Jimmy Kimmel returned to his old stomping grounds Sunday night by hitting the Oscars 2026 stage to present a pair of trophies, and in the process he took some not-so-subtle digs at President Donald Trump, wife Melania Trump’s Amazon documentary and CBS.
The four-time Oscar host, who joked that he was filling in for Conan O’Brien who stepped outside to get some air only to be incinerated by the sunlight (with his pale skin and all), walked a tight rope of paying respect to the seriousness of the documentary nominees (both short and feature length) while hitting a series of political punchlines.
“We hear a lot about courage at shows like this but telling a story that could get you killed for telling it is real courage. As you know, there are some countries whose leaders don’t support free speech. I’m not at liberty to say which. Let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS,” said Kimmel prior to presenting best documentary short. Kimmel, who saw his own show put on pause amid a conflict with the FCC and its chairman Brendan Carr over free speech concerns, had previously criticized CBS for canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Kimmel, a longtime vocal critic of Trump, continued: “Fortunately for all of us there’s an international community of filmmakers dedicated to telling the truth, oftentimes at great risk to make films that teach us, that call out injustice, that inspire us to take action, and there are also documentaries where you walk around the White House trying on shoes.”
He was, of course, talking about the Brett Ratner-directed Melania that focused a lens on the first lady. And he had more to say. Later while giving out the Oscar for best documentary film, Kimmel opened the envelope and said, “Oh, man, is he going to be mad his wife wasn’t nominated for this.”
Cue the Truth Social posts. Meanwhile, the winners in the doc categories included All the Empty Rooms directed by Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones for short, and Mr. Nobody Against Putin directed by Pavel Talankin and David Borenstein.
See the star-studded Oscars red carpet 2026 arrivals.
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