A few presenters at this year’s Oscars made jokes at Donald Trump’s expense, without ever mentioning him by name. The real rebuke to the president, however—and to some other aspects of our current moment—came from genuine displays of humility in the winners’ speeches.
Although an actor’s livelihood literally depends on faking emotions, most of last night’s winners appeared truly humbled by their victory, and grateful to those who helped them achieve it. Taken together over the 3.5-hour broadcast, they created a perfect contrast to a government and tech sector whose gauche displays of dominance feel as unwelcome as they are unearned.
Trump’s grotesquely narcissistic self-regard may have been more jarring back when he first became president. He seemed to embody every quality that parents tend to dissuade their children from adopting—constantly boasting about his own qualities and accomplishments, real or imagined.
In 2026, the consequences and limits of his notorious, self-aggrandizing vanity are now on shameful display for the entire world.
After recklessly rushing into war with Iran, and declaring victory at every shaky turn, he is trying desperately to strongarm allies into joining his conquest, rather than even attempting to entreat or inspire them.
Beyond this administration, the AI industry is similarly dripping with arrogance. The executives pushing the tech’s inherent utility in every aspect of modern life seem to have never considered, for instance, polling that shows widespread deep reservations about it. Instead, they plow forward, with an air of gruesome inevitability, dragging the hesitant masses along whether they like it or not.
Given that nihilistic egotism is now as common as the data-center-polluted air we breathe, it was refreshing this week to see a class of Oscar winners with such clearly articulated appreciation of community, legacy, and the fact that pride should ideally be deserved and respectful.
In it together
“You make a guy work hard for one of these,” One Battle After Another director Paul Thomas Anderson said upon winning an award for Best Director, his second Oscar of the night. (He would ultimately accept a third, for Best Picture.)
That line referred to Anderson’s prior dearth of Oscars, despite having been an acclaimed director and recurring nominee for the past 30 years.
Apart from making one mild joke about the long, strange path to victory, though, Anderson’s speeches emphasized his gratitude, with his strained voice and constant fidgeting suggesting he wasn’t just paying lip service.
In contrast with a certain someone who forever grumbles about not getting a Nobel Peace Prize, he betrayed zero bitterness about being passed over in the past.
Elsewhere, he stressed the community aspect of filmmaking. Anderson recognized all of his collaborators, ceding the spotlight to his producer, Sarah Murphy, to make a speech after winning Best Picture together. He was especially a class act, though, when it came to his competitors, whom he counted as worthy peers.
During his acceptance speech for that final award, Anderson used a moment in movie history to laud the directors he’d just beaten out for it, waving away his own film’s supposed superiority.
“I just want to say that in 1975, the Oscar nominees for best picture were Dog Day Afternoon, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Jaws, Nashville, and Barry Lyndon,” the filmmaker said. “There is no best among them. There is just what the mood might be that day.”
What we owe history
Another first-time winner, Michael B. Jordan, was similarly magnanimous when accepting a Best Actor award for his performance in Sinners, the night’s other front runner. He thanked his parents, his colleagues, the executives who green lit the movie, the audiences who loved it, and the voters who voted for it.
But he also placed himself humbly as the inheritor of a legacy.
“I stand here because of the people that came before me,” Jordan said, before listing six prominent Black actors who had previously won Oscars. “To be up amongst those giants, amongst those greats, amongst my ancestors, amongst my guys—thank you to everybody in this room for supporting me in my career.”
While Jordan appeared touched at becoming part of that cinematic lineage, Autumn Durald Arkapaw reflected the honor of starting a new one.
Earlier in the night, the Sinners cinematographer became the first woman ever to win in that category—and made the victory about something bigger than herself.
During her acceptance speech, Arkapaw asked every woman in the audience to stand up, “because I feel like I don’t get here without you guys.”
Needless to say, they largely complied.
Compare this groundbreaking winner’s appreciation of her place in history with that of, say, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, who recently boasted of having zero introspection because, “I’ve found that people who dwell on the past get stuck in the past.”
All the wrong people have impostor syndrome
In an era when the people who might benefit most from a crisis of confidence never seem to have one, it’s nice to see public figures celebrate themselves appropriately.
Perhaps the prime example at this year’s Oscars was K-pop star EJAE, one of the artists behind Best Original Song winner, “Golden.”
Despite the track’s enormous success prior to the Oscars—if you’re the parent of a young child, you probably hum this tune in your sleep—the songwriter looked shocked into utter disbelief as she slowly glided to the stage.
Once she arrived there, however, as the enormity of her achievement seemed to sink in, she began to exult in her triumph. But modestly so.
“Growing up, people made fun of me for liking K-pop,” she said through tears, “but now everyone’s singing our song and all the Korean lyrics. I’m so proud!”
As if humility weren’t sufficiently on display at the Oscars, it seems worth noting that one of the least humble nominees did not win.
Timothée Chalamet, who has been upfront throughout this awards season about his desire to be recognized as “one of the greats”, walked away without an Oscar for his performance in Marty Supreme—despite having been considered a mortal lock for the award earlier in the Oscar race.
Who said there’s no such thing as a Hollywood ending?
One of the main functions of movies is to offer escapism, a chance for viewers to nope out of their own lives for a while and visit another world. Last night’s Oscars broadcast did the same thing, in its own way. The winners offered viewers a brief but glorious escape from a moment in time when arrogance is rewarded and humility is for suckers.