At the Dolby Theatre on March 15, the 2026 Academy Awards paused for a series of intimate remembrances, closing its annual tribute with a striking moment: Barbra Streisand delivered a personal essay and then sang “The Way We Were,” the song she and Robert Redford made famous, as images of the late actor appeared on the stage screen behind her.
A personal farewell
The tribute to the late screen legend was unusually close and theatrical. Streisand, who co-starred with Robert Redford in the 1973 film that shares the ballad’s title, read a short reflection before offering a rare live vocal performance. As the song unfolded in the theater, archival photographs — including a monochrome portrait of the pair — ran in sequence, framing the moment as both elegy and celebration.
The choice to have a peer perform and speak rather than rely solely on a montage gave the segment a spoken, witness-like tone, underscoring Redford’s place in American cinema rather than treating him only as an image in a roll call.
Tributes on stage
Elsewhere in the remembrance portion, the ceremony made space for a more communal display of grief and gratitude. Billy Crystal introduced a tribute to director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, that built from personal testimony into a staged tableau: a curtain rose to reveal more than a dozen actors from Reiner’s films, who watched a reel of his work while the theme from The Princess Bride played softly in the background.
Cast members from titles ranging from When Harry Met Sally to This Is Spinal Tap and Stand by Me stood together on stage, a physical reminder of the collaborative ties that have long defined Hollywood’s memory rituals.
Night’s major winners
The awards segment of the evening also delivered a few headline moments. Paul Thomas Anderson’s film One Battle After Another captured the ceremony’s top honors, earning both Best Picture and Best Director, while a high-energy stage presentation of a K-pop–linked song preceded its win for Best Original Song.
- Best Picture / Best Director: One Battle After Another — recognized for its sweeping direction and production.
- Best Original Song: “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters — celebrated after a visually bold, light stick–filled performance at the show.
- Best Original Score: Ludwig Göransson for Sinners — honored for his musical contribution to the film’s atmosphere.
Those wins framed an evening that balanced celebration of current filmmaking with deliberate remembrance of the community’s losses this year.
The ceremony’s combination of intimate addresses, group tributes and high-profile performances signaled a subtle shift: the Oscars leaned into personalized farewells rather than a strictly chronological roll call, making the memorial portion feel more like a series of remembrances from colleagues and friends than a formal inventory.
For viewers and industry observers, the night underscored two recurring themes — how memory is staged in public ritual, and how awards ceremonies continue to mix spectacle with sincere acknowledgments of artistic legacies.
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