The 2026 Oscars began on a touching, career-capping note as Amy Madigan took her first Oscar nearly 45 years since she began acting.
Madigan won the supporting actress statuette for her role as the creepily supernatural Aunt Gladys in breakout horror hit Weapons, winning an Oscar in her second try. Her first nomination came 40 years ago for the romantic drama Twice In a Lifetime.
“What’s different is I got this little gold guy,” Madigan said in her acceptance speech, comparing this Oscar campaign to the last one.
Beginning with a cackle befitting her Weapons character, she said she had tried to think of a speech while shaving her legs in the shower Saturday night, and then proceeded to give emotional thank yous to various people who worked on her film and on her career. “As you can tell I’m a little flummoxed,” she said, while alluding to all the other Warner Bros. contenders that had welcome her on the awards trail. She also thanked longtime husband Ed Harris and “of course all the dogs.”
Shortly after Madigan’s win, KPop Demon Hunters took the animated feature Oscar, no doubt giving heart to the millions of fans of the Netflix phenom who may not otherwise be avidly following best-picture odds.
An emotional director co-director Maggie Kang took the stage and said, “For those of you who look like me, I’m so sorry that it took this long to see us in a movie like this,” the Korean-Canadian filmmaker then vowing it would not be long until the next one.
A defiant note happened when animated presenter Will Arnett said “Tonight we’re celebrating people, not AI.” Animation, he added, “is more than a prompt; it’s an art form and it needs to be protected.”
The show began with host Conan O’Brien trying to push a more hopeful message despite war-torn and dislocating times.
After noting said toughness, O’Brien said that “It’s at moments like these that the Oscars are particularly resonant, citing the dozens of countries watching and represented and the pursuit of the “rarest of qualities today: optimism. So please let us celebrate not because we think all is well but because we know and hope for better.”
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