Oscar Blitz 2026 – Best Picture (VIDEO)

Every year, the Academy Awards serve two basic purposes. One is, ostensibly, to recognize the best and brightest achievements in film, celebrating talented artists who go that extra mile to entertain, inform, and give audiences a unique experience. The second is to act as a sort of State of the Union mile marker for the industry. How far have we come? Where are we going next? Was this past year better than the one before, or do we need to make changes to improve? These are all questions that have to be asked.

The problem is, we know the answers, and they’re not good. It seems like every year the industry finds itself at some sort of crossroads, but in 2026 it’s more of a full-on inflection point. The business of show is demonstrably worse than it was even during the COVID pandemic, and maybe at its worst since resources had to be rationed and diverted for the military effort during World War II.

Look at all the issues going on right now. Media conglomerates are consolidating at an alarming rate, cutting jobs and writing off entire films for tax breaks that they don’t need, just so the billionaires that run them can become mega billionaires. The people buying and merging these companies are actively trying to suppress free speech and dissenting views, turning information outlets into the private equivalent of state media and insisting on content changes in entertainment that could embarrass or gently poke fun at their political patrons. Generative AI continues its incursion into art in spite of it flying in the face of everything the medium of film is supposed to stand for, and which the two largest production unions went on strike for months, crippling the industry, to prevent. The theatrical model has re-entered its COVID-era death spiral, with studios more and more favoring anodyne projects that get relegated to streaming services and largely only releasing projects in cinemas that cling to already established profitable IPs. The theatres themselves are also a symptom of the disease, as chains like AMC reward the customers and fans that saved them from bankruptcy by jacking up prices, front-loading a ton of ads before showtimes, delaying movies by up to 30 minutes with incessant trailers, and now inserting ads in the middle of those trailers, objectively failing to “make movies better.”

The latest bump in this road concerns the buyout of Warner Bros. First they made a deal with Netflix, mostly just for streaming rights and studio production, which was concerning, but far from the worst thing that could’ve happened. The real tragedy was that David Zaslav seems to have been brought into the WB intentionally to run the studio into the ground so that divesting became not just an option, but an existential need. Zaslav, satisfied that his job is done, is now preparing to leave with hundreds of millions in his pocket and the rampant devastation of one of Hollywood’s most storied institutions in his wake. But because he personally profited, this somehow counts as a success.

Then Paramount, which had already just merged with Skydance to the delight of Donald Trump and his cronies, launched a hostile takeover bid for the entire company, with Warners rejecting their offers multiple times before finally relenting to a deal that surrenders the entire corporation for a 12-figure price tag that Paramount CEO David Ellison can’t actually afford. He’ll send his company into massive debt to complete the sale, then regain about $6 billion by laying off thousands of workers, and while he pinky swears that he won’t affect the journalistic independence of CNN, which WB owns and which was NOT part of the Netflix agreement, he’s already torpedoed the agency of CBS News, and his butt buddy in the White House has been itching for a decade to kill CNN. The only hope we have is for regulators – all but personally appointed by Trump himself to make everything a quid pro quo – to kibosh the deal on antitrust grounds. Trump sycophant Sean O’Brien, head of the Teamsters union, is the latest surprising voice joining the throngs of other labor organizations to oppose the merger and appeal for the Justice Department to kill it, but this is the same DOJ whose leader thinks the Dow crossing 50,000 points is more important than girls being raped by her boss, so I’m not holding my breath. The courts could intervene, but again, with Drumpf having personally picked 1/3 of the bench with the understanding that he expects them to always rule in his favor (they don’t, but the ratio of wins to losses is still pretty steep), I’d say there are better odds of Anna Kendrick showing up at my front door in a negligée.

Perhaps the only consolation we got as movie fans is that Hollywood’s output did improve in 2025. It’s not that 2024 was a terrible year, but it was certainly a noticeable step back in quality, and given that most of the Oscars love went to a lengthy, pensive, and arguably bland character study (The Brutalist) and a good but forgettable farce about a sex worker (Anora), neither of which will have any real legacy (a mere year later I had to strain myself somewhat to remember the Best Picture field), you can tell we needed a boost. This past year did see a lot more highlights, and I personally saw a lot fewer bad films (a lot less overall, but still).

We also have a situation with the top prize that’s markedly improved since the last go-round. Last year’s crop of nominees had six that I felt were worthy of the win, but when I say that, I mean that they feel like complete projects that warranted consideration and praise. There are some years where there are only two or three, so that might seem like a plus, but of those six, only Dune: Part Two, Conclave, and The Substance were genuinely “great.” As for the other three, when I say they were “worthy,” I mean it more in the sense that no one would call eternal bullshit like they did with Crash or Green Book.

For this year’s class, however, there’s only one film that has no business being here. There are two others that would never get my vote, as I feel they’re massively overrated, hence why they’re at the bottom of my rankings, but I can at least see where someone else could find them to be superlative. For the 10 nominees, I individually rated them with four A grades, two at A-, two B+, one B-, and one D. Overall, that’s not a bad bunch. More importantly, though, among those top six, the top two are in a complete league of their own, pushing the medium forward and asking questions about what film can accomplish. If I gave out A+ grades, they’d each get at least an A++++. That is progress.

There are many problems that the film industry as a whole needs to address, and the Academy has to help steer the conversation, at minimum by making systemic changes to maintain its own relevance. They’re notoriously stodgy, but they have shown themselves capable of doing what’s right when the fans put the pressure on. The first step is making sure that we keep getting contests with films truly deserving of the attention.

This year’s nominees for Best Picture are… in the video below!

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There have been times when picking my Best Picture list has been incredibly easy, usually because there are only a couple of candidates even worth mentioning. It’s why I’ve advocated for years to go back to five nominees, just make sure it’s the right five. This year it was also easy, not because the candidates were crap, but simply because the top two were just so far above the rest, even though there are genuinely fantastic works below that would be serious contenders in any other year. I’ll always take a so-called embarrassment of riches over the dearth of nothing that we seem to be getting more often than not these days.

My Rankings:
Are in the video. DUH!

Who do you think should win? Vote now in the poll below!

Up next, before you fill out your March Madness bracket, you need to fill out your Oscar ballot for bragging rights over your friends and relatives, and I’m here to help. It’s time to make my Predictions!

Join the conversation in the comments below! What is the state of the film industry in your eyes? Should we go back to just five Best Picture nominees? Do you prefer a straight plurality or ranked choice voting? Let me know! And remember, you can follow me on Twitter (fuck “X”) as well as Bluesky, subscribe to my YouTube channel for even more content, and check out the entire BTRP Media Network at btrpmedia.com!