<\/p>\n
This Oscar cycle’s heavyweight battle is finally over.<\/a> The politically charged action comedy \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d just managed to outmuscle Ryan Coogler\u2019s musically driven vampire thriller \u201cSinners.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n It was a 3 hour and 40 minute whirl through cinema and celebration, with Michael B. Jordan winning best actor<\/a> for \u201cSinners\u201d and Jessie Buckley<\/a> winning for \u201cHamnet,\u201d making her the first Irish performer to ever win in the category.<\/p>\n There was electricity when Autumn Durald Arkapaw<\/a> became the first woman and Black person to win the cinematography award for \u201cSinners,\u201d asking all the women in the Dolby Theatre to stand up because moments like this don\u2019t happen without women “standing up for you and advocating for you.\u201d<\/p>\n Here were some other show highlights: <\/p>\n The battle is over for one filmmaker<\/p>\n Paul Thomas Anderson,<\/a> one of the most respected filmmakers of his generation, finally won an Oscar. Then he won another. Then he won for best picture.<\/p>\n He first won best adapted screenplay for \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d and then was crowned best director. \u201cYou make a guy work hard for this,\u201d he said. Anderson was back onstage for the night’s final award \u2014 best picture.<\/p>\n \u201cLet’s have a martini. This is amazing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Anderson had been nominated 14 times previously, including five times for screenplays and three times for best director. His films include \u201cBoogie Nights,\u201d \u201cThere Will Be Blood\u201d and \u201cMagnolia.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI wrote this movie for my kids, to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world we\u2019re handing off to them,\u201d Anderson said onstage after winning for his screenplay. \u201cBut also with the encouragement that they will be the generation that hopefully brings us some common sense and decency.\u201d<\/p>\n Even Cassandra Kulukundis, who served as the casting director on past Anderson films, hoped he would win an award himself while accepting the first new completive Oscar category<\/a> in over two decades for \u201cOne Battle After Another.\u201d<\/p>\n She beat him to a win by just minutes.<\/p>\n Another long wait for Oscar hardware<\/p>\n Amy Madigan,<\/a> the night\u2019s first winner, had to wait a long time to celebrate an Oscar win. The gap between her first ever Oscar nomination and first win was 40 years \u2014 handing her the record wait for a best supporting actress.<\/p>\n Madigan\u2019s first Oscar nomination was for 1985\u2019s \u201cTwice in a Lifetime,\u201d losing to Anjelica Huston. She won Sunday for playing an unrecognizable and utterly mesmerizing oddball aunt in \u201cWeapons,\u201d<\/a> a supernatural thriller about missing children. Madigan had earlier picked up wins at the Critics Choice and Actor Awards.<\/p>\n Aunt Gladys\u2019 smeared, heavy makeup, strange hair and large glasses became a popular internet meme and was even played up by Oscars host Conan O\u2019Brien in his opening skit, looking like Gladys as he raced through appearances in other nominated movies chased by children.<\/p>\n On hearing her name, Madigan collapsed into the arms of her husband, actor Ed Harris. Onstage, she thanked film writer-director Zach Cregger for giving her a part in \u201cWeapons\u201d she could \u201cgrab by the throat.\u201d She last thanked \u201cmy beloved Ed,\u201d adding: \u201cNone of this would mean anything if he wasn\u2019t by my side.\u201d<\/p>\n A heavy goodbye to the Reiners<\/p>\n A stage of stars bid farewell to Rob Reiner,<\/a> led by a long friend and colleague, Billy Crystal.<\/a><\/p>\n Crystal kicked off the in memoriam section by saying he met Reiner while cast as a best friend of Reiner’s on \u201cAll in the Family\u201d in 1975.<\/p>\n Reiner\u2019s movies included \u201cThis Is Spinal Tap,\u201d \u201cStand By Me,\u201d \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally…,\u201d \u201cMisery,\u201d \u201cA Few Good Men\u201d and \u201cThe Princess Bride.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy friend Rob\u2019s movies will last for lifetimes because they were about what makes us laugh and cry and what we aspire to be: Far better in his eyes, far kinder, far funnier and far more human,\u201d Crystal said.<\/p>\n Reiner was killed along with his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, in December. Their son, Nick Reiner, has been charged with two counts of murder.<\/a><\/p>\n After Crystal’s speech, he revealed a stage filled with stars who shone in Reiner’s films, including Meg Ryan, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Kathy Bates, Kiefer Sutherland, Demi Moore, Jerry O\u2019Connell, Annette Bening, Mandy Patinkin, Fred Savage and Cary Elwes.