Oscars 2026 live: Conan O’Brien’s monologue, award tie, Sean Penn no-show, emotional in memoriam honours stars

KPop Demon Hunters earworm Golden took out the Original Song.

But then the play-off music awkwardly cut off the victors and they were merciless, giving them not even 10 seconds to finish. Yikes.

Singer and songwriter Ejae said, “Growing up, you know, people made fun of me for liking K-Pop, but now everyone’s singing our song, and all the lyrics. I’m so proud.

“I realised the song, this award, is about not about success, it’s about resilience.”

BEST SONG

Dear Me, Diane Warren: Restless

Golden, KPop Demon Hunters - WINNER

I Lied to You, Sinners

Train Dreams, Train Dreams

Sweet Dreams of Joy, Viva Verdi

Sentimental Value wins for International Feature, and it’s been a particularly strong year. Not just in the films that were nominated but a bunch of incredible films that missed out.

The Norwegian film had nine nominations so it’s amazing that it’s going home with something afetr Stellan Skarsgard lost out in supporting actor.

Joachim Trier paid tribute to the other nominees, “I want to, because I’m in this category, and I feel I represent global filmmakers, and in a moment like this, I just want to recognise the wonderful films that, um, we were nominated together with, important, beautiful films that reflect our present crisis and the crisis of the past.

“I want to end by quoting, or not actually quoting, but paraphrasing, rather, the wonderful American writer, James Baldwin. It makes us remember that all adults are responsible for all children, and let’s not vote for politicians who don’t take this seriously into account.”

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

It Was Just An Accident

The Secret Agent

Sentimental Value - WINNER

Sirat

The Voice of Hind Rajab

Autumn Durald Arkapaw is the first woman to ever in the cinematography category, and she is only the fourth woman to ever be nominated.

She’s married to an Australian, so we will kind of claim her!

Durald Arkapaw mentioned Rachel Morrison, the first woman ever nominated for cinematography, and she asked all the women in the room to stand up.

“I really want all the women in the room to stand up because I feel like I don’t get here without you guys. I have felt so much love from all the women on this whole campaign, and gotten to meet so many people, and I just feel like moments like this happen because of you guys, and I want to thank you for that,” she said.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Frankenstein

Marty Supreme

One Battle After Another

Sinners - WINNER

Train Dreams

The Editing category is often seen as predictive of the eventual Picture winner, so could this be instructive of where this is going?

One Battle After Another is looking good for the big prize if that’s the case.

Never forget the incredible chase scene at the end, that was masterful editing, and that’s a huge part of why One Battle won this.

Winner Andy Jurgensen called out his aunt Barbara Hall who was an archivist for the Academy for 25 years.

“She loved her dog and she loved showing old movies and teaching me about film history, and I miss her every day.”

BEST FILM EDITING

F1

Marty Supreme

One Battle After Another - WINNER

Sentimental Value

Sinners

F1 takes the Oscar for sound. It definitely had quite the soundscape.

BEST SOUND

F1 - WINNER

Frankenstein

One Battle After Another

Sinners

Sirat

Ludwig Goransson is no stranger to the Oscar stage. This is his third win, having previously collected victories for Oppenheimer and Black Panther.

He is a frequent collaborator of Ryan Coogler’s.

Goransson said, “My dad bought his first blues album in Sweden, 1964. It was a John Lee Hooker album, and even though it was on the other side of the world, from the place, my dad never been, and the place he could not relate to, the music was so powerful that it changed my dad’s life.

“He devoted his whole life to music, and when I was about 7 years old, a little boy, he put a guitar in my arms, and I loved the guitar, and it became everything to me, and it was the guitar that opened up the lot of doors for me.

“It was the guitar that brought me over to the States, and it was the guitar that eventually led me to one of the greatest storytellers of our time, Ryan Coogler.”

BEST SCORE

Bugonia

Frankenstein

Hamnet

One Battle After Another

Sinners - WINNER

While presenting the Best Live Action Short Film award, Kumail Nanjiani joked that longer films would be better as shorts.

During his joke, he said “Schindler’s List” could have just been “Schindler’s Post It”.

“Can’t say that Schindler’s List joke was uh in any good taste!” one person wrote on X.

“At the #Oscars, they just made an offensive joke by swapping Schindler’s List for #SchindlerPostIt, and the translator didn’t translate it—she caught on instantly and just went silent during that part. Did you notice it?” another wrote online.

Jimmy Kimmel came out to present the documentary categories, and there was a huge round of applause for the categories.

“We hear a lot about courage at shows like this, but telling a story that could get you killed for telling it is real courage,” Kimmel said. “As you know, there are some countries whose leaders don’t support free speech. I’m not at liberty to say which. Let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS.

“Fortunately, for all of us, there is an international community of filmmakers dedicated to telling the truth. Oftentimes, at great risk, to make films that teach us, that call out injustice, that inspire us to take action, and there are also documentaries where you walk around the White House trying on shoes.”

All the Empty Rooms won the shorts category, a film about the victims of school shootings.

The mother of Jackie Cazares said on stage, “My daughter, Jackie, was nine years old when she was killed in Uvalde.

“Since that day, her bedroom has been frozen in time. Jackie is more than just a headline. She has our light and our life. Gun violence is now the number one cause of death in kids and teens. We believe that if the world could see their empty bedrooms, it would be a different America.”

The feature category was won by Mr Nobody Against Putin.

Filmmaker David Borenstein said, “What we saw when working with this footage, it’s that you lose it through countless, small, little acts of complicity.

“When we act complicit, when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities. When we don’t say anything, when oligarchs take over the media and control how we can produce it and consume it. We all face a moral choice. But luckily, even a nobody is more powerful than you think.”

The subject of the film, Pavel Talankin, said through an interpreter, “In the name of our future, in the name of all of our children, stop all of these wars now.”

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

All the Empty Rooms - WINNER

Armed Only With a Camera

Children No More: Were and Are Gone

The Devil is Busy

Perfectly a Strangeness

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

The Alabama Solution

Come See Me in the Good Light

Cutting Through Rocks

Mr. Nobody Against Putin - WINNER

The Perfect Neighbour

If not in visual effects, then where?

A shout-out from the team to Jon Landau, James Cameron’s long-time producing partner who died in 2024.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Avatar: Fire and Ash - WINNER

F1

Jurassic World Rebirth

The Lost Bus

Sinners

This time, it’s for Production Design, and it’s nice that Mary Shelley, who wrote Frankenstein, got a shout out in the acceptance speech.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Frankenstein - WINNER

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

One Battle After Another

Sinners