Paul Thomas Anderson stood there like a man who had just outrun time. After decades of acclaim and fourteen nominations, he still looked overwhelmed. “You really make a guy work hard for one of these,” he said, almost laughing at the absurdity of it all, clutching the Oscar as if it might disappear.
Even Ryan Coogler, fresh off a sweep, looked almost disbelieving. There is something about the Oscars that does that to people. It reduces giants to dreamers again.
And that, perhaps, is where the conversation around the Academy Awards needs to begin, not as an institution of Hollywood vanity, but as a cultural summit where cinema, in all its accents and textures, briefly meets on equal footing.
Because the most persistent criticism, especially in countries like India, is almost ritualistic now: Why do we care so much about the Oscars? Why not our own awards? Is this just another symptom of our fascination with the West?
It sounds like a fair question. It just happens to be the wrong one.
When Oscars stopped being just Hollywood
The Oscars are no longer “Hollywood’s awards” because cinema itself is no longer bound by geography. Films travel across languages, borders and cultures with ease — and the Academy, however imperfectly, has had to catch up.
The Academy has long been criticised for its lack of diversity. What followed hasn’t been perfect, but it has been visible. Black artists are no longer on the margins — they are winning major categories and shaping mainstream narratives.
Sinners, Michael B Jordan, Ryan Coogler, Autumn Durald Arkapaw (the first woman to shoot a feature film using large-format 65mm IMAX cameras and the first woman in 98 years to win the Best Cinematographer Oscar) are just testimonies of it. Then there is the International Feature Film category — an entire space carved out to acknowledge that cinema does not begin and end in Los Angeles. But even that distinction has started to blur. The real shift lies in how “international” films are no longer confined to that label.
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When Parasite won Best Picture, it wasn’t just a win for South Korea, it was a rupture. A non-English language film, deeply rooted in its own culture, resonating so universally that it claimed the Academy’s top honour. That moment didn’t feel like an exception; it felt like a correction. And it hasn’t stopped there. International films are no longer outsiders looking in; they are increasingly part of the main conversation.
This year, films like The Secret Agent (Brazil) and Sentimental Value (Norway), which also won the Best International Feature Oscar and secured Best Picture nominations, reinforce that shift. They are not being acknowledged despite being non-American; they are being recognised because they are exceptional.
Even in categories that seem more insulated, the global footprint is undeniable. KPop Demon Hunters — with Korean creators at its core — winning Best Song and Best Animated Film is not just a win for a film; it’s a signal. That the Academy is listening to voices that were once considered peripheral. And if one were to look at India’s relationship with the Oscars, the narrative is far more nuanced than the usual “we don’t win” lament.
KPop Demon Hunters makes history with Oscar 2026 win (Photo – AP)
India’s Oscar story is bigger than Lagaan
Yes, Lagaan remains the last Indian film to secure a nomination in the International Feature Film category. But to stop the story there is to miss everything that has happened since. A.R. Rahman and Gulzar’s triumph with Slumdog Millionaire wasn’t just about awards; it was about Indian music finding a global stage without dilution.
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Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga’s The Elephant Whisperers — a quiet, tender documentary about the bond between humans and animals — proved that even the smallest, most rooted stories can travel across continents and find recognition. M.M. Keeravani’s win for Naatu Naatu from RRR carried with it the sound of a regional language, unapologetically local yet universally infectious.
These are not footnotes. These are milestones.
Why are we still watching
Because the Academy, at its best, does not reward scale, it rewards impact. It does not ask where a film comes from; it asks what the film does to you. This is where the Oscars differ from most other awards.
The Oscars are not just about who wins. A nomination alone can push a film into global conversation — seen, debated and remembered across continents.
Of course, the Oscars are not without their flaws. The campaigning, the politics, the optics—they are all very real. The months leading up to the ceremony often feel less like a celebration of cinema and more like a strategic game of positioning. There are snubs that spark outrage, wins that invite scepticism, and decisions that don’t always age well. But even within that imperfect machinery, something genuine persists.
Because when Paul Thomas Anderson looks at his Oscar like it’s the first time he’s ever held one, despite a career that has already secured his legacy, you realise that the value of that gold statue isn’t manufactured, it’s earned, over time, through collective belief.
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When Ryan Coogler, a filmmaker who has already been validated by every major body, still feels the weight of that moment, you understand that the Oscars are not just another stop in the awards circuit. They are the destination.
Not because they are American. But because they have become, over time, a global language of recognition. For cinephiles in India, or anywhere else in the world, caring about the Oscars is not an act of cultural submission. It is an acknowledgement of cinema as a shared experience. The same way a Korean film can move an audience in Delhi, or an Indian song can electrify a crowd in Los Angeles.
The Oscars, in that sense, are not about Hollywood exporting its culture. They are about cinema importing the world.
And that is why they matter.
Not because they are perfect. But because, at their best, they remind us that stories — no matter where they come from — can stand on the same stage, under the same light, and be heard.
