Good morning. The 98th Oscars will be happening on Sunday − we have more to prepare you for the awards below, along with a closer look at civic duty in Beirut and our Prime Minister’s visit to Oslo.
Today’s headlines
- Iran launches multiple attacks early Friday on Gulf Arab states as Trump threatens major new retaliation
- Ottawa will spend nearly $35-billion to fortify the North against incoming threats and to assert sovereignty in the Arctic
- Canada’s wildland fire agencies want better masks to stop smoke. If only it were that easy
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Host Conan O'Brien takes part in the red carpet rollout for the 98th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on March 11.Daniel Cole/Reuters
Arts
Rolling out the red carpet
Hi, I’m Barry Hertz, Film Editor for The Globe, and I’ve spent the past few weeks (maybe months is more accurate?) getting ready for this Sunday’s Academy Awards. And that includes getting my hands, well, dirty.
About 30 minutes into Paul Thomas Anderson’s excellent drama One Battle After Another – the odds-on favourite to take home the Oscar for Best Picture – the director pauses the action to deliver one heck of a needle-drop: a snippet from Dirty Work by Steely Dan.
The rhythmically upbeat but lyrically dark musical cue speaks to the particularly chaotic state of self-loathing that Leonardo DiCaprio’s ostensible hero, the burn-out revolutionary Bob, is reckoning with in the moment.
But you also couldn’t have picked a better single to soundtrack this particular Oscars race.
When it comes to the gossip, allegations and out-of-context soundbites overwhelming this year’s awards conversation, there is plenty of dirty work to go ‘round.
While every edition of the Academy Awards offers its own cycle of mudslinging – a practice of wounding other films in the hopes of saving your own, which was perfected into a dark art by Harvey Weinstein, even if it preceded his reign of terror by decades – the current discourse feels particularly muddy.
Leonardo DiCaprio in a scene from One Battle After Another.Uncredited/The Associated Press
Over the past three months, moviegoers (and of course Academy Awards voters) have been compelled to ponder the following questions: Was Marty Supreme director Josh Safdie’s creative split from his brother, Benny, the result of on-set impropriety? Does Hamnet’s Jessie Buckley hate cats, and thus, should we hate her? Is DiCaprio a Zionist? Is his director Anderson one as well? Should Sinners star Michael B. Jordan publicly denounce his friendship with Jonathan Majors, after the latter’s conviction for assault? Why doesn’t Blue Moon’s Ethan Hawke have an articulate position on the Israel-Gaza war? Does Timothée Chalamet hate opera and ballet? Why is someone like Kevin O’Leary anywhere near the Oscars? (Curiously, a sizable amount of the chatter has been directed toward Marty Supreme, which suggests that some players in Hollywood would like to remind the film’s insurgent indie distributor, A24, who really runs this town.)
The stories have been pushed by a variety of methods, from legitimately sourced trade-media reports to blind-item social-media whispers to questionably edited video clips. But the fact remains that the narratives are all being pushed in one way or another, to the point that dialogue about the actual quality of the films feels ever-more diminished.
Jessie Buckley, center, in a scene from Hamnet.Agata Grzybowska/The Associated Press
Every Oscar season has its villain. Last year, Emilia Perez and its tweet-addicted star Karla Sofia Gascón took the dubious honour, with The Brutalist (and its use of artificial intelligence) close behind. But this year’s discourse feels close to assembling a veritable Legion of Doom in which there are more bad guys than good.
Will any of the talk make an impact Sunday night? We’ll see. But as audiences, we at least have the power to collectively rise up and tell Hollywood that, to borrow the immortal words of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, we don’t wanna do your dirty work no more. We’re fools to do your dirty work. Oh yeah.
Tune back in on Sunday, when we’ll have an image gallery and a roundup of best, worst and weirdest moments of the night.
Keep reading:
- Here’s where to watch the Oscar best-picture nominees in Canada
- Guillermo del Toro’s favourite Canadian artisans are getting their due
- Canadian image-makers are shaping the looks of some of the industry’s biggest stars
- In The Voice of Hind Rajab, director Kaouther Ben Hania aims to make history
- Catch up: Here are all the surprises and snubs from the 2026 Oscar noms
The Shot
‘We don’t ask anyone about their backgrounds. We are working for humanity.’
Families flee after an evacuation alert and minutes before an Israeli air strike in Beirut's El Bachoura area on Thursday. An estimated 700,000 people have been displaced across Lebanon, according to the UN’s refugee agency.Siegfried Modola/The Globe and Mail
Inside Beirut’s main stadium and in hotels, schools and cinemas, families search for safety as the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalates. The Globe’s Eric Reguly is on the ground with photographer Siegfried Modola. Together, they capture signs of misery, bravery and civic duty as Beirut is overwhelmed by displaced Lebanese.
The Wrap
What else we’re following
At home: An Ontario judge has thrown out a lawsuit launched against The Globe and Mail by a former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister, ruling there is an important public interest in protecting an investigative journalist’s use of confidential sources.
Abroad: An attacker armed with a rifle rammed his vehicle into one of America’s largest Reform synagogues before security opened fire, fatally shooting him.
Out of office: Prime Minister Mark Carney arrives in Oslo today and will spend three days in Norway, meeting Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store to discuss energy security.
On the job: With the threat to eliminate jobs, unions are trying to codify language around artificial intelligence and layoffs into collective agreements.
Way abroad: NASA declares Artemis II ready for flight as it heads back to the launch pad in an effort to make a historic flight around the moon in early April.