Our 2026 Oscars Recap

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we're recommending you fix that right now by following pop culture happy hour on your favorite podcast app. Now on to our Oscars Recap. One battle after another, Michael B. Jordan, Jesse Buckley, and K-Pop were among the big winners at Sunday Knights Academy Awards. We'll debate if the old school feel of the telecast worked for us,

and yes, we'll get into those jokes at Timothy Shalame's expense. I'm Stephen Thompson, it is 12.02am, and we are recapping the highs and lows of this year's Oscars on NPR's pop culture happy hour. These days, it feels like the news changes every hour. Well, NPR has a podcast that does that too.

NPR news now brings you a fresh five-minute episode every hour of the day,

with the latest most important headlines in episodes that are clear,

fact-based, and easy to digest. Listen to NPR news now on the NPR app, or wherever you get your podcast. Joining me today are my fellow pop culture happy hour hosts, Linda Holmes, Hey, Linda, Alice, Stephen. Ishaharis, how's it going? Bevela revolution, Stephen. They show that quite a few times. They're well done, hey, buddy. Hey, pal. All right, we're going to get right to it. Biggest winner of the night, six Academy Awards, one battle after another,

one best picture, Paul Thomas Anderson, one for directing and adapted screenplay, Sean Penn, one for actor and a supporting role, the inaugural casting award

“went to Cassandra Coolakundies and the film also won for editing. What did y'all think?”

I mean, this kind of feels like when Martin Scorsese won for the departed, where it's like, okay, is this your best film? I don't think so, but it's time. As I said, when we had our preview episode leading up to the Oscars tonight, I just think that that is something that the Academy loves to do, and I'm okay with that. It's a good movie. I have my quibbles, but overall, not at all upset or surprised. I am not a big one battle after another girl. I don't

tend to be a big Paul Thomas Anderson girl, but I recognize the skill with which a lot of it was made, including a heck of a good car chase, and you know, I recognize some very good performances in there, Tiana Taylor. I think does the best that could possibly be done with that character,

and it's not my cup of tea, but Paul Thomas Anderson. Never won. He was in a sense, do, and I do not

be grudge him his Oscars. Yeah, I think we were all pulling for cooler, but guys in his 30s, he'll get a shot. About that casting award, that was the first ever casting award. I wondered how they were going to present it, and what they did was they kind of echoed something that they've done before where they would have passed winners in the acting categories give a tongue bath to the current nominees, but this felt fundamentally different, and I'm not exactly sure why,

it just felt like gratitude. Coming from a place of sincerity, like these people got me my job, and I don't know. It kind of took the curse off it for me. It really worked.

“Well, I think there's also a difference between when those tongue baths are given to people”

like actors who tend to get a lot of tongue baths, and when they're given to somebody like a casting

director who I think the fact that this was the first time there's ever been this Oscar made it

a lot more palatable to hear people express the exactly the gratitude that you're talking about. And honestly, if you go look up the resumes for all the people who are nominated, casting directors had the most fascinating resumes. Once you do that, it all makes sense why they wanted to be so kind of gushing toward them and good for them. Now, if you're giving a tongue bath to the same three nominees every year for however long, it'll feel different. But this year,

none of these people are famous to the average Oscar viewer, so it makes a lot of sense that they were recognized for what they do. And I think in this case, it was especially appropriate that you had Chase Infinity there on the screen kind of helping introduce this award. She's one of the kind of leads in one battle after another, and it was very much a discovery for I think a lot of viewers coming out of this. She spent years searching for Willa, and she saw something in me that

I didn't even know was there. Her belief in me helped me believe in myself. And thanks to her determination, imagination, and instincts, I was cast in my first feature film, one battle after another.

wow, you thought to cast Leonardo DiCaprio congratulations, but like no, there were also people who were kind of discovered, you know, in part, you know, from their performances in this movie.

