And best drama goes to… this year’s totally unhinged award season

By Dan Heching, CNN

(CNN) — With both the Seattle Opera and the Music Center in Los Angeles announcing they launched discount codes like “TIMOTHEE” and “CHALAMET” for their upcoming fine arts performances, an undeniable question is begging to be answered: How in the world did we get here?

Between Timothée Chalamet’s now totally out-of-control “balletgate,” drama over his fellow Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley’s feelings about cats and a terribly handled incident at the BAFTAs involving a racist slur – not to mention a wide-open and extremely late Academy Awards ceremony still to come this Sunday – the 2026 award season has been, in a word, messy.

Social media ‘scandals’

There were signs something was afoot last week, when an old clip of Buckley, nominated for best actress for her role in “Hamnet,” resurfaced in which she waxed lyrical on her hatred of cats. Buckley had made the statements around Thanksgiving, yet here we were.

Then, in mid-February, Chalamet aired his own disdain for opera and ballet, the precious kitty-cats of the performing arts. During a town hall hosted by CNN and Variety, opposite his “Interstellar” costar Matthew McConaughey, Chalamet volunteered that “no one cares” about these hallowed art forms and historic cultural institutions, and that they are struggling to stay “alive.”

The reaction, while not swift, was eventually severe, even though Chalamet had expressed the sentiment — repeatedly — before. Soon enough, AI creations of Chalamet performing opera were making the rounds and everyone from Karla Sofia Gascón to Chalamet’s high school principal to ballerina extraordinaire Misty Copeland were weighing in.

It all puts Chalamet, who has publicly professed his desire for greatness on award show stages in the past, in a tricky situation come Oscar night. Once considered the favorite for his title role in “Marty Supreme,” things are looking less, well, supreme for him at the moment, even if Oscar voting closed on March 5, before balletgate reached fever pitch.

The BAFTA problem

Adding to this already heightened drama quotient was a very serious incident at last month’s BAFTA Awards in London, when an attendee with Tourette Syndrome involuntarily yelled a racist slur at the evening’s first presenters, “Sinners” costars (and Oscar nominees) Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo. The organization and the BBC were criticized for their handling of the incident, from how their apologies were issued to the fact that the moment made it to broadcast, despite the ceremony airing on a time delay.

“Sinners” took home three awards that night – for original score, original screenplay and supporting actress for Wunmi Mosaku – and something just as valuable ahead of the Oscars: renewed interest in its message and artistic significance.

#OscarsSoLate, anyone?

All that and the Oscars haven’t even happened yet!

While Hollywood’s highest honors were handed out even later in the early aughts, the overwhelming majority of Academy Awards ceremonies have taken place in February or the first week of March over the last quarter century (save for 2021 and 2022, when the shows were delayed due to the pandemic and a combination of the Super Bowl and the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, respectively).

All the prolonged momentum and buildup, with plenty of time for these various ‘scandals’ and #gates to spin their wheels, means one thing: there’s no way the Oscars telecast itself can live up to the chaos that has preceded it.

Or can it? One of the most potent elements in this year’s race is its sheer unpredictability. It’s difficult to recall another year when the race was this wide open, this late in the game.

Early on, it seemed like a sure bet that the race would be dominated by 14-time Oscar nominee Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” but now the tea leaves have become more difficult to read after “Sinners” scored big wins at the BAFTAs and the Actor Awards.

Three of the four acting races are looking similarly hazy, save for Buckley’s odds in the best actress category, cat hate aside.

The uncertainty is maddening, which somehow feels appropriate in these highly uncertain times.

The Academy Awards will air live on ABC at and stream on Hulu on Sunday, March 15, at 7 p.m. EDT/4 p.m. PDT. CNN and Variety will host a live Oscars Red Carpet pre-show that will air on CNN and be available to stream online for subscribers.

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