Anybody who covers or follows movie awards season understands that you simply inevitably have to speak about extra than simply the films. Our preliminary reactions to the creative deserves of every movie rapidly offers approach to months of conversations about campaigning, messaging, positioning, momentum, and different concerns that don’t have anything to do with artwork.
That’s both a vital evil or a part of the enjoyable, relying on the way you take a look at it, however it’s not going anyplace. And typically, you’re left with conversations that your movie vocabulary is ill-equipped to cowl.
I discovered myself in such a place on Sundaywhen “One Battle After One other” star Sean Penn gained the BAFTA Award for Supporting Actor, placing him within the pole place to win his third Oscar in just some weeks. Sure corners of the web rapidly began discussing whether or not seeing a repeat winner made for a much less compelling story than seeing another person win for the primary time.
Should you eat any quantity of sports activities media, you’re immediately accustomed to this matter. Conversations concerning the NFL, NBA, and MLB often query whether or not dynasties are good for sports activities. The question facilities round what’s extra attention-grabbing from the attitude of an off-the-cuff fan with no horse within the race: seeing one workforce attempt to stack a number of championships, or seeing extra groups get their second within the highlight?
I’m of the mindset that, in sports activities leagues with wage caps and drafts that actively make it tougher for groups to maintain success (an excellent factor!), nothing is extra fascinating than seeing if the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs or the Golden State Warriors are able to sustaining greatness in an atmosphere that’s working in opposition to them.
I’d argue that award voting capabilities equally.
I’ve been studying nameless Oscar ballots yearly for so long as I’ve had web entry, and there’s at all times somebody who mentions voting for his or her second selection as a result of their first selection has gained too lately they usually needed to unfold the love. I like that sentiment, however it solely makes me extra impressed when somebody manages to win a number of Oscars in a profession.
All of which led me to a principle: watching an actor or filmmaker attempt to win a second or third Oscar is inherently extra attention-grabbing than watching somebody pursue their first. It doesn’t imply the repeat winner is extra deserving, or that I’m at all times rooting for them, however it’s probably the most compelling storyline that award season has to supply.
Take this yr’s Lead Actor race, for instance. I don’t really feel any actual suspense about whether or not Timothée Chalamet or Michael B. Jordan will get their first Oscar this yr — they’ve carried out an excessive amount of nice work for too lengthy, have a long time of runway forward of them, and if this isn’t their yr, then I’m assured one other one can be. However I’m deeply interested by whether or not Leonardo DiCaprio will ever win a second one. It may go both method, however every extra one which he wins will solely bolster his standing within the pantheon of nice Hollywood stars.
To be clear, I desperately want I had somebody extra charismatic than Sean Penn to make this argument about. (The case for Meryl Streep’s fourth Oscar rolls off the tongue so a lot better!) And if I used to be an Oscar voter, I’d be casting my poll for Chalamet, Benicio del Toro, Amy Madigan, and Jessie Buckley, simply because I believe they’re the 4 finest performances. However from an viewers perspective, I believe somebody’s quest for Oscars #2, #3, and even #4 creates the perfect water cooler storyline that we are able to ask for.
We’ve already seen a number of nice performing dynasties: Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, and Daniel Day-Lewis have every grow to be three-time winners, and the likes of Penn, Denzel Washington, and Robert De Niro may definitely enter that territory in some unspecified time in the future. The chase to succeed in that mountaintop and the celebration that follows are a narrative that rivals any sports activities film that Hollywood may write.
Should you learn all of that, there’s a good likelihood you’re now considering “that sounds ridiculous and basically against how we must always eat and recognize artwork.” And I’d discover no motive to disagree with you. However I might argue that award reveals have by no means been and can by no means be conducive to correctly appreciating artwork, and that’s high quality! I prefer to suppose that any cinephile who cares sufficient concerning the Oscars to trace them for the 6+ months of award season has a nuanced sufficient worldview to know that one film profitable Finest Image doesn’t really make it higher than one other one.
There’s sufficient room within the canon of cinema for all the perfect films of 2025 to be remembered. “One Battle After One other” and “Sinners” are each nice movies that need to stay on as trendy classics, and one “beating” the opposite shouldn’t have any actual have an effect on on their legacies.
However that caveat solely makes me extra tempted to sports-ify the Oscars. As soon as I accepted that pitting nice artworks in opposition to one another and selecting true winners is inherently unattainable, I used to be left with a extra clear view of what award reveals are in 2026. I see them as enjoyable leisure merchandise that assist preserve nice films within the limelight lengthy after their conventional theatrical runs have ended. They create cleaning soap opera-like storylines that preserve us engaged for months on finish after which enable us to neatly crystalize every year of movie historical past.
And, maybe most significantly, they create a monocultural occasion that provides everybody a motive to consider films for an evening, irrespective of how few journeys they may have made to theaters the yr earlier than.
That’s why I like Oscar dynasties.
Even when Penn and DiCaprio aren’t my first selections of their respective classes, I don’t see a world during which issues can be boring in the event that they gained. In the identical method that Patrick Mahomes’ quest for a three-peat is sufficient to make even probably the most informal soccer shopper dial into the Tremendous Bowl — both to root for him or in opposition to him — residing legends chasing repeat wins is nice for the Oscars as a TV product, a cultural second, and simply the factor to maintain everybody watching as awards season unfolds.