineup, will no doubt go down in Oscars history.
A skit performed later on in the show parodied the phrase that “films need to explain themselves more often for audiences with smaller attention spans,” as he and Emmy-award winner Sterling K. Brown recreated a scene from “Casablanca” where the two characters repeatedly re-explain the plot and characters of the story humorously.
Hosting abilities like this are a huge part of what makes the Oscars so interesting to watch.
A Record-Breaking Night for Horror Films
Horror films are often an overlooked genre within the Academy, but this year saw a huge sweep for the three nominated films in the horror genre.
Warner Bros. vampire flick “Sinners,” one of the favorites of the year, took home four awards: Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Score, and Best Actor, while Netflix’s “Frankenstein” scored three awards: Best Hairstyling and Makeup, Best Costumes, and Best Production Design.
To top it all off, Amy Madigan was given the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Aunt Gladys in “Weapons,” bringing the total to eight Academy Awards in one year for the horror genre and creating Oscar history.
It was also the first time a woman has ever won in the Best Cinematography category (Autumn Durald Arkapaw, “Sinners”), speaking volumes about the influence of horror in the film industry.
‘K-Pop Demon Hunters’ Wins Best Original Song
The horror genre was not the only sector of the film world to break records last night, with “K-Pop Demon Hunters” shining a light on animation and K-Pop communities with its record-breaking victories.
The animated Netflix film made history as the first K-Pop themed film to win Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for their hit record “Golden.”
Furthermore, "Golden" became the third song with eight-plus weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, cementing the huge impact and influence that this film has had on the animation and K-Pop genre.
The First Ever Award for Best Casting
For the first time in the Academy Awards’ long history, an award for Best Casting was given this year.
Focusing on awarding the casting directors who discover and hire the talent that makes these films as great as they are, this award was given to Cassandra Kulukundis for her work on “One Battle After Another.”
The award focuses on rewarding these casting directors for their fantastic job regarding the hiring of new talent and ensemble members for their respective films—something which Kulukundis has done for “One Battle After Another” in a huge way (including the discovery of its leading actress, Chase Infiniti).
This new category paves the way to recognizing and awarding future films.
Paul Thomas Anderson (Finally) Wins Best Director
The Academy Award for Best Director went to Paul Thomas Anderson for his work on “One Battle After Another,”which later went on to win Best Picture along with four other awards, including Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn.
“You make a guy work hard for one of these,” he joked as he claimed the award last night.
And for him, that statement is no joke.
Anderson has worked in the industry for over 30 years, producing classic films such as “Punch-Drunk Love,” “Magnolia,” “The Master,” “There Will Be Blood,” and “Licorice Pizza.”
Despite this impressive record, he has received 14 Oscar nominations and zero wins—a record he broke last night by taking home three awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture.
It’s about time one of the giants of the film industry got his flowers.
Regarding Speeches and the Broadcast Cutoffs
After the ceremony, a significant amount of backlash has been thrown towards the Academy over their cutoffs for several winners’ speeches.
Throughout the night, several award winners had found themselves unexpectedly cut off during their acceptance speeches, with the most notable of all occurring during the acceptance speech by the songwriters of “Golden” accepting their award for Best Original Song for “K-Pop Demon Hunters.”
During this speech, the songwriting team had found their mics unexpectedly cut mid-speech, with the broadcast cutting to commercial before the award winners could finish speaking. The team was forced to continue their speeches backstage, which was not televised.
This speaks to a growing culture of similar rude moments during the Academy Awards.
Sure, nobody wants to repeat an incident similar to Adrien Brody’s five-minute acceptance speech last year for Best Actor, but these timings should be rehearsed and pre-determined beforehand at the rehearsals for the Oscars, not decided midway through the broadcast.
It does not provide a fair and just chance for these winners to get their right to thank whom they wish to thank and say what they wish to say during their moment of achievement.
Carmine Sortino is a writer for The Setonian’s Opinion section. He can be reached at carmine.sortino@student.shu.edu.
