Oscars 2026: Chalamet, Sinners ... and Our Predictions

Oscars 2026: Chalamet, Sinners ... and Our Predictions

From The Assignment with Audie Cornish by CNN Podcasts

March 12, 2026 · 31 min · Episode 221

About this episode

Audie Cornish discusses the Oscars 2026 race and Hollywood's future with film critic Megan Cruz.

This year’s Oscars race has been great for film and weird for discourse. There’s the friendly Best Picture duel between two crowd-pleasing films from the same studio. The acting categories are stacked with talent. And yet the final week of campaigning has been dominated by talk about Timothée Chalamet’s apparent disrespect to opera and ballet. Audie sits down with film critic and influencer Megan Cruz (aka @j.stoobs) to talk about the biggest night in movies at a moment when Hollywood is worried about its future. This episode was produced by Lori Galarreta and Jesse Remedios Senior Producer: Matt Martinez Technical Director: Dan Dzula Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Audie Cornish

Guest: Megan Cruz

Topics covered

  • Oscars
  • film
  • Hollywood
  • Timothée Chalamet
  • Best Picture
  • acting categories

Keywords

  • Oscars 2026
  • Timothée Chalamet
  • film critic
  • Best Picture
  • Hollywood future
  • acting categories

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: CNN Podcasts

Books & works: Best Picture, opera, ballet

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