History is typically made on Oscar night, and the 2026 edition had plenty of it. The evening didn’t yield any instantly viral moments, and the most-nominated film in Academy Awards history (Sinners with 16 nominations) had some big wins, but the night ultimately belonged to the filmmaker who had previously walked home from the ceremony empty-handed 11 times: Paul Thomas Anderson. The writer/producer/director joined an elite club by winning three Oscars in one night for his film One Battle After Another, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The highly acclaimed film also won Best Casting (the first time that award was presented), Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn (his third acting win), and Best Film Editing for Andy Jurgensen.
Sinners, another Warner Bros. Discovery release, won four of its 16 nominations, including Best Original Screenplay, which went to writer/producer/director Ryan Coogler, his first Oscar. Michael B. Jordan became the sixth African American man to win Best Actor for his dual role of twins Smoke and Stack. Another milestone achievement for Sinners was the Best Cinematography win for Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who became the first female director of photography to take home the trophy. Ludwig Goransson won his third award for Best Original Score, which now ranks him among the winningest composers of all time. Rounding out the 11 Oscars won by Warner Bros. Discovery was Amy Madigan’s iconic portrayal of Aunt Gladys in writer/director Zach Cregger’s horror hit Weapons.
With her win for Best Actress, Jessie Buckley won the hearts of the international crowd with her impassioned acceptance speech in the same way as her portrayal of Agnes Shakespeare in Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet.
The animated global phenomenon KPop Demon Hunters won two awards, one for Best Animated Feature, and the second for the incessantly ear-catching Best Song “Golden.” Netflix, the film’s distributor, cleaned up most of the technical categories with Guillermo del Toro’s passion project, Frankenstein. The towering artistic achievement took home three awards, including Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design. Rounding out the major categories, Best International went to Norwegian Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value.
An aspect of the show that will not win any awards is the run time. This edition of the Oscars lasted three hours and 44 minutes, making it one of the longest telecasts in the event’s history. Even worse, the overall ratings for the night declined close to 9% when compared to last year’s broadcast, bringing in a total of 17.86 million viewers throughout the event. Overall viewership is nowhere near the record of 55 million viewers in 1998 (the year Titanic won 13 Academy Awards), but it is also significantly lower than pre-COVID audiences. These were not the numbers ABC was hoping for as they finish out their contract for the awards show, which ends in 2028, the 100th anniversary of the Academy Awards.
The one encouraging stat that gives advertisers and movie fans hope for the Oscars to maintain any sort of foothold in cultural relevance is the more than 181 million social media impressions generated throughout the broadcast. Despite the downward trend in overall viewership, a significant number of people are interacting with the show beyond the limited scope of traditional network television. The reason why this metric is important? In 2029, the Academy Awards will be exclusively streamed on YouTube, which will produce the show and year-round content for the American Motion Picture Arts and Sciences through 2033. The mythical worldwide audience figure routinely quoted on Oscar telecasts for decades has been one billion viewers, although it is incredibly difficult to find any validity in this annual claim. The fact that YouTube, with a global user base of approximately 2 billion people, could back up that claim using verifiable analytics is exciting in many ways.
Lastly, my Oscar ballot had a rough year. I correctly predicted 11 WILL WIN winners and four SHOULD WIN winners. May 2027 be a better year for my ballot and Oscar ratings!
