Best cat? Funniest prop? Ahead of the Oscars, the AP hands out its own
awards
[March 11, 2026]
By LINDSEY BAHR and JAKE COYLE
Awards season has a way of diminishing the movie year into a handful of
films that are talked about ad nauseam for months. But as good as some
of this year's Oscar nominees are, you have to go outside the consensus
— and the same old categories — to remember the best of 2025.
So ahead of Sunday’s Oscars, Associated Press Film Writers Lindsey Bahr
and Jake Coyle have selected their own awards, because while a movie
year might be celebrated for its best film or best performances, dishing
out honors for the best cat or funniest prop is just as important.
Most pure display of movie-star charisma: Keke Palmer, ‘One of Them
Days’
Keke Palmer has been good in many things (especially Jordan Peele’s
“Nope”), but she’s a sensational dynamo in “One of Them Days.” The
movie, in the spirit of “Friday,” takes place across a desperate day in
Los Angeles, and Palmer carries it throughout. Theatrical studio
comedies are practically extinct but Palmer in “One of Them Days”
reminds you what we’ve been missing. —J.C.
Best cat: ‘Sorry, Baby’
There must be something wrong with us as a society that Eva Victor felt
the need to clarify that nothing bad happens to the tiny gray tabby on
the poster for “Sorry, Baby.” Olga, played by Noochie, is just there for
cuddles, coffee and to give Agnes, and the audience, a smile. —L.B.
Most ecstatic religious ceremony: ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’
In Mona Fastvold’s richly earthy drama about Shaker founder Ann Lee
(Amanda Seyfried), nothing is more glorious than the Protestant sect’s
ritual dances. In secret gatherings, bodies sway and heave — and, yes,
shake — in spiritual communion, sinuously moving to Shaker hymns
rearranged by Daniel Blumberg. “Step it Up” and “Bring it On” have
nothing on “The Testament of Ann Lee.” —J.C.
Funniest prop: The goldfish in ‘Splitsville’
In the scope of the broad relationship comedy “Splitsville,” the
goldfish are rather minor players. And yet their existence in a kids
bedroom that gets torn apart by two men (Kyle Marvin and Michael Angelo
Covino) fighting over a woman (Dakota Johnson) sets into motion one of
the funniest movie scenes of the year, in which Marvin’s character makes
the ill-advised decision to go on a roller coaster holding a half-dozen
water-filled bags of (fake) goldfish. It is silly. It is dumb. It was
not an easy sequence to film. And it works. —L.B.
Best opening: ‘On Becoming a Guinea Fowl’
In Rungano Nyoni’s arresting second feature, a woman named Shula (Susan
Chardy) is driving down an empty Zambian road at night while dressed as
Missy Elliott — specifically the garbage-bag Missy Elliott of the “The
Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” music video. In the middle of the road she sees a
man lying down dead, and realizes it’s her uncle. “On Becoming a Guinea
Fowl” goes from there, digging into a dark family past. But you’d be
hard pressed to find a more beguiling start to a movie. —J.C.
Best use of a star, as a star: Gwyneth Paltrow in ‘Marty Supreme’
Really this should be about all the extraordinary “Marty Supreme”
supporting cast who didn’t get their due, but let’s just appreciate the
great Gwyneth Paltrow for a moment and her perfect casting as a
silent-era star now in her 50s. I refuse to say “fading” because Kay is
luminous other among mortals, the perfect use of a movie star as movie
star. Also, she’s a witheringly wise counterpart to Marty’s delusions.
Let’s hope it’s not another seven years before her next significant
role. —L.B.\
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This image released by A24 shows a scene from “On Becoming a Guinea
Fowl." (A24 via AP)
 Best location find: ‘One Battle
After Another’
It’s rare that a scene is so good that it gives you goose bumps as
it’s happening. But the roller-coaster car-chase finale of Paul
Thomas Anderson’s film will stand as an all-timer. Essential to that
is the so-called “River of Hills” road near Borrego Springs,
California, a spot stumbled upon by location manager Michael Glaser.
—J.C.
Most devastating costume: Nina Hoss in ‘Hedda’
The best kind of costumes tell a story and there was scarcely a more
heartbreaking turn than Eileen Lovborg’s (Nina Hoss) in Nia
DaCosta’s “Hedda.” Eileen — a brilliant, proudly queer academic in a
world dominated by men — is making her triumphant and sober return
at a party, dressed to kill in a bust-hugging gown that will
eventually be cruelly manipulated and used against her. Bravo to
costume designer Lindsay Pugh. —L.B.
Best psychedelic experience: Tim Robinson in ‘Friendship’
Think of on-screen hallucinatory trips and you probably imagine
something wild and colorful, something like “Alice in Wonderland.”
But in Andrew DeYoung’s “Friendship,” a quest for enlightenment
takes the most hysterically mundane turn you’ve ever seen. When Tim
Robinson’s suburban schlub Craig Waterman is handed an exotic frog
to lick, he’s promised a mind-altering experience. What he gets, I
won’t ruin, but it involves the sandwich franchise Subway. —J.C.
Best performance by a child: Lexi Venter in ‘Don’t Let's Go to
the Dogs Tonight’
A wise critic once told me that he never criticizes a child’s
performance — fault lies only with the director. Does the same logic
apply to a great one? Perhaps. Embeth Davidtz found magic in the
non-professional star of her directorial debut. Lexi Venter was 7
when Davidtz entrusted her with the role of Bobo, smartly knowing
that the best thing she could do was help create scenarios where she
didn’t have to act. —L.B.
Best elevator pitch: ‘No Other Choice’
After 25 years at a paper mill, a man is laid off. Fretful of losing
his house and his family, he analyzes his closest competition for a
new job, and decides to bump off each one. Who wouldn’t want to see
that movie? The source of Park Chan-wook’s latest thriller is Donald
E. Westlake’s 1997 novel “The Ax” (already adapted into a 2005 film
by Costa-Gavras). In the hands of Park, it’s a perfect movie concept
that plays out in elegant derangement. —J.C.
Most beautifully tone-shifting scene: Bridget Everett and Josh
O’Connor in ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’
In the middle of a hurried chase for clues, the detective trail of
Rian Johnson’s third “Knives Out” mystery suddenly goes off the
rails. When O’Connor’s Father Jud Duplenticy calls a construction
company to track something down, his conversation with a woman named
Louise (Everett) turns acutely personal. Her mother is in hospice,
she says, and she’s struggling. Father Jud shifts from private eye
to spiritual guide, and “Wake Up Dead Man” transforms from murder
mystery into something more deeply empathetic. —J.C.
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