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Mon: Hello and welcome to a new episode of Stereo Geeks. Today, we’re chatting about the 2026 Oscars! I’m one of your hosts Mon, an entertainment writer with bylines in Bam Smack Pow and Huffpost, to name a few. 

Ron: And I’m your other host, Ron. I’m a pop culture critic and was the managing editor at Women Write About Comics. 

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Ron: We’ve been busy catching up on all the Oscar films so we could have informed decisions this year. We’ve been sharing reviews of several of the nominees on our newsletter. You can sign up for that over at beehiiv.

Mon: It’s safe to say that we have never been more prepared for an Oscars than we were this time. 

Ron: We saw every single film in the main categories, which we will be focusing on today. This was, wouldn’t you say, Mon, one of the strongest seasons. So many stories, encompassing so many eras, communities, political messages and more. 

Mon: It sure felt like it. We could see why some of them had been nominated.

Mon: You also organized an Oscars experience for us.

Ron: Well, experience is a big word. Hot Docs here in Toronto, was hosting a free Oscars screening at the Ted Rogers Cinema. And I managed to get us tickets to attend. We haven’t been to an Oscars screening since 2019, so this was a nice change.

Mon: As per usual in Toronto, we had to wait in line outside in the cold despite having tickets. But it’s a good thing we lined up when we did because we got decent seats. 

Ron: We tried to sit in the orchestra seats but the viewing was horrible so I found us seats in the balcony section. Much better. We sat through the red carpet which you and I aren’t interested in. The main event, the Academy Awards, was why we were there.

Mon: I had a feeling Amy Madigan would win Best Supporting Actress because her wins were racking up. But this was a surprise to me. I thought Teyana Taylor had it in the bag. She played the kind of role that the Academy loves—salacious and strong and unlike most female characters.  

Ron: I thought Amy Madigan would win after she got the Actor Award. But Teyana was definitely up there after the Golden Globes. I didn’t think Sentimental Value would have a chance though. It’s also rare for older actors to win so Madigan’s win is a particular surprise. 

Mon: I guess my biggest issue is that Madigan was probably the most underwhelming part of Weapons. But it’s not an easy role and she did disappear into it.

Ron: I was secretly hoping for Wunmi Mosaku to win but that’s because we love Sinners. She was also too understated for the Academy, I guess?

Mon: Yeah. My big hope is these ladies get even more amazing roles and are up for noms again. 

Ron: We were spared Sean Penn’s presence though he did win Best Supporting Actor. Horrendous acting in a ridiculous role, just a terrible choice. And he won over Jacob Elordi, who should’ve won, in my opinion, and Delroy Lindo and Stellan Skarsgard, who were amazing. Paul Mescal didn’t even get nominated for his incredible work in Hamnet. The Oscars can be a travesty. 

Mon: No surprise there unfortunately. But glad we didn’t have to hear his speech. He’s won enough already. Why couldn’t they give it to someone new?

Ron: We managed to watch four out of five of the animation feature nominees. We couldn’t get to see Little Amelie. But going in, we knew K-Pop: Demon Hunters would win. It was an amazing film with a powerful message. And the songs are delightful. I am so happy for Demon Hunters!

Mon: I was holding my breath when the award was being announced. Honestly, this was a seriously strong category. All the films had strong messages and a lot to say. But K-Pop was such a special, all-encompassing experience with female characters at its centre. It’s no wonder it’s won so many hearts. It needed to win. 

Ron: Any other year, I’d have thought Arco, Elio, or Zootopia 2 would win. They’re all strong contenders but Demon Hunters was the talk of the town. It’s also about representation. Toronto’s own Maggie Kang, co-writer and co-director, is the first South Korean-origin person to win this category. The singers and filmmakers have spoken about not being able to see themselves in cinema before and having to believe in themselves. A strong message onscreen and beyond. 

Mon: I think we already knew that One Battle After Another would win Adapted Screenplay. But Hamnet was robbed!!!!

Ron: I am crushed that OBAA won this category. Against Hamnet and Frankenstein? What a joke! I haven’t read Hamnet but it was a beautiful film that was so real. Instead, the pastiche, exploitative film won? 

Mon: We hated OBAA but it’s the closest the Academy was planning to get to understanding racial politics. Ugh. 

Ron: Sinners did win original screenplay and highly deserved the award. Ryan Coogler is only the second Black writer to win this award, after Jordan Peele for Get Out. Sinners was a profoundly original story, so deep and layered. It shared more Black American history in two hours than most history books do, alongside beautiful music, and an examination of the horrors of colonization. Superb. 

