| March 13, 2026 
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Hi, movie fans! Never has a headline spoken to me more than when Variety published — two weeks ago, mind you — a story that asked, “Shouldn’t the Oscars Have Happened by Now?” The Academy Awards are unusually late this year, but truth to tell, I’m really excited for Sunday’s ceremony because, as my colleague Kyle Buchanan explained, “In all the years I’ve spent predicting the Oscars, I can hardly remember a season that felt so competitive until the very last minute.” Though he has made his predictions, Buchanan noted that several major categories, including most of the acting races, still feel like tossups. While that doesn’t exactly include best picture, which Buchanan thinks will go to “One Battle After Another,” the late surge by “Sinners” (thanks to, among other things, the Screen Actors Guild awards) means that you can’t count it out either. That’s partly why Buchanan has given the best-actor edge to the “Sinners” star Michael B. Jordan over Timothée Chalamet, the “Marty Supreme” lead, who seemed to be a lock at the start of the season. (Since I’ve been closely tracking the races, these predictions weren’t entirely unexpected, but check out Buchanan’s pick for international feature. That did surprise me and while I usually go with his choices in my Oscar pool, I’m not sure about that one.) As you can probably tell, we’re all Oscars all the time right now, and that includes the newest category, best casting. My colleague Esther Zuckerman has a good explanation of how that process has changed drastically over the years, sometimes benefiting performers, sometimes not. In the office, as we talked about this category, we couldn’t help but think about the times casting went wrong. We came up with a list of recent mismatches of actor and role that astounded us and asked readers to vote. (The polls close on Monday.) While we’ll have more on the outcome of that race next week, you can take a dive into the entertaining comments from more than 1,500 readers sharing their miscasting thoughts, and chiding us (OK yelling at us) for some of our choices. Hey, I can take the heat. In the meantime, stop back at nytimes.com on Sunday night and follow along as the Oscars are handed out. Until then, enjoy the movies! |
