There was a moment Sunday night when the 98th Academy Awards stopped feeling like a competition.
The trophies paused. The acceptance speeches stopped. And for 15 uninterrupted minutes, the Dolby Theatre became something closer to a memorial service - one that Hollywood clearly needed.
Oscars producers had signaled before the telecast that the In Memoriam segment would be expanded this year. Producer Katy Mullan explained why: "It's been an unimaginably hard year where we've lost a lot of icons and titans of the film industry. We are going to expand the In Memoriam because it feels so important that we do a tribute that is worthy of the people that we've lost this year."
They were not exaggerating.
It Started With a Murder
The segment opened with the story of Rob Reiner, the acclaimed director who was found dead in his California home alongside his wife Michele Singer in an apparent homicide last December. Billy Crystal took the stage to eulogize his lifelong friend, walking the audience through Reiner's extraordinary filmography - Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, and more.
Crystal didn't deliver a speech. He told a story. "My friend Rob's movies will last a lifetime, because they're about what makes us laugh and cry, and what we aspire to be," he said.
Then the stage filled. Nearly every actor who had ever starred in a Reiner film - Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Meg Ryan, Kiefer Sutherland, Demi Moore, Mandy Patinkin, Cary Elwes, Annette Bening, John Cusack, and more - gathered dressed in black as the In Memoriam tribute played behind them. It was the kind of send-off most people only dream of.
A Tearful Rachel McAdams
A tearful Rachel McAdams then came out to honor Diane Ladd, Catherine O'Hara, and Diane Keaton. Of Keaton, McAdams said: "There isn't an actress of my generation who is not inspired by and enthralled with her absolute singularity. She wore so many hats, literally and figuratively - actress, artist, author, activist - but no hat was more important to her than being a mother to her two children."
Then McAdams did something unexpected. She treated the audience to a Girl Scout song she said Keaton used to sing on movie sets: "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other is gold." The room went quiet.
Barbra Streisand Closed It
Barbra Streisand then sang a portion of "The Way We Were" in tribute to Robert Redford, who died last September at 89. Streisand praised Redford's legacy - his advocacy for freedom of the press, his support for emerging artists at the Sundance Institute, and his lifelong commitment to protecting the natural environment. It was Streisand's first Oscars performance since 2013.
In a lovely touch, the entire segment was set to music from Reiner's beloved film The Princess Bride.
For 15 minutes, the most competitive night in Hollywood became about something else entirely - about the people who shaped it, and what it means to leave something behind that outlasts you. That is, at its core, a question of faith. Of legacy. Of whether the work we do in this life echoes beyond it.
The segment also honored Val Kilmer, Michael Madsen, Graham Greene, Terence Stamp, Robert Duvall, and many others who died this past year. The full list is available at oscars.org.
The 98th Academy Awards aired live on ABC and Hulu from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
