David is a Senior Editor at Collider focused primarily on Lists. His professional journey began in the mid-2010s as a Marketing specialist before embarking on his writing career in the 2020s. At Collider, David started as a Senior Writer in late 2022 and has been a Senior Editor since mid-2023. He is in charge of ideating compelling and engaging List articles by working closely with writers, both Senior and Junior, as well as other editors. Occasionally, David also reviews movies and TV shows and writes episode recaps. Currently, David is also writing his second novel, a psychological horror satire that will, hopefully, be picked up for publication sometime next year.
After an awards season that felt like a small eternity, the 2026 Oscars have finally come and gone just as quickly. As expected, Paul Thomas Anderson's action thriller One Battle After Another won big, claiming six statuettes, including Best Picture and Best Director. Elsewhere, Ryan Coogler's vampire movie Sinners, which broke the record for the most nominations ever, won four Oscars, most notably Best Original Screenplay.
As for the acting winners, four performers walked away with golden statuettes for their brilliant work. Two of them won for horror movies, which marks a massive step in the right direction for the genre, while one won for a more straightforward drama, the kind the Academy loves to reward. Finally, one won for a villainous role that feels like a perfect encapsulation of our times. Indeed, these four are genuinely great winners, making the class of 2026 one of the best in quite a while. Which of them gives the most memorable performance, though, the one that will age the best? It might be hard to declare, considering their movies and performances are so different from each other, but we can still try.
4 Jessie Buckley as Agnes Shakespeare - 'Hamnet' (2025)
Jessie Buckley delivers one of the most heartbreaking portrayals of raw, guttural grief in Cholé Zhao's Hamnet, based on the eponymous novel by Maggie O'Farrell. The plot fictionalizes the relationship between William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife, named Agnes here but based on the Bard's wife, Anne Hathaway. It deals with their grief over the death of their child, Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe), and how the event inspires Shakespeare to write his tragedy, Hamlet.
Now, don't get me wrong, Hamnet is a great movie, but it's also a period drama, and those are a dime a dozen in Hollywood. The film doesn't particularly stand out among the crowd either, save for Buckley's towering performance. As the grieving Agnes, Buckley delivers a harrowing and gut-wrenching performance that captures the rabid, near-animalistic pain of losing a loved one unexpectedly. Through her, the film explores several ideas about nature, the feminine divine, and overcoming loss, a challenging task that Buckley tackles head-on. Agnes is in pain, but she's also angry, dealing with loss through a long and complicated emotional process that is truly riveting to watch. It's a great accomplishment, probably one of the best in her category over the 21st century. Yet, it's also a very... typical performance for the Oscars to reward, and considering how inspired her fellow winners are, there's a chance Buckley's work might not stand out as much as her classmates.
3 Sean Penn as Col. Steven J. Lockjaw - 'One Battle After Another' (2025)
One Battle After Another is one of the most timely and resonant pictures of this generation. The film tells the story of Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio), a washed-up revolutionary forced to return to his old lifestyle after his daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti), becomes the target of a corrupt, racist military officer, Steven J. Lockwood (Sean Penn), who shares a past with Willa's mother and Bob's old lover, Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor).
With this win, Penn is now a three-time Oscar winner, and it's easy to see why. His portrayal of Lockwood is simultaneously funny and disturbing. In many ways, Lockwood is a pathetic excuse for a human being, a racist, bigoted, hypocritical, emasculated man trying to masquerade as an alpha male and desperate to be accepted in the circles he deems worthy. His psychosexual obsession with Perfidia is a whole thing, but Penn and PTA give equal weight to Lockjaw's profound insecurity; he's a man willing to sacrifice every ounce of integrity he might've had for the chance to "ascend," only to realize he wouldn't recognize the chance if it hit him on the face. Lockjaw is a truly pathetic creation, a thinly veiled criticism of men in power who throw expensive, deadly tantrums at the expense of countless beneath them. This corrupt colonel is among the most timely in current cinema, a perfect embodiment of many issues currently dividing audiences almost down the middle. In a few years, we'll look back at Penn's Lockjaw as the perfect villain for the 2020s.
