It’s the 98th Oscars at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre on Sunday March 15, capping another awards season, and Screen casts an eye over five talking points heading into the ceremony.
The endurance contest has been largely scandal-free this year, save for the nominated lead actor from a film about table tennis suggesting “no-one cares” about ballet and opera, and resurfaced remarks from the lead actress frontrunner expressing her dislike of cats.
Whatever voters may have felt about Timothée Chalamet’s remarks it was too late – the Academy’s final voting window had already closed. Hamnet star Jessie Buckley had time to set the record straight about her views on felines during final voting, after a recent interview clip reemerged in which she recounted how she had delivered a “me or the cats” ultimatum to her husband when they started dating.
That was about as savage as it got this season: fairly small beer compared to Karla Sofia Gascon’s Emila Pérez implosion last year.
Sunday’s event boasts a satisfying blend of Old Hollywood and Emerging Hollywood, with a rich vein of international actors and films not in the English-language running through all the major categories.
The ceremony’s showrunners have promised a spectacular night hosted for the second time by comedian Conan O’Brien, with cast reunions from Marvel and Bridesmaids, big musical numbers, a moving set, and an alien and trees on stage.
The 98th Oscars starts at 4pm PT / 7pm ET / 11pm UK. The ceremony is broadcast in the US on ABC and Hulu, and other networks and platforms around the world.
The two undisputed champions of awards season
We speak not of One Battle After Another and Sinners, which between them have dominated the season, but the two studio executives behind them. One year ago, Warner Bros motion picture group co-chairs and co-CEOs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy were enduring speculation that their boss, Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) CEO David Zaslav, was looking to replace them after a string of flops including Mickey 17, Joker 2, and Furiosa. Then came the flood of nine consecutive number one releases, critical adulation, a staggering $4bn-plus at the global box office in 2025, the two Oscar frontrunners, and 30 Oscar nominations, tying the studio’s record (an Oscars-record 16 for Sinners, 13 for One Battle, and one for Weapons).
No other executive can boast such a year. For now the dynamic duo, whose contracts were recently renewed, get to enjoy Sunday night safe in the knowledge that barring a gargantuan upset, Warner Bros will walk away with the best picture and both screenplay prizes (One Battle for adapted, Sinners for original) at the very least. What is also certain is that if/when the $110bn merger between WBD and Paramount closes there will be job losses at two legacy studios that have already shed thousands of staff in the last four years. And talking of walking away, a consummated deal will see Zaslav pocket more than $550m from equity sales. Keep an eye out for how many winners thank the dealmaker in their speeches on Sunday.
One award after another
One Battle After Another stormed out of the gate and has dominated awards season up until now, while Sinners was in stealth mode, also winning awards throughout the season before it stepped up spectacularly at the Actor Awards (formerly SAG Awards) with lead male actor and ensemble wins. The smart money is on One Battle winning best picture and Paul Thomas Anderson taking best director. However pay attention to which film wins the editing prize (with all respect to the other nominees) as that is a solid indicator of which title will land the top prize.
The lead actor contest was a two-horse race between Chalamet for A24’s Marty Supreme and Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle. Then Michael B. Jordan won top honours at the Actor Awards and his timing could not have been better, coming bang in the middle of the Academy’s final voting window. Now the smart money is now on Jordan, 39, to convert his first nomination for a dual role the likes of which Hollywood may not see again. The Academy tends to make young upstarts like Chalamet wait a while. At 30 he is no stranger to awards seasons and ranks as the youngest person to earn four nods, including one last year for playing Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. DiCaprio landed his first nomination (for supporting actor) in 1994 at the tender age of 19 for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and had to earn four more before he eventually won lead actor for The Revenant in 2016.
