Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Oscar winners 2026.
Let’s go!
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Best Picture
One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)
One Battle After Another resonated so deeply because it hooks into our contentious times. The toughest revolutionaries on both sides (Sean Penn and Teyana Taylor) are shown to be hypocrites. And their love child (Chase Infiniti) is the true center of healing: still a revolutionary but one of love in this strange age.
One Battle After Another cautions against extremism.
Best Actor
Michael B. Jordan, Sinners (Warner Bros.)
The duality of his Stack and Smoke creates the rhythmic fire of the film.
Best Actress
Jesse Buckley, Hamnet (Focus Features)
There’s a darkness to Buckley’s performance that drags us into the emotional pits of hell through her loss. The beauty is that she’s able to have a profound catharsis through witnessing the creation of art.
Best Supporting Actor
Sean Penn, One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Madigan, Weapons (Warner Bros.)
The most frightening winner - scene
Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)
Best Original Screenplay
Ryan Coogler, Sinners (Warner Bros.)
Read the script here.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)
Best International Feature
Sentimental Value (Neon) - Norway
Premiere: Cannes, winner: Grand Prix
Cast: Elle Fanning, Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World), Stellan Skarsgård
Best Animated Feature
KPop Demon Hunters (Netflix)
Best Documentary Feature
Mr. Nobody Against Putin (Kino Lorber)
Winner: Sundance, Special Jury Prize
BAFTA winner for Best Doc
Dir: David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin
Best Cinematography
Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Sinners (Warner Bros.)
First woman to win this award
The surreal montage sequence was stunning
Best Production Design
Tamara Deverell, Frankenstein (Netflix)
Best Casting Director
Cassandra Kulukundis, One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)
This was the first Oscar win in this new category. And it was a worthy win, with Kulukundis having cast every P.T. Anderson film, including:
Boogie Nights (1997)
Casting associate
Magnolia (1999)
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
The Master (2012)
Inherent Vice (2014)
Phantom Thread (2017)
Licorice Pizza (2021)
Check out the full list of Oscar winners here.
One Battle After Another captured the most wins with 6 Academy Awards, with Paul Thomas Anderson winning 3 of those (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay).
Sinners won 4 Oscars (Best Original Screenplay, Best Score, Best Cinematography, Best Actor).
Biggest upset of the night:
Kino Lorber’s Mr. Nobody Against Putin winning Best Doc, beating out docs at HBO and Netflix
Warner Bros. won 11 Academy Awards. Netflix picked up 7 awards (Frankenstein won 3 and 2 were for short films).
Notably, Neon, which swept the Oscars last year with Anora only won a single Oscar last night. And A24 was shut out completely, including both of the Safdie brothers’ movies: Marty Supreme (9 noms) and The Smashing Machine (1 nom).
Notable Quotes:
Jesse Buckley, accepting the award for Best Actress in what was the most impassioned speech of the evening:
“Chloé [Zhao] and Maggie [O’Farrell], you… to get to know this incandescent woman and journey to understand the capacity of a mother’s love is the greatest collision of my life. It’s Mother’s Day in the UK today. So I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart.”
Paul Thomas Anderson, after winning his second Oscar of the night, after amassing 14 Oscar-nominations from previous years:
“You make a guy work hard for one of these… There will always be some doubt in your heart that you deserve it, but there is no question at the pleasure of having it for myself.”
KPop Demon Hunters’ Best Original Song winner:
Growing up, you know, people made fun of me, liking K-pop, but now everyone's singing our song and all the Korean lyrics. I'm so proud. And I realize like the song, this award is not about success, it's about resilience.
And the editor’s speech about his aunt who was a film archivist at the academy for 25 years was very sweet.
For More:
Conan gets chased by angry Weapons children across the Oscar-nominated films (clip).
Conan in Casablanca clip.
Seeing the Sinners surreal montage sequence on stage was a treat. Clip.
Also:
Conan’s monologue, comedic interludes and end segment were a comedic expression of his existential fear of what is happening to our industry. From the vertical videos to the dumbing down of content to the deadly move of the Oscars to YouTube.
