The Oscars Were Savage In Cutting Winners Off With Music, And One Movie Got It Especially Bad

Every year, Oscar winners face the wrath of a tight show timeline, and the 98th Academy Awards last night were no different. Multiple times during the uneven production, 2026 Oscar winners were “played off” the stage when the producers of the show decided their speeches had gone on long enough. One film, KPop Demon Hunters (available with a Netflix subscription), was a victim both times it took home a prize. The second time was especially savage.

Lights Flickered, Mics Lowered, And Music Was Played

The Academy Awards are two things: they are a television variety show that needs to keep the audience engaged for three or four hours, and they are an awards celebration honoring the best in film for the previous year. Juggling those two commitments is a thankless task for the producers of the show, and sometimes it means that “in the interest of time,” winners don’t have much time to give a speech. This seemed especially true last night.

It started early when the creators of Two People Exchanging Saliva, one of two short films that actually tied (only the 6th time in Oscars history that has happened), for Best Live Action Short. After the film’s co-writer and director, Natalie Musteata, spoke, her partner (in life and on the film), Alexandre Singh, took the mic, only to have the sound out and the camera move to host Conan O’Brien as Singh continued to talk. It was an awkward moment to say the least, and as O’Brien seemed almost embarrassed, the mic was turned back on, and Singh finished his speech. That was hardly the only time something like this happened.

KPop Demon Hunters Got The Treatment Twice

There were only three films to receive multiple awards at the Oscars this year. The big winner was One Battle After Another with six trophies, including Best Picture, Sinners with four, and two for KPop Demon Hunters. The first award it won on the night, Best Animated Feature, saw the producers of the film get about a minute and a half before the band started blaring, cutting off one of the speeches. Eventually, the music died down, and producer Maggie Kang finished her speech.

The second time came close to the end of the night when the song “Golden” from the movie took home the prize for Best Song. The songwriters accepting the award, one of the most anticipated of the night, given the broad appeal of the movie, were given less than a minute for their speech, and the band very loudly interrupted co-writer Yu Han Lee, as another songwriter, Mark Sonnenblick, reacted very animatedly (no pun intended) at the slight. Given the popularity of “Golden,” which we’ve all been humming since last summer, this was especially harsh.

I get that it’s hard to balance a snappy production with allowing time for the honorees to speak, but one minute for a speech, especially when there were so many creators involved in the process, is just too short for an awards celebration. We’re watching to see the winners!