2 Michael B. Jordan as the Smokestack Twins - 'Sinners' (2025)
Michael B. Jordan has been consistently working since the late '90s, building an incredible career for himself. His partnership with Ryan Coogler dates back to the director's 2013 feature film debut, Fruitvale Station, and continued with successful films like Creed and Black Panther. The two reunited in 2025 with Sinners, a horror tale with heavy roots in music, racial dynamics, and heritage. Jordan plays twins Elijah "Smoke" and Elias "Stack" Moore, war veterans who return to their hometown in the Jim Crow South to open a juke joint. However, their opening night is threatened by the sudden arrival of a trio of vampires.
Playing twins is no easy task, but Jordan makes it look effortless. The Smokestack twins have unique personalities -- Smoke is cool-headed and pragmatic, Stack is fiery and daring -- and Jordan conveys both sides of the same coin through slight facial expressions, physical twitches, and distinct accents. Miles Caton's Sammie might be the heart of Sinners, but Jordan is the engine that keeps the film going. Unlikely and unwilling heroes, Jordan's Smokestack twins are two complex and riveting creations courtesy of a remarkably talented actor who has been consistently delivering quality work for over two decades now. With this win, he becomes part of a select group of Black men who have won Best Actor, and that alone will make this win resonate for many years to come. Jordan's victory for Sinners feels like a deserved recognition from his peers, but make no mistake, his performance -- sorry, performances are worthy of the gold.
1 Amy Madigan as Aunt Gladys - 'Weapons' (2025)
What Amy Madigan achieves in Zach Cregger's Weapons is nothing short of extraordinary. As the sinister Aunt Gladys, Madigan created the greatest horror icon since Jigsaw, a terrifying, absurd, and delightfully campy villain who is as hypnotizing as she is off-putting. The film follows the mysterious disappearance of several children from the same class, focusing on several characters who are all somehow connected to the events.
Subscribe for deeper Oscars and acting analysis
Want richer context on why certain performances and wins matter? Subscribing to the newsletter delivers thoughtful analysis of Oscars results, performances, and the wider film landscape to deepen your appreciation.
Get Updates
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
At the center of it all is Madigan's wicked Aunt Gladys, a witch attempting to survive a deadly illness. The performance is equal parts grotesque and eerie while remaining delightfully entertaining. The veteran actress juggles humor and terror, often in the same scene, often in the same line. It's a tremendous performance, a deceitful portrayal of menace disguised as wackiness. Madigan never shies away from Gladys' eccentricities and brings a much-welcome dose of comedy to her interactions with others, particularly Benedict Wong's ill-fated school principal. At the drop of a hat, though, she abandons the act and becomes all cruelty and purpose, most notably in the now-famous monologue where she threatens young Alex (Cary Christopher). Weapons is very much an update on classic hag horror, and Madigan's Aunt Gladys is the perfect embodiment of the subgenre's tropes, modernized for a 2025 audience. Like Ruth Gordon's win almost sixty years ago, Madigan's victory is bound to age beautifully as a wonderful example of the heights horror can achieve when the Academy actually pays attention.
Weapons
R
Horror
Mystery
8 10
Release Date August 8, 2025
Cast Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong, Toby Huss, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, Clayton Farris, Melissa Ponzio, Ashley Ames, Jason Turner, Carrie Gibson, Carl Kennedy, Jared Simon, Derek Chouinard, Robert Hendren, June Diane Raphael, Amy Madigan, Whitmer Thomas, Luke Speakman, Sarah Kopkin, Sergio Duque, Jaymes Butler, Callie Schuttera, Jonathan Auguste
Runtime 128 minutes
Director Zach Cregger
Writers Zach Cregger
Powered by Expand Collapse