“I'm a little bit with Linda, like I think all of us were kind of rooting for sinners,”

but I do think this race kind of boiling down to one battle after another and sinners, which we'll

talk about in a second, felt a little bit like the Oscars from 15 or 20 years ago when it was

between there will be blood and no country for old men, where like you really kind of had these two major heavy hitting front runners, you know, directed by kind of powerhouse directors, and it really kind of came down to those two films. Ultimately, this race felt kind of similar and one thing that, you know, anybody who came out on the short end of that can say is like people still talk about both there will be blood and no country for old men. It's not like either of these films is likely

to be memory-hold any time soon. Well, getting the statue at is zero sum, but having your movie be beloved is not zero sum. And listen, the winner of the inaugural casting award being someone who also worked on casting both the brutalist and Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle. Is in my opinion, that's a win for everyone. Yes. Fascinating. All right, well next up, sinners, one, four Oscars, Ryan Kougler, one for best original screenplay, Michael B. Jordan, one for actor and leading role.

If only somebody had predicted that, autumn-drawled arcapal one for cinematography. She is the first woman to win in this category and Ludwig Goronson, one for score. What did you think of the role, you know, sinners played in this telecast? I mean, look, I beat this horse dead at this point. I don't care, and yet I was so ecstatic. When first Ryan Kougler won for original screenplay, and then when Michael B. Jordan won, I literally like, gulped out this cloud and threw my hands

up in the air as if I was watching a football game, which I never do. It's just like, it was a really

lovely moment. Thanks. Thank you, everybody in this room, and everybody at home for supporting me over my career. I know you guys want me to do well, and I want to do that because you guys bet on me. So thank you for keeping them for keeping them on me. I don't think symbolically this

“means much at all. I think these awards especially for, you know, people of color, it's great”

for them. I'm happy for them, but it doesn't actually really mean that anything is fundamental to change. He's about the same age as me. I've basically grown up with this dude, and from the wire to finite lights, I never watch parenthood, but I hear he was really going to parenthood, like, and then his whole entire career, the way that Ryan Kougler just knows what to do with him, and I hope some other directors figure out what to do with him, because because so far

I haven't seen it, but I'm just so happy that this happened. And I do think even though Ryan Kougler

didn't wind up winning best director or best picture, I can say honestly for the first time ever

that I feel as though he is a black creator who will eventually have his, it's time moment, like Paul Thomas Anderson has had. It's very rare for any black person to win it more than one stencils done it, Ruthie Carter, the costume designer, but other than that, it's like, you get one shot, and that's pretty much it. Oh, and in a marshmallow, he has won twice as well. And I think Ryan Kougler, like, even though he didn't win the other awards that I kind of wanted him to win,

I feel confident that he will get there eventually, and I will be so happy for him. Yeah, and that arcupau win for cinematography. I'm going to make the case it was the best acceptance speech that I do when best accepted speeches. I can remember it's maybe the perfect Oscar speech because it was composed, but still emotional. And most importantly, it met the moment. It was a historic win. She also invited us all to take a breath and accept the moment

for... She was inviting us to recognize it for her and accepted for everyone. For all of us watching it, you know, when she asked all the women in the audience to stand up. I'm so honored to be here and I really want all the women in the room to stand up because I feel like I don't get here without you guys. It was such a classy move. That was such a great moment. Yeah, absolutely.

“I think it's very difficult when you win to be like the fact that I just want is historic, right?”

Right. Because on the one hand, you want to give recognition to the fact that it's kind of depressing that you're the first woman to ever win in this category. Yeah. On the other hand, you want to be happy about it and encourage other people to be happy about it. You know, it's difficult and acceptance speech to entirely be like, yay me. I made history. Yeah. Even when it's transparently true. So I think balancing all of those things that you kind of maybe want to

you. I think it was very impressive how she handled it. I thought and like what an incredibly again, richly deserved award for somebody who not only has done such great work in future films, but it was so smart to use somebody who's done so much in music videos as she has because given what this film is, so smart, such a good collaboration, just love it all. Yeah, that movie is absolutely stunning to look at in every frame. I'm so, so glad she won here. Linda, you mentioned

the music in sinners. sinners also played a role in this telecast in the performance of I lied to you.

Speak your words. I know that you're the first. So I lied to you.