Mon: Yay for Sinners. That was a much-needed win. But my heart breaks for the It Was Just An Accident crew. That was the best film of all the nominees, irrespective of categories. 

Ron: I have to agree. My love for Sinners is undying but It Was Just An Accident was spectacular. What a fantastic story and so brilliantly written. The film shared more about recent Iranian history than the news does. 

Mon: I will say, I think we did ourselves a great disservice this Oscars. 

Ron: Oh, do you mean because we left the best film for last?

Mon: Exactly! We couldn’t wait to watch It Was Just An Accident, but we couldn’t get it anywhere, despite trying to watch it at TIFF and then searching for it at cinemas and streaming. When we finally did, it was the day before the Oscars ceremony. Talk about last minute. And it is a literal masterpiece. It kinda didn’t matter who won Best Picture finally, because the best film ever was never in the running. 

Ron: Yeah, that has got to be my favourite film of 2025. I really did go into the Oscars with a completely different expectation because I’d just finished watching It Was Just An Accident. 

Mon: On a lighter note, let’s give a shout out to Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. who presented the writing awards. MCU haters would have been utterly confused by their banter I’m sure. But the love and enthusiasm they shared when Ryan Coogler got the win filled my heart. 

Ron: The writing was on the wall when Paul Thomas Anderson won Best Director for OBAA. At our screening, Sinners and Ryan Coogler got the biggest applause and my only solace is that Sinners will be remembered years from now and studied by film students, while OBAA will only be trivia. 

Mon: I just can’t. I knew going in who would win and I was still crushed that Ryan Coogler lost. Like come on—how can something so beautiful, magnificent, and brilliant and historical and historically-relevant like Sinners not get all the awards. Stories about racism seem only worthy to the Academy when they’re made by white men? 

Ron: Considering how many women directors were overlooked. Chloe Zhao was nominated but why not Nia D’Acosta for the gorgeous, subversive Hedda? Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby, that was so much more relevant to people than Marty Supreme or OBAA. Only some people’s stories are told and rewarded. 

Ron: One of the best wins of the night was Michael B. Jordan winning Best Actor for Sinners. People at the Hot Docs cinema were screaming. We were definitely screaming. Everyone at the Oscars was standing. What a moment.

Mon: I was so concerned about the Best Actor award. I was like please don’t give it to Chalamet. The roar of the Hot Docs theatre and resounding applause when Michael B. Jordan was announced just goes to show you the love for Sinners and for diversity in entertainment. 

Ron: His was the best performance alongside Wagner Moura in The Secret Agent. But Michael B brought so much depth to Smoke, Stack, and vampire-Stack. Such a varied performance. I am so massively relieved that Timothée Chalamet didn’t win. He is a middling actor, I’m sorry to say. And I am shocked that he ever gets nominated. But Michael B. Jordan won and that is a relief. 

Mon: Jessie Buckley won best actor for Hamnet. We had a feeling she was going to win. She made us all bawl our eyes out in the film. And I’d already read the book! 

Ron: Yes, it was between Buckley and Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. But Buckley won the Golden Globe and Actor Award so that seemed to foreshadow the Oscars. I thought Hamnet was brilliant and in another year, I would have given it all the awards. I do love that Buckley was rewarded for her performance. Her Agnes was wild, loving, sorrowful. I’m still miffed that Paul Mescal’s emotional performance wasn’t even recognized but at least Buckley was. 

Mon: We knew it but I’m so mad that One Battle After Another won Best Picture over Sinners. It won over The Secret Agent. Over Hamnet. I mean, some of the best films of the year weren’t even nominated. No Other Choice was such a stunning film about capitalism. Sorry, Baby was a crushing amalgamation of performance and heart-breaking storytelling about sexual assault. And we can’t say enough about It Was Just An Accident. 

Ron: The worst film won. Once again, stories made by white people, particularly white men, about Black people, gets rewarded by the Academy. We saw this with the awful Green Book, we saw it with Crash, and long before that, Driving Miss Daisy. Black stories that centre the Black experience are almost always overlooked in favour of white perceptions of the Black experience. It’s horrifying. 

Mon: A disappointing end to an evening with several historic wins.

Ron: The only good thing about Best Picture was Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor coming together to celebrate 25 years of Moulin Rouge! I thought they were very cute together and sang very sweetly. And then, the award happened.

Mon: There were some highlights of the 2026 Oscars. I thought Conan O’Brien’s opening montage was hilarious. Supremely hilarious editing and an excellent way to pay homage to the awesome, nominated films. 

Ron: You were head-back laughing throughout his montage and his opening speech. It was very funny, and better than previous years. Also, I loved all the digs at AI.

Mon: Loved that as well. A reminder that humans make these beautiful things that make us happy. 

