"The 2026 Oscars Ceremony" With Griffin Newman
3/17/20261 hr 53 min
It’s Critical Darlings’ biggest morning! After a marathon season, we react to this year’s Academy Awards: the winners, losers, presenters, performances, and awkward play-offs.
One Battle After Another and Sinners nearly split the ballot with One Battle and Paul Thomas Anderson taking the biggest prizes in Best Director and Best Picture, while Sinners took home Best Actor, Score, Adapted Screenplay, and Cinematography. But for as many questions as the ceremony answered, it raised more: Do Sinners and Amy Madigan’s wins signal a shift in how the Academy sees horror? What exactly is the Best Casting...
Clips
Showing 10 of 13Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMarie Barty0:00
[trumpets playing] Welcome to Critical Darlings, a conversation about the award season conversation one contender at a time. Please welcome to the stage your hosts, Richard Lawson and Alison Wilmore.
Richard Lawson· Host0:22
[clapping] Marie Barty, thank you so much for that wonderful introduction, coming to us, uh, via satellite from London- [laughs] ... uh, uh, at this time.
Alison Wilmore· Host0:33
Live.
Richard Lawson· Host0:33
Uh, we are joined again by our wonderful producer, Ben Frisch. Hello, Ben.
Griffin Newman· Guest0:37
Good morning.
Richard Lawson· Host0:37
And our special guest, Griffin Newman. Welcome back to the podcast.
Alison Wilmore· Host0:41
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me here.
Richard Lawson· Host0:43
[laughs] All four of us watched the Oscars together- Yes ... uh, which is a first for all of us, right?
Griffin Newman· Guest0:48
Yes.
Richard Lawson· Host0:48
Um, I normally watch at h- you know, just on my couch at home at this point.
Griffin Newman· Guest0:52
Yeah.
Richard Lawson· Host0:52
Stay tuned to the end of the episode. We're gonna have an announcement about the future of Critical Darlings, and also, throughout this episode, uh, we had, uh, Ben Frisch recording during our viewing party of the Oscars, and you're gonna hear some special, I don't know, correspondent bits from Blank Check Universe's own Ben Hosley, so keep an ear out for those.
Griffin Newman· Guest1:12
And near the end of the episode, we're gonna be doing a popcorn bucket review, both for the Oscars popcorn buckets and, uh, for just some of the, the best, brightest popcorn buckets with, uh, Rebecca Alter.
Richard Lawson· Host1:26
But Alison, what, what's your big question about