The Trials and Tribulations of an Oscar Nominee
By Ellie Somers
The 98th instalment of the Academy Awards (affectionately known as the Oscars) came to pass on Sunday, March 15th, closing the curtain on yet another awards season. While once conceived as a showcase for cinematic achievement, they have evolved to resemble something just short of a trial, where words are excavated and sharpened into something evidential.
This year, much of that attention settled on pseudo-defendant and Best Actor nominee Timothée Chalamet, whose observations on ballet and opera likely need no introduction to anyone concerned with arts and culture. Nevertheless, at the risk of flogging a long-departed horse, it bears repeating that he does not wish to be working in things he deems are sustained by a sense of obligation rather than genuine cultural appetite. [1] What his remarks may lack in delivery is surely made up for in sentiment. They hinge on a perceived cultural obligation, a resistance to preserving art forms that no longer command attention. An unintentional irony emerges in the midst of it all, as if anything is being preserved with obsessive care, it is certainly not opera or ballet, not even the Academy Awards, which this year experienced a four-year low in viewership. [2] No, any and all regard is reserved for the outlook of the celebrity, however negligible. Their words are archived and repurposed when convenient. The art recedes while the artist is rendered permanent, in anticipation of error rather than in celebration.
Jessie Buckley recently found herself at the centre of a similarly surreal controversy. In the weeks leading up to the ceremony, she became the subject of a frivolous palaver when a three-month-old interview resurfaced in which she recounted a half-joking ultimatum about her husband’s cats. Her alleged transgression of “it’s me or the cats” is slight to the point of absurdity, inflated into a narrative of moral deficiency serious enough, some suggested, to cost her the award. This, of course, did not come to fruition as Kerry-born Buckley became the first Irish woman to win Best Actress for her role as Agnes Hathaway in Hamnet. How’s that for “kitty karma”? [3]
That it did little to affect the outcome emphasises how detached such ‘controversies’ are from the work they purport to threaten. Perhaps a more intriguing revelation is what passes without comment. Her co-star Paul Mescal (who unexpectedly avoided nomination at this year’s ceremony), in the same breath, offered a cruder dismissal: “f*ck cats,” yet he did not encounter any comparable fallout. This only clarifies the logic at play. The closer one gets to an award, the less their work seems to matter, and the more intensely they are observed.
If these moments feel trivial, that is precisely their intention. After all, controversy rarely announces itself as anything so calculated as a smear campaign. Instead, it manifests through a series of bite-sized indignations. A frontrunner’s visibility provokes scrutiny; scrutiny invites reinterpretation. Past interviews resurface, tone is flattened (or disregarded altogether), humour is reframed as a statement. Less a coordinated attack, more a sort of cultural reflex.
Chalamet’s comments land differently in this context. He was concerned with the pressure to keep certain art forms alive out of obligation. What he did not say, but what his situation suggests, is that we have become far more committed to preserving contention than we are to preserving art. The energy that goes into policing minor remarks is out of proportion with what is at stake. I struggle with the notion that an anecdote about cats or an offhand comment about opera should carry weight, especially when set against everything else that demands our attention.
Cinema has never thrived on carefulness. It depends on voices that do not always resolve neatly into something acquiescent. Strip that away, and what remains may still be polished, but it will lack the friction that gives it force. Not to mention it happens at a juncture when the world feels increasingly unstable, when art might be one of the few mediums capable of holding complexity without immediately reducing it.
Regardless, the Academy will assuredly reconvene year after year, winners will be crowned, and speeches delivered. What lingers, though, is the quieter question of what these conditions are shaping over time. Whether, in our eagerness to catch people out, we are encouraging a culture of restraint that leaves less room to speak, and ultimately, to create.
References
[1] Timothée Chalamet & Matthew McConaughey | Variety & CNN Town Hall – Full Conversation, posted February 24, 2026, by Variety. YouTube, 70 min., 36 sec., https://youtu.be/424w9fJRgYk?si=bbwNF7xSPquI_OVU
[2] Koblin, John. Oscar’s Viewership Slides 9%, Its First Drop Since 2021. New York Times. March 17, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/17/business/media/oscars-academy-awards-ratings.html [3] Carroll, Rory. ‘Kitty karma’? Jessie Buckley tries to claw back approval after enraging cat-lovers. The Guardian. March 7, 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/mar/07/kitty-karma-jessie-buckley-cats
