Jimmy Kimmel makes brutal dig at Trump during Oscars speech

Jimmy Kimmel just threw shade at US President Donald Trump during tonight's Oscars ceremony.

The American chat show host, 58, was presenting the award for Best Documentary Feature Film when he appeared to call out Trump and CBS while joking about free speech.

He said: "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 & CBS."

For context, Kimmel was taken off the air and suspended indefinitely back in September following comments he made on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the murder of right-wing campaigner Charlie Kirk, an ally of the US President.

Then, after talking about how some filmmakers risk their lives to tell their stories, he also issued a dig at First Lady Melania, as he added: "There are also documentaries where you walk around the White House trying on shoes."

Before joking: "Oh man, is he going to be mad his wife wasn’t nominated for this."

Kimmel is, of course taking aim at Melania's documentary about her life as First Lady, which was released back in January.

Melania follows the first lady for the 20 days leading up to her husband's 2025 inauguration.

The film's synopsis reads: "With exclusive footage capturing critical meetings, private conversations, and never-before-seen environments, Melania showcases Mrs Trump’s return to one of the world’s most powerful roles."

Reacting to the shock jokes, one X user penned: "Aayyooo Jimmy Kimmel said boy he gonna be mad his wife wasn't nominated for the documentary."

While a second wrote: "After the dig at ‘Melania’ documentary Trump is definitely going to send out a ballistic tweet at like 3am at Jimmy Kimmel."

And a third wrote: "Jimmy Kimmel just destroyed the ‘Melania’ documentary."

"WOW! Jimmy Kimmel with a shot at CBS and Melania while presenting the documentary category at the Oscars," quipped another

Davis Ingle, WH Spokesman, said: "Nobody in their right mind cares what woke celebrities in Hollywood say or think."

Oscars 2026 recap

Here’s everything that happened on Hollywood’s biggest night...

Timothée Chalamet roasted

In comments that may have cost him his first Oscar, Chalamet said in a conversation with Matthew McConaughey for Variety earlier this month: “I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera where it’s like, ‘Hey! Keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this anymore.'”

The 30-year-old was widely considered a frontrunner for Best Actor, but lost out to Michael B Jordan, while Marty Supreme walked away empty-handed following nine nominations.

Chalamet, who attended the ceremony with his girlfriend Kylie Jenner, was roasted twice.

Host Conan O’Brien quipped in his opening monologue: “Security is extremely tight tonight. I’m told there are concerns about attacks from both the opera and ballet community.”

Chalamet was seen laughing along.

Then, later in the night, Alexandre Singh, the co-director of one of the two winning short films Two People Exchanging Saliva, also shaded Chalemet, saying in his acceptance speech: “Maybe it takes 10 years’ time, but we can change society through art, through creativity, through theatre and ballet, and also cinema.”

History-making Oscars tie

Last night saw the seventh-ever tie in Oscars history, as both Two People Exchanging Saliva and The Singers shared the award for Best Live-Action Short Film.

Presenting the award, actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani quipped: “It's a tie, I'm not joking, it's actually a tie. Ironic that the short film Oscar's going to take twice as long.”

The other six times this has happened are in 1932 for Best Actor (Fredric March for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Wallace Beery for The Champ), 1950 for Best Documentary Short Subject (A Chance to Live and So Much for So Little), 1969 for Best Actress (Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter and Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl), 1986 for Best Documentary Feature (Artie Shaw: Time is All You've Got and Down and Out in America), 1995 for Best Live Action Short Film (Trevor and Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life); and most recently 2013 for Best Sound Editing (Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty).

Bridesmaids reunion - but one person is missing

Fifteen years on from the beloved comedy, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Rose Byrne, Ellie Kemper and Maya Rudolph took to the stage to present the award for Best Score.

Performing a comedy skit, the actors pretended to receive notes from some of the big-name nominees.

Rudolph joked: “Mine says, 'First of all, you ladies look extremely beautiful tonight.' Thank you. 'You’re aging well.' Signed, Stellan Skarsgård.”

McCarthy quipped: “Mine is almost impossible to read. The handwriting is really pretty terrible. Says, ‘Hi, I’m with Stellan Skarsgård, writing my own separate note. I also agree you ladies look radiant. All the things you’ve done to your faces are very tasteful. Yours truly, Elle Fanning’.

“Wait, wait, there’s more. It says, ‘Just kidding. It’s me again, Stellan Skarsgård’.”

Wendi McLendon-Covey, who played Rita in the film, was noticeably absent. She later said she was recovering from a neck lift.

Where was Sean Penn?

Sean Penn won his third Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his hilarious and terrifying portrayal of Colonel Lockjaw in One Battle After Another, but he was nowhere to be seen at the ceremony

Accepting the award on his behalf, Kieran Culkin joked: “Sean Penn couldn’t be here this evening, or didn’t want to, so I’ll be accepting the award on his behalf.”

The New York Times reports - citing two sources familiar with the situation - that Penn was actually in Ukraine instead.

He has been a vocal critic of Russia’s invasion, making the documentary Superpower about it in 2022.

He’s firm friends with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and even gave him one of his Oscar statuettes as a gift. Zelenskyy promised to return it when the war was won.

Amy Madigan and Autumn Durald Arkapaw smash records

While One Battle After Another was the night’s big winner, history was made in several other categories.

Amy Madigan, who took home Best Supporting Actor for her performance as fashion icon and child abductor Aunt Gladys in Weapons, broke the record for the longest time between Oscar nominations.

It’s been 40 years since his first nomination for Twice in a Lifetime in 1986, which ended up going to Anjelica Huston for Prizzi’s Honor.

She said in her acceptance speech: “This is great. Everybody's asking me, 'Well, it's been 40 years, what's different about this time?' Different is I have this little gold guy!"

Autumn Durald Arkapaw took home the Oscar for Best Cinematography for Sinners. She is the first woman and the first black person to win the award.

She said in her speech: “I’m so honored to be here and I really want all the women in the room to stand up because I feel like I don’t get here without you guys.”

She also thanked Rachel Morrison in her speech, a cinematographer who was nominated in 2018 for Mudbound, but lost out to Roger Deakins for Blade Runner 2049.

A touching In Memoriam - with some notable omissions

We lost some huge names in Hollywood this year, and the Academy paid tribute to Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle, Diane Keaton, Robert Redford and Catherine O’Hara.

Brigette Bardot, who died last December aged 91, was not honoured. Since her tribute was booed at the César awards, largely due to her far-right politics later in life, the Academy may have been trying to avoid controversy.

It’s less clear why Dharmendra, one of the biggest names in Indian cinema, and Harold and Maude star Bud Cort weren’t included.

Stars who were more widely known for TV roles, such as James Van Der Beek and Eric Dane, also did not feature.