Oscars 2026 – Original & Adapted Screenplay + Best Director

Writer and photographer Katherine Oktober Matthews joins Elysia to discuss this year's writing and directing nominees for the 2026 Academy Awards. After they each unleash some of their hottest takes breaking down the three categories, they reconvene after the credits for a separate spoiler-filled discussion of eight of the nominees (01:47:05).

Note: All film discussion in this episode is spoiler-free (until the separate post-credits spoiler section)!

Links discussed:

• Katherine's writing and photography
• Elsewhere: A Personal Essay in Words and Photos
• The Emotion Mixer
• Oscars 2025: Live-Action Shorts & the Emotion Mixer (with Katherine)
• The Craft (1996) & The Craft: Legacy (2020) (with Katherine)
• Interview w/ Hamnet author – Not Just the Tudors podcast

Subscriber bonuses:

• What is real witchcraft? (with Marilyn, and a Katherine double-Macbeth cameo)
• Hamnet – WhachaWachin (with spoilers)

The nominees:

Best Original Screenplay (00:10:37.453)

• Ryan Coogler – Sinners (HBO Max , our coverage )
• Josh Safdie & Ronald Bronstein – Marty Supreme (to rent)
• Joachim Trier & Eskil Vogt – Sentimental Value (to rent, our coverage [subscribers] )
• Jafar Panahi w/ Mehdi Mahmoudian , Shadmehr Rastin , & Nader Saïvar – It Was Just an Accident (Hulu)
• Robert Kaplow – Blue Moon (Netflix)

Best Adapted Screenplay (00:45:19.607)

• Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another (HBO Max , our coverage: pt. 1 , pt. 2 , pt. 3 ) – based on: The novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
• Chloé Zhao & Maggie O'Farrell – Hamnet (to rent, <a href="https://www.patre