The Latest: 2026 Academy Awards get underway

The wait in Hollywood is over: The 98th Academy Awards are underway.

Comedian Conan O’Brien is back for a second year to host the ceremony on Sunday, held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. It’s an Oscars race that seemed like a runaway for “One Battle After Another” but may be a close call after all, thanks to some late-season wins for “Sinners.” Other films with several nominations include “Sentimental Value,” “Marty Supreme,” “Frankenstein” and “Hamnet.”

A picture-perfect sunny afternoon greeted early arrivals at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday.

The Latest at the Academy Awards:

Conan’s off and running with the jokes

Conan O’Brien is off and running at the Oscars.

“I’m Conan O’Brien and I’m honored to be the last human host of the Academy Awards,” O’Brien said. “Yes! Yeah! Next year it’s going to be a Waymo in a tux.”

And the jokes kept coming.

“Last year when I hosted Los Angeles was on fire,” O’Brien said. “But this year, everything’s going great.”

He also quipped that there’s an alternate Oscars being hosted by Kid Rock, a nod to the hubbub over Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show.

And we’re off, with help from the Beastie Boys and Aunt Conan

Conan O’Brien’s opening skit: He complains about wearing too much makeup as Aunt Gladys from “Weapons,” says he looks like “Bette Davis with lupus” and it’s all done to the soundtrack of “Sabotage” from the Beastie Boys, all as he runs through various scenes of this year’s nominated films.

“I can’t believe I learned Norwegian for this,” he says, via subtitles, at one point. He then got chased onto the stage by a horde of children.

The irreverent tone for the opening is now set.

Police scrum removes protester blocking Oscars traffic

Police arrested one protester on Sunday who was part of a group blocking traffic near the Oscars.

Protesters wearing shirts saying, “Stop child trafficking” huddled in the middle of the road a few blocks from the Oscars. Some sat in the road while others marched and shouted, “Turn the files into trials,” in reference to the Jeffrey Epstein files, and, “Save our children not the pedos.”

Other protesters held signs related to the wars in Iran and Gaza.

After a few minutes, police broke up the blockade and ushered protesters to the sidewalks. A scrum of police forcibly removed one protester sitting in the middle of the road.

The Los Angeles Police Department said information on police response to Oscars-related incidents and arrest numbers were not yet available.

Ava DuVernay says independence is key for creativity

The director of “Selma” and “13th” had some advice for fellow industry professionals.

“You see the industry consolidating, companies are eating each other and becoming one big thing that are controlled by entities that may or may not believe in what you’re making,” DuVernay said.

“It’s so important to remain independent on your own money, make your own films, find your ways to get it to audiences.”

Amy Madigan’s famous defiance in 1999

Amy Madigan is here! Oscar buzz for the “Weapons” star is bringing a defiant moment back into the spotlight.

Madigan and husband Ed Harris refused to clap for “On the Waterfront” director Elia Kazan when he received an honorary award at the 1999 Oscars.

In 1952, Kazan revealed the names of former colleagues, who participated in Communist Party activities with him, to the House Un-American Activities Committee. It was a controversial move during the Red Scare when Hollywood figures were getting blacklisted, ending the careers of hundreds.

“Yeah, there was no way we were going to do that. No way,” Madigan recently told the New York Times.

The first winner of the night: Green, on the red carpet

Kate Hudson, Demi Moore, Charithra Chandran and Wunmi Mosaku all have a little something in common at the Oscars: They’re wearing green.

Different shades, sure, but on the red carpet, it sure seemed to be green that was stealing the show. An early trend, for certain.

A film about a Russian school teaching wartime ideology is nominated for best documentary

Not long after Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022, schools in Russia were told to hold lessons and events that would promote the Kremlin’s war narrative and boost patriotism.

In the mining town of Karabash, some 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) east of Moscow, teacher Pavel Talankin was making government-mandated videos of those lessons in his school. But he also was secretly working with American filmmaker David Borenstein on what would become the documentary “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” nominated for best documentary.

In multiple interviews after the film’s release in early 2025, Talankin said he kept filming for over two years in Karabash School No. 1, coordinating with Borenstein. He left Russia in 2024 for safety reasons, carrying copies of his footage on hard drives.

The documentary follows Talankin, his students and other teachers as they navigate Russia’s wartime ideology, imposed as part of the school curriculum. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2025 and won the BAFTA award for best documentary this year.

Raphael Saadiq hopes ‘Sinners’ song will move audience

He will be onstage tonight performing “I Lied to You,” which is up for best original song.

“That’s what we want to do, that’s what music is supposed to do, we’re supposed to move people,” he said.

