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The Oscar was never really Timothée Chalamet’s to begin with

Why the actor’s Oscars defeat to Michael B. Jordan makes total sense.

After spending the past several months engaged in an intense Oscar campaign for Marty Supreme — including claiming that his performance as pompous ping-pong player Marty Mauser was his best work to date — Timothée Chalamet ultimately lost Best Actor to Sinners star Michael B. Jordan during Sunday’s ceremony.

Chalamet’s loss wasn’t a total upset, given Jordan’s win at the Actor Awards two weeks prior. However, it marked a surprising shift in momentum for the young actor, who was positioned as the Best Actor frontrunner early on in the awards season by awards pundits and entertainment outlets.

So, what exactly went wrong? For the past few years, Chalamet has seen both critical and box-office success starring in films like Call Me By Your Name, Dune, and A Complete Unknown — two of which earned him his previous Best Actor nominations. With Marty Supreme, Chalamet’s eventual Best Actor win looked like a sure thing to both fans and entertainment journalists. However, following some incendiary remarks he made in a Variety and CNN Town Hall about opera and ballet leading up to the awards show and his eventual loss on Sunday, a big question remains: Did Chalamet sabotage what seemed like a clear path to victory?

It’s reasonable to think that Chalamet’s loss is a cautionary tale of an overly eager actor flying too close to the sun. However, as history shows, the 2026 Oscar might never have been Chalamet’s to begin with.

From Best Actor frontrunner to Oscar villain

Chalamet’s Best Actor chances were one of the biggest question marks going into this year’s ceremony. He had started strong, winning at the first of the season’s major awards shows: the Critics’ Choice Awards and the Golden Globes. However, he lost the........

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