<\/p>\n In memoriam and Redford<\/p>\n The in memoriam section then highlighted those lost during 2025, like Catherine O\u2019Hara,<\/a> Diane Keaton, Gene\u202fHackman<\/a>, Robert Duvall, Brigitte Bardot, Michael Madsen, Terence Stamp, Diane Ladd, Sally Kirkland, Tom Stoppard, Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Val Kilmer.<\/p>\n Barbra Streisand then stepped up to honor her\u202fco-star\u202fin\u202f\u201cThe Way We Were,\u201d Robert Redford. <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHe was thoughtful and bold. I called him an intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail, and won the Academy Award for best director, and I miss him now more than ever, even though he loved teasing me,\u201d Streisand said.<\/p>\n She then sang a snippet of \u201cThe\u202fWay We\u202fWere,\u201d which she last performed\u202fduring the 2013 ceremony, when she sang it as an homage to the late composer Marvin Hamlisch.<\/p>\n Two stunning song performances <\/p>\n The Oscars had only two musical numbers but they were Grammy-worthy.<\/p>\n Singer-actor Miles Caton and songwriter Raphael Saadiq<\/a> performed the deeply bluesy, slinky song \u201cI Lied to You\u201d from \u201cSinners,\u201d joined by an ensemble that included Misty Copeland,<\/a> Eric Gales, Buddy Guy, Brittany Howard, Christone \u201cKingfish\u201d Ingram, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Bobby Rush, Shaboozey and Alice Smith in a tribute to the film\u2019s visual and musical style.<\/p>\n The camera swept in and among the writhing bodies in a rollicking, kinetic performance.<\/p>\n \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d later celebrated its win as best animated feature by opening its performance of \u201cGolden\u201d with a fusion of traditional Korean instrumentalists and dance, with dancers in gold waving golden fabric flags. Then Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami \u2014 the singing voices behind HUNTR\/X in the film \u2014 belted out \u201cGolden\u201d as members of the audience waved light sticks.<\/p>\n Then \u201cGolden\u201d won the Oscar for best original song, a first for K-pop.<\/p>\n The coolest part was seeing dancers from each song appear in the other’s, a kind of communication between Delta blues and Asian pop.<\/p>\n \u2018Bridesmaids\u2019 give us a bouquet<\/p>\n Melissa McCarthy, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne<\/a>, Kristen Wiig and Ellie Kemper celebrated 15 years after \u201cBridesmaids\u201d hit theaters by showing everyone their funny bones haven’t aged.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, we are not good with numbers, but we figured out backstage that means we shot this movie in 1883,\u201d Wiig joked.<\/p>\n The group \u2014 presenting best original score and best sound \u2014 had fun at the expense of Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jacobi Jupe of \u201cHamnet.\u201d<\/p>\n They pretended to read messages from the crowd, including one from DiCaprio that accused Byrne of staring at him. \u201cI have been staring at you,\u201d Byrne replied. \u201cI thought you were somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n Rudolph leaned into her dimwit persona when she wondered: \u201cEarlier today, when I was counting my money, I asked myself, \u201cWhat is sound?\u201d<\/p>\n There was also a mini-\u201cAvengers\u201d reunion with Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. presenting best adapted screenplay. And a \u201cMoulin Rouge!\u201d reunion with Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. And there was a Pullman family reunion when Bill teamed up with son, Jack.<\/p>\n Second time’s a charm, Conan<\/p>\n Conan O’Brien hit almost every note on Sunday \u2014 savage, playful, heartfelt and dumb.<\/p>\n The second-time host predicted he’d be the last human Oscar MC. \u201cNext year, it will be a Waymo with a tux,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n He also had a jab at Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, who got into hot water when he seemed to call ballet and opera dying art forms. \u201cThey\u2019re just mad you left out jazz,\u201d O\u2019Brien quipped. <\/p>\n He reached for a Jeffrey Epstein joke when he noted that it was the first time since 2012 that there were no British actors nominated. \u201cA British spokesperson said, \u2018Yeah, well at least we arrest our pedophiles.\u2019\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n But he also got poetic and sweet when he noted that 31 countries across six continents were represented at the Oscars.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery film we salute is a product of thousands of people speaking different language, working hard to make something of beauty,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cWe pay tribute tonight, not just to film, but to the ideals of global artistry, collaboration, patience, resilience and that rarest of qualities today: optimism.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, sometimes his bits fell flat, like the time he used a leaf blower onstage and a gag about memes with Leonardo DiCaprio.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n