Few years in recent memory have roiled Hollywood quite like this one. The industry has lurched through strikes and shutdowns, a steady drumbeat of layoffs and a mounting panic over AI: what it might mean for the work, the workforce and the fragile ecosystem that sustains both. Beyond the artificial perimeter of the Studio Zone, the country itself has been no less turbulent — fractured by partisanship, fighting over immigration and staring down the prospect of another endless war in the Middle East. Fires — literal and otherwise — have become a recurring feature of the landscape.

Against that backdrop, the 98th Academy Awards will take place on March 15.

This is hardly the first time outside events have intruded on the industry’s biggest night. Ever since the first ceremony in 1929, the Oscars have unfolded amid global wars, political assassinations and national tragedies — from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the Columbine High School massacre to Sept. 11 — each moment reviving the perennial question: What’s the point of this ostentatious spectacle, anyway?

And still the show goes on.

Dismiss the Oscars as trivial or self-congratulatory if you must — knocking them has become a national pasttime. But for close to a century the ceremony has proved to be remarkably durable — as inventive and adaptable as America itself, and decidedly more glamorous. Ratings may not be what they once were, but the annual Oscar broadcast remains one of the last events capable of assembling a truly mass audience around a shared cultural moment. (Besides, have you checked the ratings for Congress lately?)

Hollywood has always been an easy political punching bag — a convenient scapegoat for a host of intractable ills. But it also serves, uniquely these days, as a cultural common denominator — a shared global language that manages to cut across geography, ideology and national identity. American movies and movie stars don’t just resonate in the heartland after all. They also resonate in Lagos, Mumbai, Beijing and even Tehran.

So at this anxious, existentially daunting moment, it’s worth remembering: There is still no industry on earth better at making movies than this one. Hollywood remains one of the last genuine pillars of American exceptionalism — a vibrant creative engine whose influence stretches far beyond our borders. And the Oscars, for all their excess and eccentricity, remain the industry’s most visible celebration of our creative might — and a reflection of Hollywood’s growing collaboration with filmmakers around the world.

Covering this industry — and this evening — is something The Hollywood Reporter has long done better than anyone. This issue arrives at the end of a chaotic year in which we’ve chronicled every seismic shift, scandal and surprising grace note in the industry’s ongoing reinvention.

Our Oscar issue, out today, continues in that vein. Mikey O’Connell talks candidly with this year’s host, Conan O’Brien, who admits — refreshingly — that he still gets performance anxiety every time he steps onstage: “There’s this illusion that comics just get up and do these things” Conan says. Scott Feinberg presents a gripping oral history of The Oscars That Survived the Pandemic — as told by dozens of first-hand observers from Anthony Fauci to Steven Soderbergh. David Canfield examines the unexpected hurdles that have faced young Oscar winners. And Feinberg catches up with Mike deLuca and Pam Abdy as they celebrate their banner year at Warner Brothers. On a more somber note, I traveled to Rikers Island for a jailhouse interview with Harvey Weinstein — the disgraced producer who once wielded such influence over the Oscar race that people joked he was thanked from the podium more often than God. It’s Weinstein’s first major interview since he was arrested for sexual assault in 2018 — and a rare chance for us to cross-examine a dark fixture of Hollywood and Oscar history. (The interview, which posted March 10, was quickly picked up by hundreds of media outlets across the globe.)

Elsewhere, you’ll also find Alison Edmond’s definitive ranking of the 100 most stylish characters in movie history, and the third installment of The Art of Oscar, in which an extraordinary group of top L.A. artists reimagine the world’s most iconic — and persistently underdressed — statuette.

Yes, in a world that often feels like it’s coming unglued, some of this may seem a bit frivolous. But that’s always been part of the bargain. For nearly a century, Hollywood has pulled off a trick that few other institutions can dream of. It brings the world together, if only for a few hours, to watch the same story unfold.

As you’d expect from a town built on magic.

This story appeared in the March 11 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.