by @saidonescottishlady
Oscar/BAFTA – Big Swings, Quiet Precision, and Project Hail Mary.
Awards season always promises a kind of clarity — a sense that the year in film has resolved itself into winners, runners-up, and a broadly agreed hierarchy of achievement. This year, though, felt less tidy than that. There were clear frontrunners, certainly, but also a sense that the conversation was being driven as much by scale and ambition as by precision.
Two films dominated the nominations across both the Academy Awards and the BAFTA Awards: Sinners and One Battle After Another. Between them, they set the tone for the season — big, confident pieces of filmmaking that signalled intent from the outset.
Of the two, Sinners is the one that really stayed with me. It’s a film that feels genuinely original — not just in story, but in execution. Everything is working: the music, the performances, the costume, the design. It’s cohesive in a way that’s increasingly rare. And at its centre is Michael B. Jordan doing something quite remarkable, playing two characters with a clarity and distinction that never feels like a trick. It could easily tip into gimmick, but it doesn’t. It holds.
Note: Click the pics to go thought to the trailers for each film.
One Battle After Another, which I’ve spoken about before, perhaps carried more of the awards momentum, but I’m not entirely convinced it warranted quite that level of acclaim. There’s much to admire, but it didn’t land for me in quite the same way.
The Quiet Winner
Alongside those bigger titles, Sentimental Value quietly — or perhaps not so quietly — took both the Oscar for Best International Feature and the BAFTA for Film Not in the English Language.
It’s an extraordinary piece of work. What it does so well is place real, grounded drama at its centre while allowing moments of genuine humour to surface naturally. The opening, built around an actress paralysed by stage fright, is painfully funny — not written for laughs, but observed with such precision that it becomes hilarious. That tonal balance carries all the way through.
Performances That Cut Through
The acting categories, as ever, were where much of the real discussion sat.
At the BAFTAs, Robert Aramayo won for I Swear, and it’s a performance that rewards attention. As a Scot, I was slightly gobsmacked to discover he isn’t Scottish at all, but from Hull. The accent work is that convincing. I suspect there may have been a few people watching with Tourette’s who were equally surprised he wasn’t one of them. It’s a carefully judged, controlled piece of acting that never overplays its hand.
At the Oscars, Best Actor went to Michael B. Jordan for Sinners, which makes sense in the context of the film’s scale and ambition. It’s a performance that matches the film — bold, outward, and technically impressive.
For those catching up on the year’s films, though, Timothée Chalamet in Marty Supreme is worth seeking out — even if the film itself doesn’t quite work. I never fully understood what it was trying to be, but his performance within it is precise and compelling. It’s possible to admire the work even if you’re not convinced by the film around it.
Then there’s Ethan Hawke in Blue Moon. The film focuses on Lorenz Hart, long-time writing partner of Richard Rodgers, on the opening night of Oklahoma! — the first major work Rodgers created with Oscar Hammerstein II after their partnership ended. That context matters. What you’re watching is not just a man at a turning point, but a man being written out of his own story. It leans theatrical, certainly, but Hawke gives it a precision and control that makes it hard to look away from.
On the female side, Jessie Buckley stands out for me. What she captures is not just emotion, but the particular experience of a woman left in the lurch by a man — even when that man happens to be Shakespeare. It’s specific, grounded, and quietly devastating.
If she hadn’t been in the running, Rose Byrne would have been my choice. Her performance is electric, and the film around her builds pressure with a kind of relentless precision that’s difficult to sustain — but she does.
The Noise Around It
There was, of course, controversy around the broadcast — particularly the use of language that seemed to make it to the tv broadcast. It’s a complex issue and not one that benefits from being reduced here. What’s clear is that it distracted from the work itself, which is rarely helpful and served no one well.
And Then, Something Else Entirely
After all of that — the campaigns, the wins, the inevitable debates — along comes something like Project Hail Mary.
It tells the story of a scientist (Ryan Gosling) who wakes up alone on a spacecraft with no memory and must piece together his mission to save Earth from a global threat. As he uncovers the truth, he forms an unexpected alliance that becomes key to humanity’s survival.
It’s uplifting, charming, and unexpectedly tender. There’s a warmth to it that feels unforced.
It is also about an hour too long.
But even so, it does something many of the more decorated films don’t quite manage: it leaves you feeling better than when you started. Which is one of my very favourite things about the movies.
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