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While most winners and presenters at the 2026 Academy Awards kept their speeches apolitical, there were a few who used their opportunity with the microphone to call out politicians, gun violence and wars happening around the globe.
Before revealing that Sentimental Value won the Oscar for best international feature film, Javier Bardem — who was also wearing a 2003 Iraq War protest pin — began with, “No to war and free Palestine.”
After, once the filmmaker for the Stellan Skarsgård-led film took the stage, he also concluded his acceptance speech slamming politicians. “I want to end by paraphrasing the wonderful American writer James Baldwin, who makes us remember that all adults are responsible for all children, and let’s not vote for politicians who don’t take this seriously into account,” Joachim Trier said.
Earlier in the night, both winners in the documentary categories also didn’t hold back, given the focus of their respective projects.
All the Empty Rooms, which won the Oscar for best documentary short, followed correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp as they embarked on a seven-year-long project to document the empty bedrooms of children killed in school shootings.
During his acceptance speech, All the Empty Rooms director Joshua Seftel took a moment to remember the four children who were killed in school shootings, whose empty rooms were featured in the documentary: Hallie, Gracie, Dominic and Jackie.
Jackie’s mother, Gloria Cazales, shared a few words after. “My daughter Jackie was 9 years old when she was killed in Uvalde,” she said. “Since that day, her bedroom has been frozen in time. Jackie is more than just a headline; she is our light and our life.”
Cazales continued, “Gun violence is now the number one cause of death in kids and teens. We believe that if the world could see their empty bedrooms, we’d be a different America.”
As for the winner of the best documentary feature category, Mr. Nobody Against Putin centered on a Russian teacher who secretly documents his small town school’s transformation into a war recruitment center during the Ukraine invasion, revealing the ethical dilemmas educators face amid propaganda and militarization.
David Borenstein, who co-directed the film, said in his speech, “Mr. Nobody Against Putin is about how you lose your country. And what we saw when working with this footage, it’s that you lose it through countless small, little acts of complicity. When we act complicit, when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities, when we don’t say anything, when oligarchs take over the media and control how we can produce it and consume it. We all face a moral choice, but luckily, even a nobody is more powerful than you think.”
Pavel Talankin, the film’s main subject, who also co-directed alongside Borenstein, also took a moment to demand that all the wars happening in the world end now.
“For four years, we look at the sky for a shooting stars to make a very important wish. But there are countries where instead of shooting stars, they have shooting bombs and shooting drones,” he said, via a translator. “In the name of our future, in the name of all of our children, stop all of these wars now.”
Jimmy Kimmel, who is known to get political and for his ongoing feud with President Donald Trump, also made an appearance at one point during the night to present the honors for best documentary short and best documentary feature. And the late-night host dropped a few pointed jokes during his short time on stage Sunday.
“We hear a lot about courage at shows like this, but telling a story that could get you killed for telling it is real courage. As you know, there are some countries whose leaders don’t support free speech. I’m not at liberty to say which. Let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS,” he said, jabbing at David Ellison, who now owns Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS.
Kimmel continued, “Fortunately for all of us, there is an international community of filmmakers dedicated to telling the truth, oftentimes at great risk to make films that teach us, that call out injustice, that inspire us to take action. And there are also documentaries where you walk around the White House trying on shoes,” he quipped, referencing the Melania Trump doc, Melania.
Later, before revealing the nominees for best documentary feature, specifically, he added, “Oh man, is he gonna be mad his wife wasn’t nominated for this,” alluding to Donald Trump.
At the beginning of the Sunday night ceremony, host Conan O’Brien had warned that “things could get political,” including with his own jokes and commentary.
“I should warn you, tonight things could get political. So there’s an alternate Oscars hosted by Kid Rock at the Dave and Busters down the street,” the host quipped during his opening monologue, referring to the right-wing Super Bowl counter-programming last month.
At the end of his monologue, O’Brien also got a bit serious. “Yes, tonight is an international event. If I can be serious for just a moment, everyone watching right now, around the world, is all too aware that these are very chaotic, frightening times,” he said. “It’s at moments like these that I believe that the Oscars are particularly resonant — 31 countries across six continents are represented this evening, and every film we salute is the product of thousands of people speaking different languages, working hard to make something of beauty. We pay tribute tonight, not just to film, but to the ideals of global artistry, collaboration, patience, resilience and that rarest of qualities today — optimism.”
The 98th Academy Awards, hosted by O’Brien, were held on Sunday at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood. Find the full list of winners here, and check out the red carpet arrivals.
