Lorelai Gango/The Mossy Log
The 98th Academy Awards on March 15 drew in 17.9 million viewers to honor the best of film. From “KPop Demon Hunters” to “Hamnet,” the ceremony gave awards for artistic and technical merit across genres. Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” won the most awards at six total, including the awards for Best Picture and Best Casting. Following Anderson’s film, Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” took home four and Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” took home three awards.
Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” seemed to me to be the least surprising — and perhaps least interesting — choice for Best Picture. The action thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti and Sean Penn follows former revolutionary Bob (DiCaprio) on a mission to find his daughter Willa (Infiniti) after she goes missing. The film received wide acclaim for its gripping action sequences and emotional beats, as well as standout performances from DiCaprio and Infiniti in particular — along with Penn, who won Best Supporting Actor. Yet, as presenter Kieran Culkin noted during the ceremony, Penn “couldn’t be here this evening — or, didn’t want to,” with Culkin instead accepting the award in his place.
“One Battle” seems like it was the safest option, and not undeserving of its win, but I would have loved to see “Sinners” take the award instead. “One Battle” felt as though it only had one angle to play — the intense action thriller, the story of a father and a daughter and revelations of the past — an angle that in my opinion is overdone. Even though “One Battle” was a well-done interpretation of this genre, it didn’t seem to be doing anything new — unlike “Sinners.” Coogler’s film, which follows a young man Sammie (Miles Caton) and his cousins Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan) in 1930’s Mississippi working on opening a juke joint when they are suddenly confronted with a vampiric threat, blends genres and storytelling devices in a way that feels fresh and exciting. Through folkloric traditions of vampires and haints, a mix of horror, action, period piece, and even musical genres, and carefully woven themes of race, cultural identity and music, Coogler created something that I thought was well deserving of Best Picture.
Seeing as “Sinners” was my favorite movie of 2025 — and probably now one of my favorite films of all time — I felt all of its awards were deserved, and if I had it my way, it would have won more. Jordan earned his Best Actor win by a landslide, delivering two distinct and nuanced performances as Smoke and Stack, a deserved addition to his prolific career leading up to this film. Coogler, although losing Best Director to Anderson, rightfully won Best Original Screenplay for his fresh, intricate, lovingly told narrative of Blackness, music and the supernatural. Ludwig Göransson is one of my favorite composers of the current era, having worked on such titles as “Black Panther” — also with Coogler — and “Oppenheimer,” and seeing as how music was an integral element to “Sinners,” it only felt right that Best Original Score would go to him as well. And of course, I was delighted to see Autumn Durald Arkapaw take a historic and well-earned win for Best Cinematography; the work that she did capturing both warm, intimate scenes between pairs of characters as well as large-scale action and music sequences was impressive.
Jessie Buckley stuck the landing this awards season, snagging a total of 42 awards for her portrayal of Agnes in Chloé Zhao’s historical drama “Hamnet,” including the Academy Award for Best Actress. The film, which follows largely true events, is about Agnes (Buckley) and William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) as they raise their son Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe), who is struck by illness, leading to the events that inspired Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet.” Her performance was lauded as raw and intimate, bringing moviegoers to tears. I would have liked to see more love for this film in other categories, such as Casting or Directing — Buckley and Mescal embodied their roles so well, Jupe was a perfect choice as Hamnet and Zhao clearly had a distinct vision based on the original novel “Hamnet” that she brought to life in a beautiful way. Nevertheless, it was lovely to see Buckley have her moment here.
While del Toro’s “Frankenstein” did not particularly land with me as a major fan of Mary Shelley’s novel — it felt more like del Toro had an original idea inspired by the novel that he thought would do better if he called it an adaptation — I was not upset to see it take home some design-based awards. Mia Goth’s costumes as Victor’s mother and Elizabeth were elegant and extravagant in the most del Toro way possible, and while not book-accurate, Jacob Elordi’s design as the creature was well done, so it was unsurprising to see “Frankenstein” win for Best Costume Design and Best Makeup and Hairstyling. I do think “Sinners” was snubbed from Best Production Design, however — the work that went into creating a period-accurate 1930s Mississippi cannot be understated.
Despite not being my favorite of recent Best Animated Feature winners, I am always happy to see studios other than Disney or Pixar take the award, and “KPop Demon Hunters” certainly earned it with the amount of love it received last year. The colorful, heartfelt and funny musical garnered far more attention than anyone expected, and the creative animation style only added to its charm, making it a no-brainer win. While I would have loved to see “I Lied to You” from “Sinners” win Best Original Song, it was no surprise that “Golden” won after it and the rest of the soundtrack dominated the Billboard Hot 100 in 2025.
All in all, it was a somewhat predictable Oscars, with few unexpected surprises, for better or worse. Always a “Sinners” fan, I will be mourning what could have been a historic sweep for the action horror, but no award left me particularly unhappy. I am excited to see what this year holds in store for film.
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