‘One Battle After Another’ triumphs at 98th Academy Awards

Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘One Battle After Another’ was crowned ‘Best Picture’ at the 98th Academy Awards, handing Hollywood’s top honour to a comic, multi-generational American saga of political resistance.

The ceremony, which also saw Michael B Jordan win ‘Best Actor’ and ‘Sinners’ cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw make Oscar history as the first female director of photography to win the award, was a long-in-coming coronation for Anderson, a San Fernando Valley native who made his first short at age 18 and has been one of America’s most lionised filmmakers for decades. Before Sunday, Anderson had never won an Oscar.

But ‘One Battle After Another’, the favourite coming in, won six Oscars, including ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ for Anderson, the Oscars’ first trophy for ‘Best Casting’ and ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for an absent Sean Penn.

“I wrote this movie for my kids to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world - we’re handing off to them. But also, with the encouragement that they will be the generation that hopefully brings us some common sense and decency,” said Anderson while accepting the screenplay trophy.

Ryan Coogler’s Jim Crow-set, blues-soaked vampire tale ‘Sinners’, which came in with a record 16 nominations, also landed some big and even historic wins. Coogler, the widely loved filmmaker, won the first Oscar in an unblemished career that started out with Jordan in 2013’s ‘Fruitvale Station’.

Arkapaw was also the first Black person to win for ‘Best Cinematography’. Only the fourth female cinematographer ever nominated, her win was a long-awaited triumph for women behind the camera. “I really want all the women in the room to stand up. Because I don’t feel like I get here without you guys,” said Arkapaw.

And Jordan, one of Hollywood’s most liked leading men, won ‘Best Actor’ in one of the night’s closest races. The Dolby Theatre rose to its feet to the most thunderous applause of the night. “Yo, momma, what’s up?” said Jordan after staggering to the stage.

The Oscar night belonged to ‘Warner Bros’, the studio of ‘One Battle After Another’ and ‘Sinners’, which scored a record-tying 11 wins. It was an oddly poignant note of triumph for the fabled studio, which weeks earlier agreed to a sale to ‘Paramount Skydance’, David Ellison’s rapidly assembled media monolith. The USD 111 billion deal, which awaits regulatory approval, has Hollywood bracing for more layoffs.

But ‘Sinners’ and ‘One Battle After Another’ - the much-acclaimed heavyweights of the season were each Hollywood anomalies: big-budget originals born from a personal vision. In a year where anxiety over studio contraction and the rise of artificial intelligence often consumed the industry, both films gave Hollywood fresh hope.

Jessie Buckley won ‘Best Actress’ for her performance as Agnes Shakespeare in ‘Hamnet’, making her the first Irish performer to ever win in the category. At an Oscars where no other acting award seemed a sure thing, Buckley cruised into Sunday’s Oscars at the Dolby Theatre as the overwhelming favourite. “It’s Mother's Day in the UK. I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart,” said Buckley on the stage.

From the start, when host Conan O'Brien sprinted through the year’s nominees as Amy Madigan’s character in the horror thriller ‘Weapons’ in a pre-taped bit, Sunday’s ceremony was quirky, a little clunky and preoccupied with the shifting place of movies in culture. There was, of all things, a tie for best live-action short film.

As expected, the ‘Netflix’ sensation ‘KPop Demon Hunters’, 2025’s most-watched film, won ‘Best Animated Feature’, as well as ‘Best Song’ for ‘Golden’. It was a big win for ‘Netflix’ but a more qualified victory for the movie’s producer, ‘Sony Pictures’ - though it developed and produced the film, ‘Sony’ sold ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ to the streaming giant instead of giving it a theatrical release.

On Netflix, ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ became a cultural phenomenon and the streaming platform’s biggest hit. It has more than 325 million views and counting. “This is for Korea and Koreans everywhere,” said co-director Maggie Kang.

Another ‘Netflix’ release, Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’ picked up three awards for its lavish craft, for costume design, makeup and hairstyling and for production design.

Amy Madigan won ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for her performance in the horror thriller ‘Weapons’, a win that came 40 years after the 75-year-old actor was first nominated, in 1986, for ‘Twice in a Lifetime’. Letting out a giant laugh as she hit the stage, Madigan exclaimed, “This is great!”

Hosting for the second time, O'Brien began the Dolby Theatre show, alluding to ‘chaotic and frightening times’. But he argued that the current geopolitical climate made the Oscars all the more resonant as a globally unifying force. “We pay tribute tonight, not just to film, but to the ideals of global artistry, collaboration, patience, resilience and that rarest of qualities today - optimism. We’re going to celebrate. Not because we think all is well, but because we work and hope for better,” O'Brien said.

Throughout the show, O'Brien hit a number of targets, like Timothee Chalamet - who again missed out on winning his first Oscar, this time for ‘Marty Supreme’ - for his diss of opera and ballet. But the ceremony wasn’t seldom shadowed by politics, whether in references to changes under US President Donald Trump or the recently launched war in Iran.

Joachim Trier, whose Norwegian family drama ‘Sentimental Value’ won ‘Best International Film’, quoted James Baldwin in his acceptance speech: “All adults are responsible for all children. Let’s not vote for politicians that don’t take this seriously into account,” he said.

Presenter Jimmy Kimmel, whose late-night show last year was suspended after comments he made about the killing of Charlie Kirk, was among the bluntest. “There are some countries that 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.

Shortly after, ‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’, a film about a Russian primary schoolteacher who documents his students’ indoctrination to support Russia’s war with Ukraine, won ‘Best Documentary’.

“‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’ is about how you lose your country. And what we saw when working with this footage is that you lose it through countless, small, little acts of complicity,” the co-director said. He added, “We all face a moral choice, but luckily, a nobody is more powerful than you think.”