Where Art Meets Politics: Inside the 98th Academy Awards

The Academy Awards, or the Oscars, are widely considered the most prestigious and famous film awards in the world. Beginning in early 1929 with a $5 dollar dinner and 15-minute-long celebration just months before the onset of the Great Depression (which began with a stock market crash on Black Tuesday on the 29th of October that same year), the modern Oscars have been elevated to an invite-only and widely televised affair. Throughout the Depression in the 1930s, the Oscars continued despite the devastating economic state of the country.

As the country became increasingly technological, award ceremonies became televised. Categories (ex. Best Actress) have been expanded. Award results have become sealed (when previously they were actively published). This brings us to the 98th Academy Awards ceremony, which took place on Sunday, March 15, uniting artists from Russia to Brazil, bringing important victories, emotional moments, witty humour, nostalgic moments, and a series of political and social debates that had repercussions far beyond the Dolby Theatre.

As the Oscars were being streamed around the world to more than a billion people, at the beginning of the ceremony, the host, Conan O’Brien, who is best known for having hosted Late Night with Conan O’Brien, wanted to greet several countries watching, especially Spanish speakers in Spain, Argentina, and Los Angeles: “If you’re watching from Spain, Hola, soy O’Brien. Es un placer darle la bienvenida a todos los artistas.” He repeated the phrase, altering slight dialect choices and the countries to not only Spain but to Argentina, and then to Los Angeles, highlighting the presence of many Hispanics in California.

He warned that “things could get political,” and added: “So there’s an alternate Oscars hosted by Kid Rock at the Dave and Busters down the street,” referring to the MAGA alternative “All American Half Time Show” that was streamed live in protest to Bad Bunny’s (in Spanish) Superbowl performance at Levi’s Stadium in February.

The most direct anti-war statement on stage came from Javier Bardem, a Spanish actor, who declared: “No to war and free Palestine” when he presented the Best International Feature Film. He was also wearing a pin with the word “Palestine” on it, as well as a badge on his vest that read: “No a la Guerra” (No to War).

The winner for Best International Feature Film was Sentimental Value, and, when giving a speech after having won the Oscar, the director Joachim Trier paraphrased US civil rights activist and author James Baldwin, pointing out that "All adults are responsible for all children. Let's not vote for politicians who don't take this seriously and into account."

When giving out the Best Documentary award, Jimmy Kimmel called out attacks on freedom of speech: “There are some countries whose leaders don't support free speech,” said the late-night TV show host. “I'm not at liberty to say which. Let's just leave it at North Korea and CBS” — a reference to the fact that the US network CBS has faced accusations of censorship after blocking the broadcast of a “60 Minutes” program about Trump administration deportations as well as a Stephen Colbert interview with a Texas Democrat.

Jimmy Kimmel handed the Best Documentary award to Mr. Nobody Against Putin, a film that follows a videographer documenting how school children are indoctrinated to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mr. Nobody Against Putin is about how you lose your country,” said director David Borenstein in his acceptance speech. “And what we saw when working with this footage is that you lose it through countless, small, little acts of complicity.”

“When a government murders people on the streets of our major cities, when we don't say anything, when oligarchs take over the media and control how we could produce it and consume it, we all face a moral choice,” said the filmmaker, drawing parallels with current developments in the US. “But luckily, even a nobody is more powerful than you think.”

In another monologue, O’Brien got serious, despite his role of being a comedian and hosting the event, saying:  “Yes, tonight is an international event. If I may be serious for a moment, everyone watching around the world knows these are chaotic and frightening times.” And added: “The Oscars are especially meaningful at moments like this. Thirty-one countries are represented tonight, and every film we celebrate is the result of thousands of people speaking different languages and working hard to create something beautiful. Tonight we honor not only film, but the ideals of global art, collaboration, patience, resilience, and one quality that is rare today: optimism.”

This recognition, for many, humanizes the nature of the Oscars and brings them closer to Earth. And yet, it’s important to still recognize the question of whether or not it’s appropriate to host an event like this in times of uncertainty. Of course, what constitutes such a charged time is subjective. The Oscars were hosted in the Great Depression, and they continue to be hosted now. What constitutes the Oscars ever being appropriate may be nothing at all — simply because the utterly extravagant costs for the ceremony itself are estimated around 57.7 million dollars, all while 48 million people live in food-insecure households across the nation. Determining what constitutes an appropriate time for such frivolous public relations is extremely difficult and it's a topic which has consumed much of the nation's media. But especially now, when so many celebrities are leaning into the political narrative and lending their own perception of it, one can wonder why they are participating in something like the Academy Awards at all.

For the proliferation of arts and culture, a common response can be a justification for involvement — but at what point are those things able to circumvent tragedy? Additionally, what constitutes meaningful art: is it Marty Supreme? Is it an International Film? Is it subjective, based on each person’s opinion? In all, what films are shedding light on society and tragedy and what films are simply frivolous in the same light that many see the Oscars? 

But the Oscars are significant for a reason, and have contributed immensely to the significance of arts and culture to Americans today. The Oscars gross nearly 18 million live viewers every year, so it’s obviously a topic that matters (like politics does) to at least some portion of the American people. But throughout the night, politics was not only the topic for jokes, as it was also the topic of many movies nominated for the Academy Awards, like The Secret Agent, which was nominated for Best Picture, Best International Feature Film, Best Casting, while Wagner Moura was a nominee for Best Actor in a leading role. The Brazilian movie is a historical political thriller, and it follows Armando (Wagner Moura), a former professor caught in the political turmoil in the midst of the Brazilian military dictatorship, which lasted from 1964 to 1985. Despite all four nominations, The Secret Agent did not win in any category, with the Oscars for Best Picture being given to the action thriller directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. One Battle After Another, which is set in an alternate version of the United States, involves leftists revolutionaries and the government’s largely successful efforts to take them down. As Richard Brody, a film critic for The New Yorker, analyzed: “his film [Paul Thomas Anderson’s], even in its omissions, brims with strategic ingenuity and daring, cinematic and political — to fight other films’ empty fantasies with substantial ones, to battle other advocates’ pernicious myths with virtuous ones.”

All the way across the globe, the co-production from the countries Iran, France, and Luxembourg was nominated for best original screenplay and best international feature film. It Was Just an Accident was written and directed by the Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who is critical of the Iranian government and has been imprisoned several times. Based on his own experience as a political prisoner, and on stories shared by cellmates, the political thriller brings together a group of Iranian citizens who debate what they should do with a man they believed tortured them in prison. According to a critics consensus at Rotten Tomatoes, a review site for film and television, “It Was Just an Accident is a defiant rebuke of authoritarianism that still delivers the entertainment value of a gripping thriller.”

Despite their different settings, they share a common urgency: to question authority and expose the human consequences of authoritarian systems, to be a space for resistance and reflection. And in the end, the Oscars exist in a space of contradiction: it is a celebration of artistic achievement while also being a reflection of the world’s biggest tensions, as filmmakers continue to tell stories shaped by conflict and resistance, the ceremony that honors them cannot remain untouched by these forces.