Javier Bardem stood on the stage of the Dolby Theatre on Sunday night, looked into the camera, and said what millions of people have been screaming for over two years: “No to war, and free Palestine.”
The room erupted in applause.
Javier Bardem says “no to war and free Palestine” at the #Oscars, earning a huge round of applause from everyone in the room.
— Variety (@Variety) March 16, 2026
(via ABC/AMPAS) pic.twitter.com/7p3whJzhbm
That moment alone would have made the 98th Academy Awards more politically charged than the last decade of ceremonies combined. But Bardem’s four words were just the opening salvo of an Oscars night that, for once, actually earned the label “political.”
The big winner was Paul Thomas Anderson’s *One Battle After Another*, which swept six awards including best picture and best director. The film follows a rebel group fighting a cruel authoritarian government that rounds up immigrants in detention centers in an effort to — and yes, this is the actual plot — make America great once again.
Subtle it is not.
Anderson didn’t pretend the parallels were accidental. “I wrote this movie for my kids, to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world we’re handing off to them,” he said while accepting best adapted screenplay. He added that he hoped their generation would “bring us some common sense and decency.”
Sean Penn took home best supporting actor for the film. Ryan Coogler’s *Sinners* won four trophies, including best actor for Michael B. Jordan, who used his speech to name the Black actors who made it possible for him to stand on that stage — Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, Will Smith.
Host Conan O’Brien set the tone early. “I warn you, tonight could get political,” he told the audience. “If that makes you uncomfortable, there’s an alternative Oscars being hosted by Kid Rock at a Dave & Buster’s down the street.”
#ConanOBrien jokes during his opening monologue at the #Oscars that there are no British nominees in the Best Actor or Actress categories because “they arrest their pedophiles.”
— Variety (@Variety) March 15, 2026
(via ABC/AMPAS) pic.twitter.com/s0pglsn75J
After the first commercial break, O’Brien went directly at Donald Trump’s obsession with slapping his name on American institutions. “We’re coming live from the ‘has a small penis theater,'” he joked. “Let’s see him put his name in front of that.”
Norwegian director Joachim Trier, accepting the best international feature film award for *Sentimental Value*, didn’t bother with subtlety either. “All adults are responsible for all children,” he said. “Let’s not vote for politicians that don’t take this seriously into account.”
Wonder who he could possibly mean.
View on Threads
The documentary winners hit the hardest. The team behind Netflix’s *All the Empty Rooms*, which shows the preserved bedrooms of children killed in school shootings, brought Gloria Cazares to the stage. Her daughter Jackie was nine years old when she was killed.
“Since that day, her bedroom has been frozen in time,” Cazares said. “Gun violence is now the number one cause of death in kids and teens. We believe that if the world could see their empty bedrooms, it would be a different America.”
The makers of *Mr Nobody Against Putin*, winner of best documentary feature, appeared to address ICE killings directly. “We act complicit when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities,” said co-director David Borenstein. “When we don’t say anything when oligarchs take over the media and control how we produce it and consume it. We all face a moral choice, but even a nobody is more powerful than we think.”
That’s not vague awards-show platitude. That’s someone naming the thing on live television.
In the animated feature category, *KPop Demon Hunters* co-director Maggie Kang delivered a tearful speech. “I’m so sorry that it took us so long to see us in a movie like this,” she said. “But it is here. And that means that the next generations don’t have to go longing. This is for Korea and for Koreans everywhere.”
A rare tie in best live action short went to *The Singers* and *Two People Exchanging Saliva*. Co-director Natalie Musteata of the latter thanked the Academy “for supporting a film that is weird and queer and made by a majority of women.”
The Academy expanded its membership by 40 percent last year in a push for diversity — approximately 45 percent of new invitees were people of color, and 41 percent were women. That expansion showed up in what got nominated, what won, and what people felt comfortable saying on stage.
Last year’s ceremony was comparatively timid. Adrien Brody urged people to “not let hate go unchecked.” Daryl Hannah went off script to shout “Slava Ukraini.” The *No Other Land* team called for an end to the Gaza conflict. Those were exceptions.
This year, they were the rule.
O’Brien told press before the show that balancing politics and humor was a “very, very thin line.” On Sunday, Hollywood didn’t walk that line — it picked a side and sprinted.