Miles Caiton performed at Raphael Sadik who co-wrote the song. I was part of the performance. They were joined on stage by Buddy Guy and Brittany Howard from the Alabama Shakes and Shibuzi and Alice Smith and Bobby Rush and you know you get like you get like three seconds of Shibuzi and you know that's Shibuzi. And it did open dancing. Mr. Copeland dancing, you had so many just great musical presences swirling around and it really felt as kind of chaotic as it was

and as frankly terrible as the sound was that the entire telecast. I thought that performance captured some of the like dizzying effect of experiencing that song the way that it appears in the movie.

“It did. I mean, I think I used to face the grease with my face. I mean, it's chaotic, but I was”

there for it. No, I get that. I do think it kind of felt like one of those like Grammy moments where

they... Oh, I mean those. See, that's the thing. Okay. I don't know. Yeah, it just felt like we're gonna put all these and it's like they they rushed by so quickly and like none of them really got their proper due. So I just felt as though I would have loved to see more of Raphael Siddiqui. I would have loved to see more of Buddy Guy. Buddy Guy literally, the camera just like swoops past him. He's like, I don't even know if I heard him in that mix. Again, the sound was awful. But yeah,

I mean, they did their best and I thought the camera movement wasn't really my issue because I actually thought it was kind of cold to see those things happening. I just think maybe have one or two really famous people and then because again, they felt underserved. But yeah, it's hard to recreate that what works pretty well in a cinematic context for a live audience experience. Right. I think the onstage performance live at the Oscars with not good sound certainly did not to me

show you what was so great about the scene in the movie, but it maybe would remind you of what's so great. I mean, I just wanted to go back to that scene. And be like, you know, oh yeah,

“I remember that. I saw the stage thing as like an homage to the scene in the movie rather than really”

being similar. Kind of a Cirque du Soleil version, you know. Exactly. That was all for it. Well speaking of things we are all for best supporting actress went to Amy Madigan for her on the forgettable role in the movie weapons. A role that was so memorable Conan O'Brien referenced it in the very opening skit of the telecast. It's true. Yes, he did. But yeah, I'm excited for Amy Madigan. You know, I really thought Tiana Taylor was going to get a win this and she didn't.

I don't I have my issues with the role. Yeah, I love that we got a horror villain winning and a woman and yes, like this is exciting. I mean, again, these things are not symbolic. I also just found out today that she's married to Ed Harris. Where have I met? I don't know how I can know this,

“but for long, long, long time. That's cool. That's cool. Absolutely. I think my touchstone for this”

happening is like if you had walked out of weapons and said, I think Amy Madigan is going to win an Oscar for playing Anne Glottis. People would have really laughed at you, I think. Not because it's not great, but because who would have had that kind of faith in the Oscars, right? And yet, here we are. And once again, just that acceptance speech was what I want from an actor, acceptance speech. It was fumbling, but sincere. And you know, it was not too actory. I think if anybody's

going to dig Jesse Buckley's acceptance speech, they could say it was a had a very practiced, actorly, effusiveness. I could be wrong, your mileage may vary, but this felt like it was coming

from a place of actual surprise and delight and that's always good to see. I agree, this is great.

Everybody's asking me from the press at all as well. It's been 40 years and, you know,

throw a quick shout out to Tiana Taylor who was, I think, in many quarters, favored to win that award. And was maybe my favorite audience member to watch over the course of that telecast was enormously enthusiastic, enormously gracious, extremely excited about Amy Madigan. You just beat her. She stood up, yeah. Really want to see more from her. She pops up in that Ben Affleck Matt Damon Netflix Rip movie. Tiana Taylor in everything. She was a big winner even if she

didn't win that award. Glenn mentioned Jesse Buckley a second ago. She won Best Actress in a

leading role for Hamlet. This felt wired a wire. Like she was always going to win this.