Mon: A highlight of the ceremony was the performance of I Lied to You from Sinners. The editing was almost as magical as the scene from the actual film. TV watchers really got to bask in the beauty of that scene. 

Ron: Absolutely. Gorgeous scene and an amazing rendition during the Oscars. I was really looking forward to that moment and it was lovely. 

Mon: The performance of Golden from K-Pop: Demon Hunters was also amazing. I’m delighted it won Best Song. It was the first K-Pop song to win in this category. I’m so miffed they got played off when they were accepting the award. So annoying!

Ron: This was the first time we saw a new category introduced at the Oscars. Unfortunately, OBAA won Best Casting. 

Mon: Yeah, Hamnet was robbed. I heard the audiobook and I could see Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal in the role. They were made for these roles. Such a travesty that the film didn’t win for casting. 

Mon: We also saw a tie—in the Live-Action Short category. That’s the first time we’ve seen that in all the years we’ve been watching.

Ron: Yes! Also, Kumail Nanjiani was a great presenter for that category and handled the excitement of a tie very well. 

Ron: As disappointing as it was to see the Academy reward OBAA over Sinners, the few awards Sinners got made us very happy. It was amazing to see Autumn Durald Arkapaw win for cinematography for her beautiful work in Sinners. She’s the very first woman to ever win this award. Reminder people, it’s 2026. This is the 98th Oscars. Unbelievable. 

Mon: Train Dreams had the most beautiful cinematography and any other year, we would have loved it to win, but Sinners deserved this award.

Ron: There were some really nice moments but it was a bit frustrating how many winners couldn’t finish their speeches because the orchestra had to play them off. If you can give Adrien Brody extra time to give his useless speech, let the winners in the other categories talk. 

Mon: I know right. The hierarchy of who gets to stay and who doesn’t really angers me. 

Ron: Absolutely. For so many of these winners, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Of course, they’re emotional, they’re forgetting what they have to say. Give them more time! I did like that Brody was joking about it.

Ron: We should talk about International Feature quickly. Sentimental Value won and even though you liked this film more than I did, we can both agree, every other film in this category deserved the award more than this film. For a movie about movie making, featuring an entirely white cast, to win? I understand celebrating cinema but the other films in this category included It Was Just An Accident, about the heinous crimes against the Iranian people. 

Mon: Yeah, one’s own government turning on civilians seems a lot more timely and relevant a story. 

Ron: Then there’s The Secret Agent, about the political unrest in Brazil in the 70s that’s still being felt today, Sirat, about a man searching for his missing daughter, and The Voice of Hind Rajab about the death of a Palestinian child. Why doesn’t the Academy just say out loud it doesn’t care about non-white stories?

Mon: An absolute outrage.

Mon: But in that vein, I want to shout out something that O’Brien said—he mentioned that the Oscars are important because it’s a night about optimism. I want us to all remember that when we ask ourselves why we’re spending time and money on art and sports. We have to hope that things will be better. 

Ron: Yes, there’s war and bloodshed and it seems silly to focus on entertainment. But maybe if we had more diverse entertainment, we wouldn’t be in this situation. That’s a message shared by one of the winners of the live action short, Two People Exchanging Saliva.

Mon: The wars and injustices in the world right now were touched on from time to time during the night, mostly by the host. We needed more of that. The documentary winner obliquely touched on the chaos being inflicted by the US government. But Javier Bardem openly shouted for an end to war and yelled Free Palestine. That’s a sentiment that’s been missing throughout the awards seasons the last few years. 

Ron: Bardem has been vocal and I am glad about that but there really didn’t seem to be much bite in the speeches considering the horrors in the world. Also, I think Paul Thomas Anderson being such a coward on the many big stages he has occupied is shocking. I understand this is his first Oscar win but all he said was that he wanted to apologise to his children for the messy world? That’s it? His film is supposed to be about revolution and he mentions nothing specific about politics? Use your platform to say something! 

Mon: I definitely agree. I appreciated PTA reiterating during his speeches that every film, nominated or not, was a winner. But, without directly correlating the subject-matter of the art he created with the political environment right now, OBAA is just lip service. 

Ron: Anyway. Hollywood has become too cowardly when their voices are most needed. But we did have a good viewing experience of this Oscars at Hot Docs. 

Mon: I want to thank you, Ron, for organizing an evening out to watch the Oscars. I loved watching the ceremony in a theatre full of movie fans. We were hollering and applauding and singing together. Awards are great, but the real legacy of entertainment is how it touches people and their reactions to it. OBAA may have won the big awards, but the loudest cheers in the theatre were for Sinners. Take that as you will.