The 98th Academy Awards

Every year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the Academy Awards, or the Oscars—the most prestigious awards in the industry—to recognize excellence in film. The 98th Academy Awards ceremony was televised at 7 p.m. on March 15th this past weekend, with nominations encompassing some of the best talent of an especially talent-studded year. Competition, therefore, was fierce.

Amidst other huge names including Sinners, Marty Supreme, Sentimental Value, and Hamnet, One Battle After Another took home the “Best Picture” award. The movie is a comedy-drama thriller following Bob Ferguson (Leonardo Dicaprio), an ex-revolutionary who must protect his teenage daughter from his bigoted former enemy. This was not the only award the film took home; it also won “Best Adapted Screenplay” and “Best Director” for Paul Thomas Anderson’s work.

Although it had sweeping success, many other works were still able to shine. Jessie Buckley of Hamnet won “Best Actress” for her breathtaking portrayal of Agnes Shakespeare in the heartbreaking period piece. Her performance was full of emotion, and on stage, she dedicated her award to “the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart.”

As predicted by many, Michael B. Jordan won “Best Actor” for his role in Sinners as twin brothers Elijah "Smoke" and Elias "Stack" Moore. The brothers, war veterans and retired Chicago gangsters, return home to 1930s Mississippi to find themselves caught in a battle with undead vampires. The role required the actor to shift between two contrasting personalities, one stoic and pragmatic and the other more charming. Sinners as a movie additionally took home awards for “Best Original Screenplay,” “Best Original Score,” and “Best Cinematography.” Indeed, the filmmaking and music were deeply memorable, capturing an undercurrent of wistfulness that grounded the film’s high-action sequences.

KPop Demon Hunters, an internationally popular Netflix movie, won “Best Animated Feature.” The story follows "Huntrix," a famous K-pop girl group who uses the power of song to maintain the "Honmoon" barrier and protect the world from demons. One of the movie’s songs, “Golden,” also won “Best Original Song.” The Academy awarded “Best International Feature” to Sentimental Value, a Norwegian drama exploring familial trauma and reconciliation.

Notably, Mr Nobody Against Putin won “Best Documentary Feature.” In the documentary, a Russian teacher secretly films how the students in his small-town school are indoctrinated into Russian president Vladimir Putin’s war machine after the Ukraine invasion. One of the directors, Pavel Talankin, urged viewers to resist injustice in his acceptance speech with the words, “you lose your country…through countless small little acts of complicity.” Other awards handed out honored everything from animated shorts to technical mastery in special effects, hairstyling, and makeup.

While the ceremony may have a reputation for Tinseltown vanity, the Oscars are at their core a beautiful celebration of the human spirit through art. Make sure to watch the winning films!