“Yes, I agree. Yeah, I think there were, there were moments when it felt like it might be Rose”

Burn for if I had legs I'd kick you, which I think is astonishing performance. But yet, listen, sometimes there's a movie and people decide this is the award it's going to get. It's a very awardsy movie and involves a lot of people we like. In this case, Chloe Zhao, Jesse Buckley, Paul Mascol. Max Richter during the score. What we're going to give it is Jesse Buckley for lead actress. I agree with you Steven. I think it was pretty much predetermined. I like her. I've

liked her and other things. Sure. When did you set it? I have nothing to add. Yeah, and as I said before, this movie works in you. It works because of hers. Exactly. I think that's right. I think that's right. It's Mother's Day in the UK today. So I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of Mother's Heart. And I got to say between this and the bride, Jesse Buckley is willing to go funeral in performance. And she's absolutely feral in this. One of the other big winners of the

night, K-pop demon hunters, one for animated feature film, and original song for Golden. Definitely

“two fields in which I think it was pretty heavily favored, though. There was a sense that that I”

lied to you from sinners was kind of sneaking up on Golden. Ultimately, it was kind of a coronation

for this film, and not for nothing. The first time a K-pop song has ever won an Oscar. Yeah, I'm happy about this, but also can we talk about that before? Because we talked about the sinners' performance being a little chaotic. I wanted more chaos from this performance. Like, I just wanted it to be longer. Yeah. Like, verse chorus coder. This is not to say anything about the performers. I thought the performance were giving it their all. You know,

each a Audrey Nuna and Rehami, you know, were on pitch with bad sound. They're very demanding, so. Yes. They're very, very, very demanding song. Yeah, I just wanted more going on in the

production to be honest. I wanted it to be more like a Broadway production, but that is what it is.

You're talking about one of the biggest pop cultural phenomena of 2025, and like the Oscars were kind of hawking that performance over the course of the night. It didn't happen until almost three full hours into the telecast, and I'm just thinking, all those little kids begging their parents to let them stay up and watch them perform golden, and then having it pop up at, you know, if you're on Easter and time at 10 o'clock at night, why, I just don't understand why you don't

lead with that performance and blow it out. They just wanted to make sure that the kids got to hear all of the kind of Brian monologue and lots and lots of skits. All of the things that are really good for kids like the in memoriam and stuff like that, you know. Well, we wanted to run through some other winners from Oscar Knight sentimental value, got shut out in a lot of categories, but it did win international feature. That film is from Norway. Any thoughts? I would have

“flugged to see the secret agent when this, I think, is a great movie. But send them as a value is also”

really good. I really liked it. So I'm happy about that. If you like a family drama, it's a family drama, you know? Yeah. And I think a very solid one. It's a very good family drama. I mean, it's not an accident that four different performances from that film got nominated in the acting categories. It was very hard to pull that off. Isn't an accident that you said it's an accident when they beat it was just an accident or. Oh, no. You didn't do that on purpose. That was just an accident.

That was just an accident. Did we mention what time of nineties? All right, let's talk technical awards briefly. Frankenstein won for costume design, makeup and hair styling, and production design, and then visual effects went to Avatar, Fire, and Ash, and F1, one for sound, which means F1 has more academy awards than Marty Supreme, which had nine nominations. It's very, very firm. It's true. Was there a surprise in this mix? I wasn't surprised by anything. Any of these?

Ever since I saw that movie, I think it's really striking. You know, obviously we can keep being

“the drum of like, I loved sinners and a bunch of these categories also. But I'm perfectly happy”

with Frankenstein. Like, listen, Guillermo del Toro is a way of putting teams together that make really cool looking stuff. If his film is the one that's going to bring a bunch of design stuff, home, seems fine. Here here. It was really telling when that film won for makeup and hair styling, and one of the winners paused and had a long hug with Jacob awardi. Yeah. Like that, that is a relationship fueled by fun. Yeah, 400 hours in the chair. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

There was also a tie in the live action short category that is only the seventh time. There has ever been a tie at the Oscars. Those awards went to the singers and two people exchanging saliva. Mr. Nobody against Putin won for documentary feature, which was something of an upset. Documentary short went to all the empty rooms and the girl who cried pearls won in the

