There seems to be a united effort at the moment to push One Battle After Another over the finish line. I don’t think it’s only politics, although that has much to do with it. Take, for example, this comment left on Awards Expert. The idea is that Benicio Del Toro phones it in, rather than giving the strongest performance (Paul Mescal should be winning it). But the Oscars and art now isn’t really designed for any other reason except to push an agenda and move the needle politically. This comment says it all:
I love this comment because she isn’t even trying to pretend that the movie is doing well for any other reason, as so many of the film bros must. They need to pretend it’s still about art. Yeah, no. Well, maybe some of it is. It is recognizing a talent like Paul Thomas Anderson and it’s about the performances and the directing. But really? It’s about this. Sending the message to Trump.
I always thought after Biden won in 2020 that maybe, just maybe, art would make a comeback. But nope. This is a feature, not a bug. What else could take down such a mighty industry as Hollywood? Politics swallowed it up and the best place for it is streaming. Netflix is taking the hit, making it easy, like Novocaine.
Note the double standard between how Amanda Seyfried has been treated for her comments on Charlie Kirk versus Sydney Sweeney and a jeans ad. This thing only moves in one direction. The side with all of that power abuses that power at every opportunity. Seyfried is celebrated for refusing to apologize for calling Charlie Kirk hateful.
She will probably even get that fifth slot in Best Actress for it. I don’t think she should apologize. I think Hollywood should always be honest about how they feel about the other half of America, as they pretend that disagreeing over politics is “hate.” Hate? You want to see hate? Just look at how all of these monsters have treated Sydney Sweeney over a jeans ad they interpreted as racist. Then they found out she was a registered Republican, and before long, the hive mind turned on her. Mean Girl Amanda is the hero, while Sydney Sweeney becomes a dumping ground.
Hollywood can’t survive this. It can’t survive its actors spitting in the face of potential ticket buyers — who only want one kind of person seeing their movies, and it can’t survive allowing the hive mind to destroy and attack anyone they deem a witch. Shame on all of them.
All this tells me is that the Oscars, like Hollywood now, isn’t for everyone. It isn’t an American thing anymore. It belongs to the bubble, to the cult, to those who demand compliance or else. I could spend a few paragraphs defending Charlie Kirk and saying Amanda Seyfried didn’t have the curiosity to dig a little deeper and find out what he really thinks about Affirmative Action or transgender surgeries on minors. But that’s too much work. She, like every other member of the ruling class, prefers their information curated for them so they can judge people from on high.
Instead, I’ll let Konstantin Kissen say it much better than I could.
Note the last line of his brilliant monologue:
“The bulwark against this voice of Kane was shot in the neck and killed on a college campus a few weeks ago. Charlie Kirk was single-handedly leading the Zoomer Right from bitterness and resentment towards God, family, and service.”
Seyfried would have to level up to get what he’s saying, as would everyone in Hollywood and most people reading this site, but what the hell, why not get her closer to becoming a smarter and better person?
Seyfried plays a Shaker who is supposedly the second coming of Christ but the actress is about as far from religion as a person could get if she judges whether a deeply religious person like Charlie Kirk is “hateful” by whether or not they agree with her on every issue.
As for Sydney Sweeney, after watching the hive mind viciously attack her, root for her failure, then pretend the snub for Christy was because of it, well, she tried to modulate a little and explain her position. She did a jeans ad, etc. The mob is a beast, a beast that needs to be fed and is always hungry. Giving in to them, apologizing to them, merely perpetuates the problem. As for Hollywood, well, I’m afraid the corporate monopolies are fine pandering to people like them and punishing people who speak up and out against them and think freely and for themselves.
Amanda Seyfried was rewarded and elevated, while Sweeney was treated like human garbage, and all of them still think they’re the good guys. I can promise you, never in the past or at any time in the future will they be considered the good guy. The judgmental, puritanical mob never is.
Seyfried has said she wants the country to unify, but that translates to “we want those bad people over there to shut up and stop being hateful, oh, and we get to decide how that is defined, and you’d better agree with us or else.” Does this mean she can get in the Best Actress Five? Maybe but she’ll have to bump one of the solid five and unless it’s Chase Infiniti or Rose Byrne or Emma Stone or Jessie Buckley or Renate Reinsve, I’m not sure how.
