The Wild End of the 2025 - 2026 Awards Season, Part 1

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Mike Blake

Well, sports fans, it's the end of the 2025-2026 award season. It was wild and wooly, but we made it. I have to say that it was the most action packed award season that I can remember. Everything started off going one predictable way, then, with one careless comment or unexpected win at another award ceremony, suddenly the field was way open.

The Academy Awards were over a week ago, and, as everyone predicted, the Best Picture winner was Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another. I really wanted Sinners to win, but deep down inside, I knew that it wouldn't for several reasons.

The Academy does not appreciate horror movies, and rarely are they a winner. But this year, they had to sit up and take notice. FOUR horror movies were nominated in various categories - they were hard to ignore. Two were Best Picture nominees: Ryan Coogler's Sinners and Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein. Sinners also received 15 other nominations and Frankenstein received 9 total. One of my other favorite horror movies in 2025, Weapons, received 1 nom: Amy Madigan for Best Supporting Actress, and the underrated body horror film The Ugly Stepsister received 1 for Best Makeup and Costume.

I finished watching the last of the nominated movies on the afternoon of the awards, and then ran over to my cousin's house an hour away, as we traditionally watch them together. I got 19/24 predictions correct (a record for me), which ain't too bad considering a bunch of them were guesses (specifically the short films and a couple other categories). But you really had to be brain dead if you thought K-Pop Demon Hunters wasn't going to win Best Animated Film this year!

When the nominations were announced in January, I had already watched 6/10 movies. I made my predictions a little early. You can find my list of predictions from my January 22 post here, but this post will start my series about the winners. It includes (1) my 1/22 prediction (in italics), (2) my personal choice (in parentheses), (3) the actual winner in bold, and then (4) my thoughts.

I am very interested in your thoughts, so please comment away! Enjoy!

Best Picture – No Opinion Yet (Sinners) - WINNER: One Battle After Another

I enjoyed the movie. When I saw it, I didn't expect it to be nominated. I just watched it because Teyana Taylor (nominated for Best Supporting Actress) was in it. She looked badass. I knew Leonardo DiCaprio was in it, but he actually wasn't the draw for me. But I knew it was going to be decent since he was in it.

I was entertained, but I also had some problems with it. The fetishization of the Black women was a big problem for me, and one of the characters had a name that completely put me off - although, I do believe that is the actual name of the actress. I don't know if I feel better or worse about that information.

The story wasn't bad and there was a plot. A group of revolutionaries called the Paris 75 exist to terrorize ICE facilities (not expressly named ICE, but a militarized government group that picked up and caged immigrants, so we all are going to make that assumption).

The head of one of the groups was Sean Penn (nominated for Best Supporting Actor) as Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw. He was weird. He was wirey, racist (where it counts), mean, and had a strange walk. He of course disappeared into the role, but that's standard Sean Penn.

Teyana played Perfidia Beverly Hills, a woman coming from a long line of revolutionaries, and girlfriend/partner of Leo's character, "Ghetto" Pat Calhoun, otherwise known as Bob. Bob was the explosives expert of the French 75.

Perfidia and Col. Lockjaw have a weird and not really explained encounter during one of the raids. (I say "weird" because it kind of came out of nowhere and seemed out of character for Perfidia.)

The movie skips to some later point in time - 9 months later-ish, for obvious reasons. The French 75 have gone underground and Perfidia is extremely pregnant. She is still ready to rabble rouse despite that fact. After giving birth, she doesn't really connect with both either child or the family situation that Bob keeps insisting she is a part of. At the time, I chalked her disinterest up to post-partum depression, but events late in the picture lead me to believe something else was going on.

While out on another French 75 job, she gets captured by Col. Lockjaw. He gets her a sweetheart deal and she rats out the rest of her crew (again, out of character). As the majority of the French 75 get snatched up or killed, Perfidia skips out on her deal with Lockjaw and disappears from Witness Protection.

A jilted and furious Lockjaw now wants Perfidia's head on a stake. Eventually his anger at Perfidia forces him even more Right and pursues a membership in the Christmas Adventurers Club, a wealthy White Nationalist power group. In order to gain membership, he has to close the loop on Perfidia and her baby, Willa Ferguson, who is now a teenager, played by Chase Infiniti (nominated for Best Supporting Actress).

As I said, I enjoyed the film. It was action packed, engaging, and there were some funny moments mostly supplied by Leonardo's character, Bob, who spent most of his time high, confused, and bumbling. But while I enjoyed the film, I didn't think that it was going to be nominated for an Oscar - even if most of the cast, as well as the director, were Oscar winners in the past.

I also have a little difficulty with the amount of films that are getting nominated these days. Ten movies are nominated for Best Picture these days. Three of them easily could have been left out, if it was up to me (One Battle After Another, F1, and Bugonia).

However, I must express my profound relief that neither Wicked: For Good or Avatar: Fire & Ash were nominated, because if I had to sit through 2 more three-hour long movies that I couldn't care less about, I would have torn my hair out.

I really thought Sinners was the better picture in many ways. The work that Director Ryan Coogler put into the movie was practically on the level of Peter Jackson and The Lord of the Rings series. Nothing that happened or that you saw on screen happened or showed up by accident. Everything, aside from the appearance of the vampires, was based on historic events. Not only was it excellently put together, it was loved deeply by the public, horror and non-horror fans alike (except my partner, who has no tolerance for vampires).

It broke box office records: it was "the highest-grossing opening for an original film released so far this decade, beating out the $44 million that Nope pulled in July 2022. It is also the highest-grossing opening weekend for an original movie since Us, which grossed $71 million back in March 2019."

