The run-up to the Academy Awards is a fun, ridiculous, and loopy monthslong stretch. It also encourages something vital to Hollywood's artistic ecosystem: Movie studios, in the hopes of achieving Oscar glory, put money toward more stylistically challenging projects, rather than consistently aiming for the broadest common box-office denominator. But when the ceremony itself finally nears, I find myself desperate for it to be over'especially in a year like this one, when the Winter Olympics have pushed the Oscars into mid-March, extending what already feels like an endless trail of precursor events ahead of the ceremony. My primary note after this awards gantlet: Please hold the Oscars earlier next year. My exhaustion with awards season itself, however, is mitigated by my appreciation of the films'2025 was an exciting year for cinema; the two Best Picture front-runners (One Battle After Another and Sinners) generated serious fanfare in a time otherwise fraught with industry drama and...
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