The rumors going around the internet right now include:
The fans of the Sinners movie were angry that the Variety critics left it off their list of best films, along with Rolling Stone. I’m here to tell those fans that film critics don’t matter anymore, not even a little bit, especially not at Rolling Stone or Variety (both owned by Penske Corp, which also owns the Golden Globes). A better measure of worth is what Sinners managed to do: win over audiences and become a cultural phenomenon.
Hollywood only matters insofar as it can reach people and move them. If it becomes a magic mirror, as film awards mostly are, telling the industry what it wants to be true, not what is true, and then the awards are given to make them all feel better about themselves, well, what good is it? Sinners will be remembered. Chances are, every other movie on their lists will not be.
Why are there so many international features crowding out the Best Picture categories at the Globes? Get used to it because that’s probably the Oscars, too. That is their fate, by the way. Abandon American audiences, pivot to international. Also something something dictators. The voters believe they — the richest and most privileged people in the world — are under the oppressive hand of a fascist dictator so these movies, and One Battle After Another, reflect their phantasmagoria best. It’s just that a real dictator would have them all jailed or shot on the spot.
The question isn’t whether One Battle After Another will win. It will. Martin Scorsese and TIME Mag rolled out the red carpet for the $20 million dollar man himself, Leonardo DiCaprio, as “Entertainer of the Year.” You think the fix isn’t in?
Just remember, the house always wins. There is no such thing as failure inside the bubble and there is no measure for success beyond reflecting the ideological worldview of its inhabitants.
There are rumblings by the Film Twitter Bros who worship One Battle griping and carping about Jessie Buckley. Hamnet is somehow a threat to these bros because they figure it might steal One Battle’s prize away because it has moved so many people so deeply. The bros aren’t moved by Hamnet. They’re moved by sticking it to Trump. The Jimmy Kimmel of it all. But why take it out on one of the best films of the year? Beats me. Bros gonna bro.
There isn’t much more to report except to remind you, if you’re not into it, to lie back and pretend to enjoy it anyway. That’s what I always do! Just kidding. Here are the predictions.
Best Picture
- One Battle After Another
- Sinners
- Hamnet
- Marty Supreme
- Frankenstein
- Sentimental Value
- Bugonia
- Train Dreams
- Jay Kelly
- It Was Just an Accident
(Alt: The Secret Agent, No Other Choice)
Best Director
- Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
- Ryan Coogler, Sinners
- Chloé Zhao, Hamnet
- Guillermo Del Toro, Frankenstein
- Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident
Alts: Yorgos Lanthimos, Bugonia; Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value, Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
Best Actress
Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value
Emma Stone, Bugonia
Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Chase Infiniti, One Battle After Another
Alt. Amanda Seyfried, The Testament of Ann Lee
Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
Timothée Chalament, Marty Supreme
Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
George Clooney, Jay Kelly
Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
Alt. Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Supporting Actress
Amy Madigan, Weapons
Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
Ariana Grande, Wicked for Good
Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
Supporting Actor
Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another
Paul Mescal, Hamnet
Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value
Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
Adam Sandler, Jay Kelly
Alt. Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
Original Screenplay
Sinners
Marty Supreme
It Was Just An Accident
Jay Kelly
Sentimental Value
Alt. Eddington
Adapted Screenplay
One Battle After Another
Hamnet
Train Dreams
Bugonia
Frankenstein
Alt. No Other Choice
Casting
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Hamnet
Jay Kelly
Marty Supreme
International Feature
It Was Just an Accident
The Secret Agent
No Other Choice
Sentimental Value
Sirat
Editing
One Battle After Another
Marty Supreme
Sinners
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Cinematography
One Battle After Another
Frankenstein
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Sinners
Hamnet
Production Design
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Sinners
Wicked: For Good
Costume
Frankenstein
Sinners
Wicked: For Good
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
Score
Sinners
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
Frankenstein
F1
Makeup and Hairstyling
Frankenstein
The Smashing Machine
Christy
Wicked: For Good
Sinners
Sound
Sinners
Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
Wicked: For Good
One Battle After Another
And that’s it. Driving a couple more hours and then finally home after a three week road trip. Have a great weekend.
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By: Sasha Stone
Title: 2026 Oscar Predictions: The Fix is In
Sourced From: www.awardsdaily.com/2025/12/13/2026-oscar-predictions-the-fix-is-in/
Published Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2025 00:19:28 +0000