Oscars’ In Memoriam segment will be extended

The Oscars will be saying farewell to a lot of cinema titans, and taking more time to do so.

Among them are Robert Duvall, Robert Redford, Diane Keaton and Rob Reiner.

Other talents who died in the last year include Brigitte Bardot, Val Kilmer, Michael Madsen, Terence Stamp, Diane Ladd, Sally Kirkland, Tom Stoppard and Malcolm-Jamal Warner.

Already this year, the film world has lost Catherine O’Hara, Robert Carradine, Eric Dane, James Van Der Beek and Bud Cort.

Among the foreign talents who died were Joan Plowright, Claudia Cardinale, Dharmendra, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Mohammad Bakri, Béla Tarr and Jimmy Cliff.

Given the large number of bold-faced names, producers have decided the In Memoriam segment will be longer than usual.

Assembling the segment involves deciding who gets placed in what order, choosing music and the graphic design of the names and titles, as well as where pauses are built in for the select giants of the film world.

It’s up to the academy to decide who is included, which often leads to outcries about who gets excluded.

A surprise moment of humor in ‘Hamnet’

Maggie O’Farrell, who wrote the book that was adapted into Chloé Zhao’s best picture nominee, said she knew the movie wouldn’t be a “conventional, antiseptic kind of costume drama.” One scene in particular read differently from her novel: Will’s proposal.

“They make it really funny, which I never expected it to be,” O’Farrell said.

What will the new casting Oscar be rewarding?

For the first time in Oscars history, a statuette will be handed out not only to the stars but also to the person who casts them.

The inaugural casting Oscar doesn’t recognize the performance of the actors, unlike the Actor Awards’ best cast prize, which “Sinners” won earlier this month, and other comparable accolades. This award, by contrast, recognizes the behind-the-scenes creative process and collaboration by a casting director with the filmmakers to select the actors for their roles and craft a cohesive ensemble.

The nominees are Nina Gold (“Hamnet”), Jennifer Venditti (“Marty Supreme”), Cassandra Kulukundis (“One Battle After Another”), Gabriel Domingues (“The Secret Agent”) and Francine Maisler (“Sinners”). Each of the five films they worked on are also up for best picture.

‘Cutting Through Rocks’ subject stays in Iran

The directors of the nominated Iranian documentary “Cutting Through Rocks” plan to be at the Oscars ceremony, but the woman at the center of their film won’t make it as they’d hoped.

The film, shot over many years in Iran by directors Mohammadreza Eyni and Sara Khaki, tells the story of Sara Shahverdi, who fought to loosen the grip of the patriarchy as the first woman to be elected to the council of her village.

“Due to the U.S. travel ban, along with the many ongoing circumstances in Iran, Sara Shahverdi is not able to be present at the Oscars, the directors said in an Instagram post. “We truly hoped to be together after eight years of working on this film side by side, but unfortunately, that won’t be possible.”

“Cutting Through Rocks,” which premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, is nominated for best documentary feature.

A Japan-inspired motif on the carpet

The Oscars red carpet sports an naturalistic, Japan-inspired motif this year, with Japanese maple trees lining the path to the Dolby Theatre and wood slat panels adding texture to some of the walls.

The carpet itself is “red rock,” according to Academy representatives, with shades of earthy brown making it darker than the traditional bright red.

The red carpet is heating up (literally)

If everyone is looking a little shinier today, it’s because it is already quite toasty on the red carpet, which is only going to get more crowded.

Production people say that after two days of blazing heat during rehearsals, they were promised it would be freezing.

Ryan Coogler isn’t dwelling on potential history

Ryan Coogler understands what tonight could mean for Oscar history. He’s just not dwelling on it.

Instead, on Thursday, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker was looking forward to spending one more night with his “Sinners” collaborators who helped bring the film to life.

Coogler could become the first Black filmmaker to win best director in the Academy Awards’ nearly century-long history. While speaking before the eighth annual Macro Pre-Oscars party in Los Angeles, he said he’s trying to stay present as the ceremony approaches.

“I’m just trying to enjoy the days as they come, stay present in the moment,” Coogler told The Associated Press. “When Sunday comes, man, I’m pull up and enjoy celebrating all the movies that’s being celebrated here, including our own.”

▶ Read more from the interview with the “Sinners” director

Despite looming prison sentence, nominee Jafar Panahi plans to return to Iran

The Iranian dissident filmmaker, whose film “It Was Just an Accident” was inspired by his time as a political prisoner, is facing a yearlong prison sentence and two-year travel ban for the film.

Yet Jafar Panahi still plans to return home.

