'One Battle After Another' wins best picture at 98th Academy Awards
Paul Thomas Andersons One Battle After Another was crowned best picture at the 98th Academy Awards, handing Hollywoods top honor to a comic, multi-generational American saga of political resistance.
The ceremony Sunday, 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 Americas most lionized filmmakers for decades. Before Sunday, Anderson had never won an Oscar.
The Oscar night belonged to Warner Bros., the studio of One Battle After Another and Ryan Cooglers vampire tale Sinners." It was an oddly poignant note of triumph for the fabled studio, which weeks earlier agreed to a sale to Paramount Skydance, David Ellisons rapidly assembled media monolith. The deal, which awaits regulatory approval, has Hollywood bracing for more layoffs.
Sinners and One Battle After Another 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 wins best actress
Jessie Buckley won best actress at the 98th Academy Awards 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 Sundays Oscars at the Dolby Theatre as the overwhelming favorite. But in the last decade, Buckley has quickly established herself as a widely admired actor, on stage and screen, and her anguished performance in Hamnet was arguably the defining tearjerker of 2025.
In her seat, Buckley immediately plunged her head into her hands.
"It's Mother's Day in the U.K.," said Buckley on the stage. "I would like to dedicated this to the beautiful chaos of a mother's heart."
After a lionized career stretching back three decades, Paul Thomas Anderson won his first Oscar for best director, a long-in-coming coronation for the One Battle After Another filmmaker.
Anderson, a widely admired figure in Hollywood who grew up in San Fernando Valley and made his first short at age 18, had not won an Academy Award before Sunday. Earlier in the ceremony, he won his first, for best adapted screenplay.
You make a guy work hard for one of these, said Anderson.
Michael B. Jordan won best actor for his double-duty performance as the twins Smoke and Stack in Ryan Cooglers Sinners.
The win was a triumphant moment for Jordan, one of Hollywoods most widely loved young actors, whose ascent to Hollywood stardom began, partly, with Cooglers feature debut, 2013s Fruitvale Station.
The Dolby Theatre rose to its feet in the most thunderous applause of the night.
Yo, momma, whats up? said Jordan after staggering to the stage.
Later, Jordan added: I stand here because of the people who came here before me, listing best actor winners from Sidney Poitier to Will Smith.
Sinners" cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw has made Oscar history, becoming the first female director of photography to win the award in the 98 year history of the Academy Awards.
The win was a long-in-coming triumph for women behind the camera. Arkapaw was just the fourth woman ever nominated in the category; the first was Rachel Morrison in 2018 for Mudbound. The Dolby Theatre audience rose to a standing ovation as she took the stage.
"I really want all the women in room to stand up," said Arkapaw. "Because I don't feel like I get here without you guys."
Anderson and Ryan Coogler each won their first Oscars, moving tributes were paid to Robert Redford, Diane Keaton and Rob Reiner and an absent Sean Penn won best supporting actor at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday.
One Battle After Another came into the show the best picture favorite, and it picked up three wins in the first half of the ceremony. Anderson, the film's writer-director, earned a standing ovation for his first win in 14 nominations.
I wrote this movie for my kids to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world were handing off to them, said Anderson, who loosely adapted Thomas Pynchons Vineland.. But also with the encouragement that they will be the generation that hopefully brings us some common sense and decency.
The film also won the first award for best casting, for Cassandra Kulukundis, and best supporting actor for Penn. Penn, a previous two-time Oscar winner, had skipped other recent award ceremonies, too. Presenter Kieran Culkin said he couldnt be here this evening or didnt want to.
Immediately after Anderson's first Oscar, Coogler notched his first Academy Award, too. The Sinners writer-director won best original screenplay, and earned his own standing ovation. ("Sinners" later added the award for best score.)
KPop and Frankeinstein win for NetflixFrom 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, 2025s 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 movies 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 platforms 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 Toros 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!
O'Brien presides over a ceremony shadowed by politicsHosting 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 resonate 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, O'Brien said. Were going to celebrate. Not because we think all is well, but because we work, and hope, for better.
Throughout the show, O'Brien hit a number of targets, like Timothe Chalamet for his diss of opera and ballet. But the ceremony seldom wasn't shadowed by politics, whether in references to changes under U.S. 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, he said. Lets not vote for politicians that dont take this seriously into account.
Presenter Jimmy Kimmel, whose late-night show last year was suspended after comments he made about Charlie Kirk's killing, was among the most blunt.
There are some countries that dont support free speech, said Kimmel. Im not at liberty to say which. Lets just leave it at North Korea and CBS.
Shortly after, Mr. Nobody Against Putin, a film about a Russian primary school teacher 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, co-director said. And what we saw when working with this footage is that you lose it through countless, small, little acts of complicity.
We all face a moral choice," he added, "but, luckily, a nobody is more powerful than you think."
Tributes to Reiner, Redford and othersElegy also marked the Oscars. Producers expanded the in memoriam segment following a year that featured the deaths of so many Hollywood legends, including Keaton, Robert Duvall and Redford. Barbra Streisand spoke about Redford, her The Way We Were co-star.
Bob had real backbone," said Streisand, who called Redford an intellectual cowboy" before singing a few bars of The Way We Were.
Billy Crystal paid tribute to Rob and Michele Reiner, who were killed in their home in December. Crystal, a close friend of Rob Reiner's who memorably starred in 1989's When Harry Met Sally... and 1987's Princess Bride. In his moving remarks, Crystal quoted the latter.
All we can say is: Buddy, how much fun we had storming the castle, said Crystal.
Theatrical looks to best streaming, againIt seemed all but certain that the nights final award wouldn't go to a streaming release; Apple's CODA remains the only streaming film to achieve that distinction. Instead, best picture is likely to go to an anomaly in todays movie industry: big-budget original films from a personal vision.
Sinners and One Battle After Another were both theatrical releases shot on film. And both came from Warner Bros., the legacy studio thats agreed to merge with David Ellisons new media colossus, Paramount Skydance. The $111 billion deal, which awaits regulatory approval, has rattled an industry already reconciling itself to the acquisitions of MGM (by Amazon) and 20th Century Fox (by The Walt Disney Co.).
Apple's F1, a movie that it partnered with Warner Bros. to distribute theatrically, won for best sound. The lone blockbuster of the year to go home with a win was Avatar: Fire and Ash, for visual effects.
Some of OBriens best digs came at the expense of the streamers. Netflix chief Ted Sarandos, he joked, was in a theater for the first time. The host also lamented the lack of nominees for Amazon MGM: Why isnt the website I order toilet paper from winning more Oscars?
Im honored to be the last human host of the Academy Awards, said OBrien. Next year its going to be a Waymo in a tux.