Also…
The Razzies crowned the worst film: War of the Worlds starring Ice Cube.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Bradley Cooper is circling Warner Bros.’ Ocean’s prequel as writer, director.
Paramount acquires Tyler Perry’s BET stake.
20th Television Animation is developing an animated Firefly reboot.
Paramount drops Max Landis’ G.I. Joe take.
Sky acquires Cary Fukunaga’s Blood on Snow for a 2027 U.K. release.
Jordana Brewster joins Prime Video thriller Bishop.
David Morse boards the final season of Mayor of Kingstown.
Robert Rodriguez unveils three original action thrillers.
ITVS’ Independent Lens acquires Sundance doc Ghost in the Machine.
A24 signs an overall TV deal with producer Drew Comins.
Fremantle promotes Jimmy Fox to President of Content and Strategy.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Warner Bros. win is a reaffirmation of auteur cinema. They made a massive bet these past 12 months investing in original filmmaking from bold filmmakers who have a masterful understanding of the medium.
It paid off big time at the box office with nine #1 releases in a row. And now it pays off with a Best Picture win and 11 Oscars. That’s the most Oscars a studio has ever won (tying with MGM, Paramount and New Line from previous years).
Notably, Paramount, which is in the process of acquiring WBD, wasn’t nominated for a single award. We hope Paramount doesn’t change the DNA of WBD. CEOs of Warner Bros. Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca were named multiple times in awards speeches because they have a great relationship with their creators.
Onto some non-Oscar news:
“You’re either in or you’re out. Right now.”
Looks like the twelve time Oscar nominated actor-turned director Bradley Cooper is (almost) in on directing Warner Bros. Ocean’s prequel.
While he was previously in talks to star alongside Margot Robbie, Cooper is now reportedly writing, directing, and acting in the newest installment of the beloved franchise.
Plot details are still being kept under wraps, but the sought after project would mark Cooper’s fourth feature as a director.
Breaking out behind the camera with the beautifully raw A Star Is Born (2018), Cooper has proven himself an incredibly curious filmmaker, embracing old-Hollywood influences while carving out something singularly his own. He’s done a musical remake, a period biopic (Maestro), and a feel-good slice-of-life dramedy (Is This Thing On?), showing that even in just a handful of projects he’s eager to stretch his range and test a new creative muscle each time he steps behind the camera.
If the deal goes through, Cooper will be the third man in the director’s seat after Jay Roach (dir. Bombshell) and Minari (2020) director Lee Isaac Chung both dropped out.
In the world of Ocean’s, the best plans always come from someone who knows how to play every role at the table. It looks like Cooper may be that guy.
Ocean’s 11 - clip.
The Serenity spaceship is ready to launch once again. An animated reboot of sci-fi western series Firefly (2002-03) was officially announced by star Nathan Fillion (Castle) to be in the works by 20th Television Animation.
Show creator Joss Whedon, while not involved, gave his blessing for a new story about the ragtag crew of space outlaws. The show is expected to fall somewhere in between the events of the original show and the feature film continuation Serenity (2005). Producers Tara Butters (Agent Carter) and Marc Guggenheim (Arrow) will serve as showrunners.
Firefly S1 - Trailer
Tidbits:
David Ellison’s Paramount isn’t done buying. They just purchased Tyler Perry’s share of BET. By June, BET+ will be migrated onto Paramount+. And in doing so, they’ll gobble up their 3.5M subs. Perry will likely continue his non-exclusive multi-year deal with the cable channel through 2028. BET houses two FAST channels with over 600 hours of original Tyler Perry programming.
Renewal:
Peacock’s Love Island USA (for S8)
Cancellations:
Paramount’s Max Landis (script: Chronicle) version of G.I. Joe
Danny McBride’s version is still in the running
Hulu’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar
Pilot Director: Chloé Zhao
NBCUniversal’s Access Hollywood.
