Exhilarating winners, stunning eulogies and a party atmosphere: Six reasons why it was the best Oscars in years

In recent times, the Academy Awards have become stale. But this year, they felt fresher and more exciting than they have for a long while. Here's why.

The Academy Awards ceremony is one of the entertainment industry's biggest annual events, so it's ironic that the ceremony itself is so rarely entertaining. The last decade, in particular, has had as many lows as highs. There was the confusion over the best picture winners in 2017; the three years when there was no host; the dreary little soirée during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021; Will Smith's assault on Chris Rock in 2022; and a persistent air of shambolic incompetence that has made viewing the Oscars a chore.

It's a relief to report, then, that Sunday's Oscars bash was – gasp – exciting and enjoyable. This is why 2026 was a year to remember – for the right reasons:

The big winners at the 98th Academy Awards were Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, which won six Oscars, including best picture, and Ryan Coogler's Sinners, which won four. What was unusual about their rivalry is that the two films had so much in common: both were made by Warner Bros, both were exhilaratingly ambitious, genre-mashing passion projects from respected writer-directors, and both featured white supremacists as villains.

Also, they were both popular. Sinners was the highest-grossing film of last year which wasn't based on existing IP, with a global box-office total of around $370m (£280m). And while One Battle After Another's total was a mere $210m (£160m), that's still far more than the takings of such recent Oscar winners as Anora, Coda and Nomadland. It's been a while since so many people have cared so much about the best picture frontrunners.

Popular wins all round

Frankenstein, which won three Oscars, and KPop Demon Hunters, which won two, are both Netflix films which had limited cinema releases, but, unlike so much streaming slop, millions of people saw them, loved them and wanted to see them bag some Academy Awards. Meanwhile, Amy Madigan won best supporting actress for playing the gloriously scary Aunt Gladys in a hit horror film, Weapons; Brad Pitt's racing car blockbuster, F1, won the prize for best sound; and Avatar: Fire and Ash won best visual effects. In other words, awards kept going to intelligent, well-crafted films – but they also happened to be commercial smashes. It definitely lifts the mood of the evening when Hollywood can feel good about........

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