Oscar Academy Retrospective

Hand out awards for the work that made your sprint.

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Best Performance

What should we shine a light on?

Successfully launched our new feature two days ahead of schedule
Sarah's quick thinking prevented a major production issue
Our customer satisfaction scores reached an all-time high
Best Actions

What contributed strongly to our outcomes?

Daily stand-ups helped us catch issues early
Breaking down the project into smaller milestones worked wonders
Pair programming sessions improved our code quality significantly
Best Story

What stories did we learn from?

The production incident taught us to always double-check our configs
We learned that early user testing saves weeks of rework
The failed deployment showed us where our process needed improvement
Best Supporting Roles

What tools, people or resources supported us?

The new automated testing framework saved us countless hours
The UX team's insights were invaluable for our design decisions
Our project management tool helped keep everyone aligned

What is the Oscar Academy Retrospective?

The Oscar Academy retrospective borrows the format of a film awards night. Instead of a plain list of what went well, your team nominates the people, decisions and moments that deserve recognition, and talks about why they worked. The board has four award categories. Best Performance is for standout achievements. Best Actions covers the decisions and practices that led to good outcomes. Best Story is for the experiences the team learned from, including the ones that went wrong. Best Supporting Roles recognizes the tools, people and other teams that helped behind the scenes. The awards framing makes it easier for people to give specific praise, and the Best Story category leaves room for mistakes without turning the session into a post-mortem. Use it after a milestone or a hard stretch, when the team has earned some recognition and you still want to leave with a couple of things to repeat.

Oscar Academy Retrospective Format

Best Performance

What should we shine a light on?

Ask the team to nominate standout achievements, breakthroughs and contributions from the period. Push for specifics: who did what, and what difference it made. Keep an eye on the spread, so recognition goes to different people and different kinds of work, not only the most visible ones.

Best Actions

What contributed strongly to our outcomes?

This category is about the actions, processes and decisions that led to good outcomes. For each nomination, ask what made it work and whether it would work again. The best nominations here become practices the team agrees to keep.

Best Story

What stories did we learn from?

Ask for experiences that taught the team something, whether they were wins, failures or surprises. Let people tell the story briefly, then ask what the team would do differently next time. A mistake that changed how you work is a good nominee.

Best Supporting Roles

What tools, people or resources supported us?

Help the team recognize the support that's easy to overlook: tools, processes, other teams and working conditions that made the work easier. Ask what would have been harder without each one, and whether anyone outside the team deserves a thank-you.

When to use this retrospective

  • When your usual format has gone stale and you want a lighter session that still ends in actions
  • After a project milestone or launch that deserves recognition
  • When morale is low and the team needs to hear what it's doing well
  • When quieter people rarely speak up and a structured round of nominations would help

Suggested icebreaker questions

  • If your last sprint was a movie, what would its title be and why?
  • Which famous movie quote best describes your work this past week?

Want a warm-up your team plays, not just answers out loud? Browse free icebreakers →

Ideas and tips for your retrospective meeting

  • Make simple awards or certificates for the winners so the recognition sticks
  • Rotate the ceremony host role so someone new runs the awards each time
  • Keep the tone light, but make sure each category ends with at least one lesson or action
  • Use film terms to hold the theme together, like closing the session with "that's a wrap"
  • Play a short music cue between categories if your team enjoys it
  • Timebox each award category so the ceremony keeps moving

Frequently asked questions

What is an Oscar Academy retrospective?
It's a retrospective styled as a film awards ceremony. Your team nominates achievements and lessons across four categories (Best Performance, Best Actions, Best Story and Best Supporting Roles) and talks through what made each one work.
How do you run an Oscar Academy retrospective?
Have everyone add nominations privately under each category, then reveal them one category at a time like an awards night. Vote on a winner for each, discuss why it worked, and turn the best practices into actions.
When should you run an Oscar Academy retrospective?
Use it after a milestone, a project close or a long sprint, when there are clear wins and contributions worth recognizing. It's less suited to a sprint where something went badly wrong and the team needs a straight post-mortem.
How long does an Oscar Academy retrospective take?
Plan on 45–60 minutes for a typical team. Timebox each of the four categories so the last one doesn't get squeezed.
Does it only cover what went well?
No. Best Story is for experiences the team learned from, which often means mistakes and surprises. The awards framing just makes those easier to talk about.

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