“I know where I live and under what government,” he told AP through a translator before the war broke out, something he’s reiterated to news outlets since. “I also know that such works of art come with a price that I have to pay.”

“I also have the experience of living in prison with people who are completely anonymous and unknown, and when they can go through massive pain and no one will hear about it. But as soon as something is wrong with me, the entire world knows.”

How AIDS activists inspired immigration organizers’ red carpet symbolism

“ICE OUT” and “BE GOOD” pins have become one of this awards season’s most visible accessories.

Mark Ruffalo, Jean Smart and Ariana Grande were among the Hollywood stars donning the protest apparel at January’s Golden Globes. But organizers actually took inspiration from AIDS activists of the 1980s and 90s.

Maremoto Executive Director Jess Morales Rocketto says they followed the example of groups like ACT UP, whose red ribbons appeared at the televised 1991 Tony Awards as a sign of solidarity.

“It is supposed to intervene in a place that would otherwise be 100% about the commerce of brand deals and movie promotions,” she said of the white buttons protesting the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.

Who is performing?

Performances are often the most memorable parts of the Academy Awards. If you disagree it is probably because you skipped the 2024 Oscars when Ryan Gosling’s performance of “I’m Just Ken” stole the show. This year, viewers can expect some similarly entertaining moments. EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami, the voices behind the fictional girl group HUNTR/X, will perform the massive “Golden” from the animated blockbuster “KPop Demon Hunters.” According to the Academy, the performance will feature “a fusion of traditional Korean instrumentalists and dance” as well.

That’s not all: Miles Caton and Raphael Saadiq will bring their “Sinners” hit “I Lied To You” to the Oscars stage — and will be joined by Misty Copeland, Eric Gales, Buddy Guy, Brittany Howard, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Bobby Rush, Shaboozey and Alice Smith for the bluesy number.

Josh Groban and the Los Angeles Master Chorale are also scheduled to appear.

These 11 actors earned their first nominations

Best actor:

Best supporting actor:

Best actress:

Best supporting actress:

‘Sinners’ already has an Oscar record for nominations. But what does that mean?

“Sinners” is already in uncharted Oscar waters.

It has 16 Oscar nominations, two more than any other film in history. “Titanic,” “La La Land” and “All About Eve” all had 14.

“Titanic” won 11 Oscars, while “La La Land” and “All about Eve” each won six.

So, it’s reasonable to expect a somewhat sizable haul for “Sinners.” Then again, “The Turning Point” and “The Color Purple” probably felt the same way in their Oscar years. They both went 0-for-11 on Oscar night.

“Sinners” grabbed 16 of a possible 17 Oscar nominations this year. The one it didn’t get: best actress.

The record for Oscar wins is 11: “Ben-Hur” (out of 12 nominations), “Titanic” (out of 14 nominations) and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (which went a perfect 11-0, sweeping wins in every category that it was up for).

How academy leaders are approaching the Oscars

Lynette Howell Taylor has seen the Oscars from a few different vantage points: As a nominee, in 2019 for “A Star is Born,” as a producer of the broadcast in 2020, as a member of the film academy’s board of governors and, for the last three years, as awards chair. It’s made her first year as the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences feel like a natural transition. And one thing she is certain of is that every Oscars is unique.

“Every year is different,” Taylor said in a recent interview alongside film Academy CEO Bill Kramer. “Every season is different. Every set of movies is different. And so, the show is always different every year.”

It’s a tricky thing to both honor the people in the room while also making an entertaining show for a home audience. But behind the scenes, from returning host Conan O’Brien to the producers and Emmy-winning production design team, is a group of people who know how to dazzle a global audience.

▶ Read more from the interview

Who’s hosting the Oscars?

After successfully presiding over the 97th Oscars, Conan O’Brien is hosting for the second year straight. His return to the Oscars stage was announced almost a year ago. In a statement last March, he said, “The only reason I’m hosting the Oscars next year is that I want to hear Adrien Brody finish his speech.”

Showrunner and executive producer Raj Kapoor and executive producer Katy Mullan have been toiling for months putting together Sunday’s show.

“His humor, his tone, his reverence to the art form? He really cares about making this a true celebration,” Mullan said of O’Brien. “We’ve been in tears of laugher … There are so many great moments that he’s going to bring to the show.”

One of the themes of the show this year is the human touch, Kapoor said, from the set design to the packages.

“It’s really the story of how we feel this connection and how this heartbeat of cinema is unmistakably human,” Kapoor said. “Hopefully the entire show and how Conan makes you feel and all of it is like it’s all touched by human hands and human creativity.”