Key takeaways from Oscars 2026: horror wins, tech loses and politics is hard to ignore
This year saw some Chalamet exhaustion, wins for Warner Bros and memorable music while one winner was nowhere to be seenOne Battle After Another sweeps the Oscars as Michael B...
By Adrian Horton, Benjamin Lee and Owen Myers · The Guardian Culture
This year saw some Chalamet exhaustion, wins for Warner Bros and memorable music while one winner was nowhere to be seen One Battle After Another sweeps the Oscars as Michael B Jordan and Jessie Buckley win big Oscars 2026 winners: the full list It was always going to be a banner Oscars year for Warner Bros, leading the race with the two major films of the season – Sinners and One Battle After Another – the perfect end to a perfect year of critical and commercial hits for the studio. But with 11 wins tonight, by far the biggest tally for any company, the evening really did serve as a reminder of how much Warners has achieved in its year of greenlighting dangerously, at least at this risk-averse time. It couldn’t come at a more depressing intersection for the studio as it prepares to fall under the ownership of Paramount-Skydance and the Ellisons, its future looking unsure. Paramount might have been a major contender back in the day with best picture winners including The Godfather, Ordinary People and Forrest Gump, but its been mostly absent of late, bar Top Gun: Maverick. Hard to imagine the studio which now relies almost exclusively on reanimating rusty IP will care much about auteurs and awards. Benjamin Lee Continue reading...