Students Predict Oscar Winners at Film Studies Event
By Lauren McCarty ’26
Photo By Lauren McCarty
On February 20, 2026, students from across majors gathered in the humanities to cast their votes for the winners of the prestigious awards presented at the Oscar awards ceremony in March.
Shannon Toll, associate professor, assistant chair of the Department of English, and film studies coordinator, put together a presentation on the Oscars, welcoming students to discuss their picks and objections to the nominees.
Students favored “Sinners” as the best picture and predicted “Frankenstein” would take home the award for costume design.
Henderson, a sophomore from Enon, Ohio, used a mix of opinion and guesswork to assess this year’s nominees.
“On everyone’s mind is ‘Sinners’. I think that for the leading role, Michael B Jordan should win for playing twins; it’s really impressive,” senior Katie Montgomery said while filling out her ballot in February.
Students filled out paper ballots, and the most accurate ballot cast at the student event won a $25 gift card to the NEON. Which should accommodate two tickets and some snacks for an affordable date night. Mary Jane Henderson won with 13 correct guesses.
On March 15, 2026, the 98th annual Academy Awards aired on ABC, hosted by Conan O’brien and attended by the biggest stars in Hollywood. Big winners of the evening included Michael B. Jordan for best actor in a leading role, Jesse Buckley for best actress, and “One Battle After Another” winning best picture.
Henderson, a sophomore from Enon, Ohio, used a mix of opinion and guesswork to assess this year’s nominees.
“I don’t have a lot of knowledge on Hollywood, but I love movies and try to keep up with the ones I hear people talking about,” Henderson said.
The NEON is an independent, non-profit art house cinema located on 130 E. Fifth St. in downtown Dayton. It screens movies from the past and present and hosts community events. The neon is prominent in the Dayton arts and culture community.
Henderson said she is considering seeing the 2026 romance film “The Drama” with her prize.
The event acted as a way for film interested student to connect over pizza and also served as a promotion for the film minor offered through the UD English department. Students of all majors can enjoy film, the unique lens that a film minor can provide a person is something the artist and cinephiles can appreciate.
“It’s a great interdisciplinary minor that fits in with people who appreciate art, who appreciate the technical side of it, the visual, the oral and the realization of it,” Toll said.
“This minor fits in anywhere. Many of our minors are outside of the humanities. Art just intersects with all of the different disciplines that we have here. It’s a way of understanding it on a different level, of having a new appreciation,” she said.