Life is Unfair, Chalamet

 

Yes. What happened to Timothée Chalamet at the Oscars may seem unfair. But life rarely operates with justice. Neither does cinema. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been awarding, ignoring, and sometimes correcting its decisions for nearly a century. Sometimes too late. Sometimes when it no longer matters.

For years, something similar happened to Sean Penn. The Academy took too long to recognize him. When it finally gave him the Oscar, Penn had already made it clear that the award no longer interested him. Today, he no longer appears at the ceremonies. Penn knows that this distance makes him bigger than the statuette. There is something powerful in that. The moment an actor stops needing Hollywood's recognition is the moment validation stops mattering to him, and he becomes invincible.

In that context, Chalamet emerges. A young actor who divides opinions. It was enough for him to say he didn't like ballet or opera for part of the cultural scene to look at him with suspicion. And in Hollywood, perceptions carry weight. They weigh more than many want to admit.

The contradiction becomes evident when we recall what happened with Will Smith. Right in the middle of the Academy Awards ceremony, Smith went up on stage and slapped Chris Rock in front of millions of people. Yet, minutes later, he received the Oscar. Seeing Smith holding the statuette after hitting someone else felt very strange. Hollywood can be moralistic and contradictory at the same time, without anyone seeming too bothered by that combination.

Then comes another uncomfortable question: Does the man of color always win? The discussion exists and divides. Michael B. Jordan delivered a fantastic performance in Sinners. The film is extraordinary. His work has strength, presence, and energy. But Jordan's performance never reaches the dimension achieved by acting gods like Daniel Day-Lewis, Marlon Brando, or Robert De Niro.

It's true that Jordan plays a dual role, which requires talent beyond the ordinary. That impresses the public. However, neither Peter Sellers, nor Jeremy Irons, nor Nicolas Cage won an Oscar for playing two characters in the same film. The device itself guarantees nothing.

There is also the inevitable comparison between films. Sinners is a powerful and ambitious movie. Ryan Coogler entering an admirable period of maturity. Still, One Battle After Another and Marty Supreme are on another level. Either one could have been the best film of the year, though Leonardo DiCaprio plus Paul Thomas Anderson plus Thomas Pynchon is a combination almost impossible to match.

That's why it was expected that One Battle After Another would win Best Picture. And at the same time, it's hard to ignore that Chalamet lost. The contradiction appears again, punctual as always.

At least something many had been waiting for years happened: Paul Thomas Anderson finally won an Oscar. A director who has built one of the most solid filmographies in contemporary cinema. Curiously, Teyana Taylor seemed more excited than Anderson himself. And that makes sense. Anderson knows who he is. He knows what he has done. For someone with his trajectory, the Oscar ends up being almost an anecdote.

There is also the feeling that the Academy has never had much sympathy for the Safdie brothers. When they directed Uncut Gems, many thought Adam Sandler would at least get a nomination for his incredible leading work. It didn't happen. That performance remains one of the great snubs of recent years.

Now something similar is happening with Chalamet and Marty Supreme.

And what's curious is that the film's own story seems to foreshadow it. In the plot, Chalamet's character doesn't win the championship. Yet he knows he is better than the champion. He defeats him outside the tournament. In the real arena. In the place where there are no judges. In the end, Marty Supreme became a kind of self fulfilling prophecy for Chalamet.

Life works that way.

Chalamet may seem arrogant, detestable, immature, or any negative label someone wants to use. His character in Marty Supreme also carries those traits. But even those who criticize him know something: the best performance of 2025 was his.

Nothing resembles real life as much as cinema.

And yet, even above powerful performances like Leonardo DiCaprio's, Chalamet's feels different. DiCaprio already inhabits another zone. A zone similar to the one Sean Penn occupies. That territory where an actor stops competing because his place is already defined.

Among the night's awards, there were also moments worth recognizing. Amy Madigan's victory for her portrayal of Aunt Gladys works as an unexpected echo of Nicolas Cage's work in Longlegs. A belated but welcome vindication.

It was also fair that Sinners won the award for Best Original Screenplay. The film is intense. Innovative. Full of imagination. The kind that lingers in your head long after the theater lights come on.

And in the midst of it all, there was a true silent winner: horror cinema.

Films like Sinners, Weapons, and Frankenstein were present. That confirms something many viewers already understand. Horror isn't just scares. Horror is one of the most fertile spaces to talk about fear, power, violence, and what really happens beneath the surface of society. And when Hollywood recognizes it, even if late, something changes.