1. Where and when can I watch?
Couldn’t be easier this year. You no longer need the assistance of a satellite service or to stay awake until dawn cracks the horizon. The 98th Academy Awards ceremony will be broadcast on RTÉ One from the relatively civilised hour of 11pm. The 2025 show ran for three hours and 45 minutes, but they will hope to cut that down somewhat.
2. Can Jessie Buckley lose?
Donald Trump could demand that the best-actress award be presented to Melania for her recent insufferable documentary. Who knows? But if anyone other than Jessie Buckley took that prize it would pass out Anthony Hopkins beating Chadwick Boseman in 2021 as the biggest acting upset this century.
3. Who made you Nostradamus?
Buckley seemed a likely winner when Chloé Zhao’s film Hamnet debuted to raves at Telluride Film Festival, in August 2025. She went on to win at Critics’ Choice, Bafta, Screen Actors Guild (now the Actors) and the Golden Globes. It therefore seems inconceivable she will not now also win the Oscar. At time of writing, some bookies have the Irish actor as short as 1/100.
4. What Irish contender is likely to join her in the winners’ enclosure?
Though nothing like as certain as Buckley to triumph, Richard Baneham, from Tallaght, is shortish favourite to win a third Academy Award for visual effects. The statuette for Avatar: Fire and Ash would sit beside those for the previous two films in cinema’s bluest trilogy. John Kelly and Andrew Freedman also have a good chance in the animated-short category with the funny Retirement Plan.
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5. If it’s all sewn up, why should I bother watching?
It very much is not all decided. In fact, the 98th edition is as open a competition as we have seen in many a year. Timothée Chalamet, up for Marty Supreme, and Michael B Jordan, up for Sinners, are neck and neck for best actor. Best supporting actress is a three-way marginal. One Battle After Another is only just ahead of Sinners for best picture.
6. Might the In Memoriam section be a bit longer this year?
Well spotted. The past 12 months have seen a particularly brutal cull of Hollywood greats: Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Rob Reiner and on and on. Barbra Streisand, who appeared with Redford in The Way We Were, will sing during an extended segment. They will still forget someone important. They always do.
7. What film will be the biggest loser?
There is an unenviable two-way race here. Josh Safdie’s hurtling Marty Supreme is now close to victory in only one of its nine categories. (Chalamet is only slightly behind Jordan with the bookies for best actor.) Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value is favourite only for international picture, but, if it loses there, it too could go, as American sports pundits have it, “zero for nine”.
8. Will it get “too political”?
Unlikely. There is an absurd myth among right-wing commentators that actors are always mouthing off about politics at these things. Not any more, they aren’t. Certainly there is little recently to compare with Sacheen Littlefeather refusing Marlon Brando’s Oscar in 1973, Vanessa Redgrave condemning “Zionist hoodlums” in 1978 or Michael Moore denouncing a “fictitious president” in 2003.
9. Who is taking the most cursed job in Hollywood?
We shan’t name names, but, over the past 30 years or so, some of the brightest talents in Hollywood have embarrassed themselves in the almost impossible job of Oscars host. In 2025, however, Conan O’Brien proved it was possible to be both respectful and amusing at the microphone. Unsurprisingly, the organisers moved heaven and earth to get him back.
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10. Anything else I should look forward to?
Two of the nominated best original songs will get an airing: Golden, from KPop Demon Hunters, and I Lied to You, from Sinners. Rose Byrne, Buckley’s closest rival for best actress, will participate in a Bridesmaids revival. Paul Mescal, Nicole Kidman and Sigourney Weaver are among the presenters. And for the first time we see an award presented for best casting.