Lead actress nominee Buckley is the clearest shoo-in of the night and has steamrollered through the season for Focus Features’ Hamnet. Supporting actress is an intriguing three-way race between Actors Award winner Amy Madigan for Weapons, Golden Globe winner Teyana Taylor for One Battle, and Wunmi Mosaku for Sinners. Madigan failed to make the cut at the Baftas but were she to convert her second supporting actress nod on Sunday (her first came in 1986 for Twice In A Lifetime) she would become the second-oldest supporting actress to do so at the age of 75, behind only Peggy Ashcroft, who won for A Passage To India in 1985 aged 77. Taylor won the Golden Globe and is a very strong contender, and don’t count out British-Nigerian Bafta winner Mosaku. Nominees Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas both hail from Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value and are regarded as the outsiders.
Supporting actor pits a Sentimental Value star – Stellan Skarsgard – against Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro, both from One Battle. Skarsgard was the early season favourite, however the outsized cartoonishness of Penn’s Col. Steven J. Lockjaw and the character’s uncanny timeliness amid the ongoing activities of Donald Trump’s ICE anti-immigration shock troops has resonated deeply in Hollywood and he is the one to beat.
Who will win the first casting Oscar?
Casting directors everywhere won a long battle for recognition when the Academy announced two years ago that it would inaugurate the category at the 98th Oscars. The casting directors branch executive committee made presentations to educate the Academy board about what casting involves, and branch governor Richard Hicks sounded like he could still not believe it was happening when he spoke to Screen not so long ago. Hicks, whose credits include Gravity, Hell Or High Water and Bread & Roses, said: “Casting as a craft wasn’t a big thing during the studio system. It came about as the studio system declined and the job of a casting director blossomed in the ’60s and ’70s… To have this recognition is quite extraordinary.” As for the first batch of nominees, the word in Hollywood is this one is industry veteran Francine Maisler’s to lose for her work on Sinners.
The politics have already begun
Politics tends to rear its head at the Oscars and protestors aligned with this or that cause always make themselves heard in the vicinity of the Dolby Theatre. This year a new cause joins the fray in the form of a touring billboard decrying the Paramount-WBD merger and expressing concern over the close ties between Paramount CEO David Ellison and multi-billionaire father Larry Ellison and Trump, who hates Paramount-owned CNN. Created by the Free Press – the media watchdog, not the right-leaning commentary site The Free Press founded by Paramount-owned CBS News head Bari Weiss – the stunt is styled as a For Your Consideration ad. It depicts Trump pulling Ellison The Younger’s strings and bears the legend “Best performance in a puppet show”.
Meanwhile London-based Motaz Malhees from Kaouther Ben Hania’s international feature film nominee The Voice Of Hind Rajab will not be at the ceremony because the actor’s Palestinian nationality falls foul of Trump’s travel ban. “Our story is bigger than any barrier and it will be heard,” Malhees posted on Instagram. The Oscars showrunners said earlier in the week that they will not stand in the way of politics and will let people do their thing on stage. Before anybody even gets into the Dolby arrivals – count how many will be wearing ICE Out pins or such like – will be looking skywards for Iranian drones. The FBI warned California law enforcement of a possible attack on the West Coast in retaliation over US and Israeli strikes. California officials said they see no imminent threat, but will remain vigilant. Phew. Still, the Academy has beefed up security. As of Friday, police helicopters were buzzing above Hollywood.
Targeting the future
Three years from now the Academy Awards will leave its longtime broadcast partner ABC (and Buena Vista International outside the US) and air exclusively on YouTube. The five-year deal running 2029-33 illustrates how Academy CEO Bill Kramer wants to pull the Oscars event into the 21st century and broaden its appeal. The Academy is already in cahoots with YouTuber Amelia Dimoldenberg, who returns for the third year as the show’s official social media ambassador and will be conducting interviews on the red carpet. Young Hollywood is expected to be in full view at the show: Mikey Madison, the Anora star who last year became the first “Zoomer” to win an acting Oscar, will present an award, as will One Battle’s Gen Z breakout Chase Infiniti. Nominee Chalamet and presenter Zendaya fly the flag for the slightly more senior “Zillennial” cohort and were born on the cusp of the Gen Z and Millennial generations. Look out for the surprise guests teased by the showrunners, who are likely to be a blend of Old and Emerging Hollywood.
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