Trailers:
Netflix’s Something Very Bad is Going to Happen
Release: March 26
HBO’s Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness
Creator/Star: Larry David
Release: June 26
Release dates:
Paramount’s Passenger
Cast: Melissa Leo
Release: May 22
AMC’s The Vampire Lestat
Creator: Anne Rice
Release: June 7
Sky’s Blood On Snow (just acquired)
Dir: Cary Fukunaga (True Detective S1)
Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Bullet Train), Tom Hardy (Locke)
UK Release 2027
Synopsis:
Hoffman’s trusted hitman, Olav (Johnson), is a cold, efficient killer, perfect for the job…When Hoffman orders his own wife to be murdered, Olav’s principles clash with his loyalties. Instead of pulling the trigger, he hatches a scheme that makes him Hoffman’s next target.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Jordana Brewster (Fast & the Furious) leads in Prime Video’s upcoming thriller Bishop. The series follows a detective Bishop Graves (Joel Kinnaman) as he chases after a killer targeting the wealthy of San Francisco. Brewster will play a veteran officer in the San Francisco Police Department. We hope to see the same poised yet energetic depiction of a law enforcer, much like when she acted as a LAPD hostage negotiator in the Lethal Weapon TV series.
David Morse (House) joins the fifth and final season of Paramount+’s Mayor of Kingstown. Morse will play a hardened FBI agent sent to Kingstown for an investigation. He will bring a fresh sense of suspense to the show, with the same intensity that earned him an Emmy nomination by playing Michael Tritter (clip) in House S3 – a ruthless police detective doing everything to remove Dr. House from his business.
FESTIVALS
SXSW has been in full force since Thursday.
I’ve gotten to see some extraordinary panels including the above one with Vince Gilligan and Rhea Seehorn. We’ll have a full deep dive on this later in the week.
During the panel with Steven Spielberg, the director shared some insight on how he likes to work. For Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List he didn’t storyboard. In fact, he would show up on set each day and map out the scene using intuition.
There was also a great story about the moment Spielberg knew Jaws was going to be a hit: when he screened it in Dallas and during the opening scene a man ran out of the theater and vomited in the lobby—only to return minutes later to finish the screening.
Also Spielberg hinted his next film is a western with horses, guns and no tropes set in Texas.
And at the Riz Ahmed panel yesterday, Riz spoke about how he butchered his Slumdog Millionaire audition… by physically assaulting director Danny Boyle.
Sales agent pickup at Series Mania:
In Vitro
Int. Sales Rep: Beta Film (Portobello)
Created by Marc Crehuet (El rei borni)
Cast: Diana Gómez (García!), Bruna Cusí (All We Cannot See)
Distributor: HBO Max
Synopsis:
A story blending comedy and emotion to explore the ethical, social, and personal dilemmas surrounding fertility in the 21st century.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
This was a particularly exciting year for the short film category at the Oscars. The live action shorts category had a tie for the first time since 1994. Historically a tie has only happened at the Oscars 7 times.
It’s also an important category as short film Academy Awards occasionally usher in a new generation of talent. Here are two famous examples:
Martin McDonagh
Dir: In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
2005: Best Live Action Short, Six Shooter
Andrea Arnold
Dir: American Honey, Fish Tank
2004: Best Live Action Short, Wasp
Here are the two Live Action Short Film Oscar winners:
Netflix’s The Singers from director is Sam A. Davis (DP: Focus Features’ Dìdi, prod: Oscar-nominated Disney+ short Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó).
Davis’s short takes us to a tattered bar in the middle of nowhere America, where the dollar bills hang on the wall like old memories. And old men with war scars mutter stories into drinks.
The real magic happens when these men enter a contest for $100 and a six-pack that transforms them from sultry to angelic.
Davis has a real talent for casting faces and upending expectations. Watch the full short here.
The New Yorker’s Two People Exchanging Saliva also won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short film. It is a wonderfully grounded sci-fi film. No spoilers because the premise the execution is quite fun.
Narrated by Vicky Krieps. Full short here.
Tidbits:
Robert Rodriguez reveals three upcoming original movies…
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