“animated short category. So let's get to the telecast. This ceremony had a lot of things for a lot of”

people, a lot of highs and a lot of lows. I'm going to start us off with general observations about the telecast and say, I am so glad that in the acting categories, they showed us clips, instead of having these long-droning monologues about Timothy Shalamey. You made me think you were a ping pong game. Just show us the clip. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was it was a pretty old school night. I mean, the opening montage where Conan runs literally through several nominated films,

that's a Billy Crystal stick. That was faster. The opening monologue, which a bunch of absolutely mid jokes. That's tradition, too. Like the clips that you mentioned, Steven, the presenter banter that was decidedly mid. Host jokes, a lot of them all went along a theme of like this is we're trying to reach out to the youngs. There were a lot of them, but they were short. They were like 30 seconds at most. That's good. And well, that was part of the joke, right? Because we

have no attention span if you're under the age of 25. That's the idea. Introducing the best picture nominees, not by having some actor come out and blow V8 about what this film is about. But instead just coming back from commercial and then going straight into the monologue with no intros, you know, how much time? Yeah. We saved by that if you consider those intros or maybe what 15 30 seconds, if there's 10 movies, that's still a lot of time that it's wasted utterly wasted. They didn't do

that, you see. I'm just pleased with that. They could in the future take that time they save and not cut people off and let people finish their speeches. Like for example, if you win best original

song and you're the first ever K-pop Oscar winner and the second person starts to speak and you slam

into the orchestra in one of the rudest playoffs I've ever seen. Yeah. I was so, I was really angry. Well, one of your collaborators is basically jumping up and down over to the side trying to get them to let you talk, which, you know, well, I'm glad that that person did just keep going and that time the orchestra backed off a little. But then there's another time where someone else got an award and they got cut off completely. There's one when they did and one when they didn't.

I absolutely agree with you. I also even though it became sort of like the running gag of the night and gotoed very quickly. I did find it quite amusing how Timmy Shalame just kept coming. He was the punching bag of the night. Kim and Trump were like the punching bag for very different reasons, obviously. But of course there was this clip that went around from Miss Townhall interview. He did with Matthew McConaughey were Timmy Shalame saying like he wants to keep movie

theirs alive and how he doesn't want to be working in ballet or opera. Things that, as he says, no one cares about anymore. You know, there were a lot of jokes. They were beaten dead, but I did find it kind of amusing because, you know, well, and the sound was a constant problem all evening and I will grant you this is a really complex lots of moving parts sort of engineering feet. I am sure, but it was roof. Well, and one section where the sound suffering kind of meant

“the most was in, I think, and otherwise pretty impressive in memoriam package. You know,”

unfortunately, as always, we lost a lot of really, really great people in the last year. They had

a lot of ground to cover and I think they largely did so in elegant fashion. But at one point, Barbara Streisand is talking about Robert Redford and, you know, they worked together on the way we were and then she sang some of the song The Way We Were. Man, when you don't have adequate

publicly and it sounds sort of muddy and garbled. That's really frustrating. Yeah. And here's the

part where I need to take the temperature, my friends, who have actual human emotions just to check myself. I need a temperature check because in the in memoriam segment, we started with a tribute to Rob Runner's, I'll be a crystal. Then we got a real of a bunch of people. Then we got Rachel McCadams doing a bit of Katherine O'Hara and then going all in on Diane Keaton, then more real. And we think it's ending. And we think it's ending because we get a scene from The Way We Were with Robert

Redford and Barbara Streisand and it's a scene where they're hugging. But what's odd is the last shot of that real is over Robert Redford's shoulder so we see we have a whole shot of Barbara Streisand's face and you're like, what's going on here? I was like, Barbara Streisand is still alive. Well, yeah, but it's because they were bringing her out. And then then you realize that they're bringing her out,

“that's why they do it. But I need to check in with you. Did the fact that we are picking”

certain people to pull out from this as opposed to just giving them extra like screen time? Picking certain people to pull out from feel a little weird. And then did it feel and contained your shock? Did it feel that maybe Barbara Streisand was centering herself in a way? Look, what did you say? Or do people just do that in Eulogy's and I'm just being weird? I mean, look, the sad truth of life and living and death is that some people

mean more than others. Let's just be real. This is the way it was or they mean more to more people than others. That's what it is. They're known to more people. I don't find it surprising, especially concerning who those three people they chose to single out. I don't find it surprising

at all that those people got those moments. It's tricky, right? Because there's always every year.