It broke the Academy Awards record for nominations: Sinners boasts more "Oscar nominations than any other film in history, with 16, beating the record of 14 held by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2016),

The film ended up winning 4 awards on March 15th, including Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan (his first), Best Original Screenplay (Ryan Coogler's first), Best Cinematography for Autumn Durald Arkapaw (first woman EVER to win for this category), and Best Score by Ludwig Göransson (his third - his second with Ryan Coogler).

I look forward to watching Sinners many times in the future, but I'm pretty sure I'm one and done with One Battle After Another.

The Other Nominees

FRANKENSTEIN (Dir. Guillermo del Toro). I enjoyed Frankenstein a great deal. I watched that one twice in one weekend. It was never one of my favorite horror stories - I'm more of a Dracula gal. But I was fascinated with the world Guillermo created. The costumes and set were fantastic. Oscar Isaac (Dr. Frankenstein) and Mia Goth (Elizabeth) were excellent as always. It was great to see Christophe Waltz in another movie as well as Felix Kammerer (who kicked ass in 2022's Oscar nomination for Best Picture All Quiet on the Western Front). And my man Jacob Elordi was transformed and mesmerizing as the Creature. It was the perfect breakout role for him. Final Verdict: Totally Oscar-worthy.

TRAIN DREAMS (Dir. Clint Bentley). I watched this one randomly one night when I saw it was up for a Golden Globe. I knew nothing about it, didn't think it would end up an Oscar contender, but ended up really liking it. I have some friends of mine that they were bored by it, but I enjoyed the quiet thoughtful film. Joel Edgerton did a great job as Robert Grainier. I've seen Edgerton in a number of things and I think he is quite capable as an actor. Beautiful cinematography, too. It was like the opposite of OBAA. Final Verdict: Oscar-worthy.

SENTIMENTAL VALUE (Dir. Joachim Trier). Here was another quiet but moving family trauma piece that actually ended up winning Best International Film this year. Also noted: it seems as though a lot of filmmakers were considering their relationship with their parents in 2024-2025. Therapy for everyone this year! The always excellent Stellan Skarsgård did a fine job as the father or two daughters who recently lost their mother to an illness. There was a really cool moment of CGI that was seamless, too. Final Verdict: Oscar-worthy.

THE SECRET AGENT (Dir. Kleber Mendoca Filho). Another nominee for Best International Film, this Brazilian entry was one of the longer films that I would consider a typical Oscar movie. Set in 1977 during the Brazilian military dictatorship, Wagner Moura (nominated for Best Actor) played Armando/Marcelo, a researcher avoiding getting picked up by the government. I'm not going to lie - I briefly fell asleep shortly after a bizarre and unexpected development that had to do with a severed human leg. I rewound what I missed - don't worry! The Secret Agent was interesting enough, but much like most of the movies that were nominated, they could have cut about 30 minutes. Wagner Moura was great - this was my first time seeing him act - but I find him to be almost too subtle. I'm going to have to go back to this one. Final Verdict: Oscar-worthy.

F1 THE MOVIE (Dir. Joseph Kosinski). I saw this because Brad Pitt was in it. I mean, come on. An aging race car driver is hired to join a Formula One team to assist the young race car driver to win a major race. We have seen this story before. I don't have to tell you about it. Brad was Brad - meaning he was good as ever. Newcomer Damson Idris played the young F1 racer and he did a great job up against Brad. The movie unsurprisingly won Best Sound. This was one of the movies that perplexed me when it was nominated for Best Picture. Final Verdict: Not Oscar-worthy, but a great date movie.

BULGONIA (Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos). Weird and unexpected. I don't want to tell you anything about it if you haven't seen it. Please go in blind. But I will say that this was another "why was this nominated for Best Picture" instance. The movie was well done, I was entertained and I'm starting to enjoy these quirky little Emma Stone - Yorgos Lanthimos movies. This was a remake of a Korean movie called Save the Green Planet! (exclamation mark is in the title), so if you never saw the original, then you'll be surprised. Emma Stone was up for Best Actress, but oddly, Jesse Plemons was not nominated. He'll get his moment, I promise you. Final Verdict: Not exactly Oscar-worthy, but I guess I can sort of see why it was. Entertaining movie.

HAMNET (Dir. Chloe Zhao). Now THIS was a typical Oscar movie. Hamnet was exactly what I expected - a great cast with a solid script, an excellent director and production crew. I actually cried and felt the emotions of the cast, which was how I would expect to feel when watching a quality movie. Jessie Buckley rightfully swept all of the season's Best Lead Actress awards for her performance as Agnes. Halfway through, I said to my partner, "Yeah I see why she won all of the awards and will win the Oscar." Final Verdict: Totally Oscar-worthy. And if it had won Best Picture, I wouldn't have been that surprised.

MARTY SUPREME (Dir. Josh Safdie). I saved this one for last for many reasons. I watched it the afternoon of the Oscars as it was, truthfully, the movie I was the least interested in seeing. It was not a movie that I would have watched if it was not nominated, but at the same time it was an obvious Oscar movie. This was based loosely on Marty Reisman, an American table tennis player. Of course, we have all heard the scuttlebutt around comments Timothee Chalamet (lead nominee for Best Actor) has been making for about a year. I won't go into it here (see future episode), but as for the movie, it was fine. It was also way too long and I fell asleep during the climatic demonstration game between Marty and the Japanese champion. Final Verdict: Oscar-worthy, but a movie I would not have watched otherwise.

Did you expect One Battle After Another to Win? Were you disappointed that Sinners lost? Did you think one of the other movies was more worthy than both of the top contenders? Let me know in the comments.

Coming up next: Part 2 of The Wild End of the 2025 - 2026 Awards Season!