The 2026 Oscars concluded on Sunday night, with Sinners and One Battle After Another predictably dominating. It was a rare good Oscars night for the horror genre, too. All in all, 2025 was a terrific year in film, and the ceremony represented that.

It’s impossible to say the Academy got some things wrong since it’s all subjective, including my own takes, which I’m happily going to give below. Here’s what took home the awards on Sunday versus what I would’ve picked if I were the voters.

Oscar Winners Differ From My Personal Choices (Unsurprisingly)

You might be surprised to find out that I was in line with the Academy on more than one occasion. Brilliance comes in many different shapes, I suppose. Either way, here are the major categories, what won, and what I wish had won.

Best picture

• Winner and My Pick: One Battle After Another
• Bugonia
• Frankenstein
• F1
• Hamnet
• Marty Supreme
• The Secret Agent
• Sentimental Value
• Sinners
• Train Dreams

Had Sinners taken home the prize, I’d have been happy. I’m almost convincing myself it was snubbed. While I do think Sinners will live on as the movie from 2025, One Battle After Another was just a fraction better in my eyes and the Academy’s.

Best actress

• Winner and My Pick: Jessie Buckley – Hamnet
• Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
• Kate Hudson – Song Sung Blue
• Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value
• Emma Stone – Bugonia

This was a no-brainer. Jessie Buckley was unfathomably good in Hamnet. She deserved the Oscar after carrying the emotional weight of a highly emotional movie. I felt the genuine anguish she displayed through the screen, which is no easy feat.

Best actor

• Winner: Michael B Jordan – Sinners
• My Pick: Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme
• Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another
• Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon
• Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent

Michael B. Jordan was fantastic, and I am happy for him that he took home the award at the Oscars. I thought Timothee Chalamet was just a little better and a little more important to the overall film’s success than Jordan was. With someone else, Sinners would’ve survived. With someone else, Marty Supreme would’ve been awful.

Best supporting actress

• Winner: Amy Madigan – Weapons
• Elle Fanning – Sentimental Value
• Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value
• My Pick: Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners
• Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another

Amy Madigan is a cool win here, something very out of the ordinary for the Oscars. She just wasn’t the best performance. She stood out mainly due to costuming and makeup, while Wunmi Mosaku’s quiet presence steadied Sinners throughout.

Best supporting actor

• Winner: Sean Penn – One Battle After Another
• My Pick: Benicio del Toro – One Battle After Another
• Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein
• Delroy Lindo – Sinners
• Stellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value

My actual pick is Miles Caton from Sinners, but he wasn’t nominated. Sean Penn was incredible and elevated the film, but the absolute best moments in One Battle After Another were with Benicio del Toro. He was captivating throughout.

Best director

• Winner: Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
• My Pick: Ryan Coogler – Sinners
• Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme
• Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value
• Chloé Zhao – Hamnet

Because I picked One Battle for Best Picture at the Oscars, I’d hoped Ryan Coogler would get Best Director. His adept filmmaking helped elevate Sinners. I also believe he could’ve adequately directed One Battle After Another, while Paul Thomas Anderson would’ve had a harder time directing Sinners.

Best international feature

• Winner and My Pick: Sentimental Value
• It Was Just an Accident
• Sirât
• The Secret Agent
• The Voice of Hind Rajab

I didn’t connect with Sentimental Value like I’d hoped, but it was still a good movie and the best one here, slightly beating out The Secret Agent. If it were a little more cohesive, Sentimental Value might’ve had an outside shot at Best Picture, but this is a stellar win, too.

Best original screenplay

• Winner and My Pick: Sinners – Ryan Coogler
• Blue Moon – Robert Kaplow
• It Was Just an Accident – Jafar Panahi
• Marty Supreme – Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
• Sentimental Value – Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier

The writing in Sinners is so layered and thematically rich that there is just no other option here. Ryan Coogler was truly in his element this time around, and he’s usually spot on. .

Best adapted screenplay

• Winner and My Pick: One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson
• Bugonia – Will Tracy
• Frankenstein – Guillermo del Toro
• Hamnet – Chloé Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell
• Train Dreams – Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar

There’s a lot of good writing here, and I was tempted to go with Hamnet, but One Battle is just that good. Much like Sinners, it is extremely layered and presents a lot of excellent ideas all working together in beautiful fashion.

Best original song

• Winner and My Pick: “Golden” – KPop Demon Hunters
• “Dear Me” – Diane Warren: Relentless
• “I Lied to You” – Sinners
• “Sweet Dreams of Joy” – Viva Verdi!
• “Train Dreams” – Train Dreams

In any other year, “I Lied to You” from Sinners would be the easy choice. But even if I didn’t adore KPop Demon Hunters like the masses did, “Golden” is an outstanding song. It immediately went into my playlist.

Best original score

• Winner and My Pick: Sinners – Ludwig Goransson
• Bugonia – Jerskin Fendrix
• Frankenstein – Alexandre Desplat
• Hamnet – Max Richter
• One Battle After Another – Jonny Greenwood

The scores here are actually pretty fantastic all around. I want to pick Bugonia because it’s so good and so creatively done, but Sinners had it beat all the way. Ludwig Goransson’s score helped propel the movie forward and characterize some characters, which is no easy feat. Music also plays a big factor in the narrative, which helps boost the importance.

Best cinematography

• Winner: Sinners
• Frankenstein
• Marty Supreme
• One Battle After Another
• My Pick: Train Dreams

I’m not remotely upset at Sinners winning because it’s a beautiful film, but Train Dreams deserved something at the Oscars, and its cinematography was genuinely stunning. It so wonderfully painted a picture of that era of America.

Best film editing

• Winner: One Battle After Another
• F1
• My Pick: Marty Supreme
• Sentimental Value
• Sinners

Marty Supreme is edited with such a frenetic pace that truly pushes the narrative along. The editing in One Battle After Another is awesome, but Marty Supreme is very much elevated by a skilled hand cutting and splicing the scenes together expertly.

Best sound

• Winner and My Pick: F1
• Frankenstein
• One Battle After Another
• Sinners
• Sirât

F1 was such a technical delight that it deserves something, and best sound is an appropriate win. The sound in Sinners is also good, but it’s not reaching the heights that those F1 races did.

Best visual effects

• Winner: Avatar: Fire and Ash
• F1
• Jurassic World Rebirth
• Sinners
• My Pick: The Lost Bus

Watch The Lost Bus and tell me it doesn’t have amazing visual effects. It genuinely looked and felt like there was a real, massive, raging fire swarming through the California forests in that movie.

Best production design

• Winner and My Pick: Frankenstein
• Hamnet
• Marty Supreme
• One Battle After Another
• Sinners

This is a deserved win for Frankenstein. The sets were incredible, really placing the audience into the setting. The boat scenes and the creation of the creature were greatly enhanced by the stellar production design.

Best casting

• Winner: One Battle After Another
• Hamnet
• My Pick: Marty Supreme
• Sinners
• The Secret Agent

Ironically, One Battle probably has the least impressive casting. Yes, finding Chase Infiniti is good, but casting Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Teyana Taylor, and Regina Hall isn’t a stroke of genius. Casting Kevin O’Leary, Tyler the Creator, and other non-actors who put in excellent work is.

Conclusion

So, the Academy got some things right at the Oscars. Or I got some things right at the Oscars. There’s also some differences of opinion, which is the most beautiful thing about movies and art. It’s all so wonderfully subjective, even if a group of people try to come to a unanimous conclusion about the best actors, movies, and more.