There's like, they left this person out. You can't cover all of it. And I think considering the way previous in morms have gone, which is usually way more like kind of messy in different ways where it's like we're going to center the person who's singing on stage as opposed to actually centering the people who died. To me, this is the best in a moron that the award ceremony has done in my half memory. So I thought it was very lovely. I thought it was sweet and sound

problems aside. And especially the moment where they brought out a bunch of people who had worked with Rob Riner at the end of his sort of sequence. And I just thought that was really lovely to see all of those people there. I thought that was particularly lovely in part because that brings you back around to paying tribute to these movies. Bringing out those casts and having that feeling of like, oh my gosh, that's like a little spinal tap or union and a little stand by me, reunion and a little,

you know, it's bringing the audience in and kind of celebrating the person's legacy and film ography in a lovely way. I agree. I thought this was for the most part. I thought that was a a lovely segment that sometimes really does not get done particularly well in award shows. Yeah. And I do think Glenn, in terms of I wondered too about picking particular people out and sort of doing special segments on them because like, why do you do Robert Redford,

but you don't do Robert Duval? Like, how do you make those decisions? I did think about the fact, not as much with Robert Redford, but particularly with Rob Riner with Katherine O'Hara and with

“Diane Keaton. I think those are all maybe ones that people did not see coming as much. And so I think”

they were all obviously Rob Riner died by violence. It's a different thing. But I think that people maybe were didn't process those deaths and quite the same way as somebody who's been retired from acting for a super long time and has been, you know, you knew they were perhaps close to the end of their life. I wondered if that was part of it that those deaths were ones that they felt people were perhaps taking particularly hard, but that's total speculation on my part about the

thinking. Before we wrap up, I wanted to take y'all's temperature about Conan O'Brien as the host. I mean, I think it felt like they leaned on some pre-produced bits a little bit more. What y'all

think of Conan? I think Conan is a experienced host who I think is always a perfect, and I

this is going to sound mean, and I don't mean it that way. I think Conan is always a perfectly fine event host. I mean, Conan has always been a little weirder than a lot of other people.

“So to me, it was like, I think he was right in the pocket of how Oscar's hosting is, which is”

that it is somewhat thankless, but I think he tends to remain very game. I think he had a couple of nice moments where he tried to stick up for people who got their microphones cut off. I think he's a gracious host. Game is also a magic word there. I mean, like you want somebody to commit to the bit. You want somebody to go full ham, you get Conan O'Brien. He's not going to hold himself apart from the proceedings, the way that great hosts in the past have done, like Steve Martin.

Johnny Carson, Jimmy Kimmel also kind of holds himself apart. At the same time, he's not going to

dump all over everything the way that Nate Brigazzi did at the Emmys. So, you know, I think it's a,

“it's a full body commitment, and that's what you get from Conan O'Brien.”

Yeah, my favorite of his bits was the one with Sterling Cape Brown.

Yeah, that was the best one. Yeah, they were riffing on the reports from certain people in Hollywood that they're being told to rewrite, to write scripts and repeat information because people are

two-screen experience, three-screen experience, whatever, they're not paying attention. So,

they did a bit with Cassabanc. And of course, Sterling Cape Brown is playing Sam, and he's playing the Hauntree-Billgar character, and it's, I enjoyed that. It definitely contributed to my overall

“cynicism, what would this being World War II and all? World War II? That's the Hitler one, right?”

Welcome, reminder that Sterling Cape Brown is a funny dude. Yes, he is. He's very funny. You can put that guy in comedy and he'll crush it. Absolutely. All right, well, we want to know what you think about this year's Oscars,

“find us at Facebook.com/PCH. That brings us to the end of our show, Linda Holmes.”

I wish Harris, Glenn Weld, and thanks so much for being here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This episode was produced by Liz Metzker, Carly Rubin, and Mike Katzif, an edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reed. Hello, come in, provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. If you're not already following the show, do that right now. I'm Stephen Thompson, and we will see you all next time.