- Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another wins Best Picture.
- Film earns six Oscars including Best Director and Adapted Screenplay.
- Michael B. Jordan wins Best Actor for Sinners.
- Warner Bros. leads studios with 11 Oscars across three films.
Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another won Best Picture at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday night, claiming six Oscars in total including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay in a ceremony that saw Warner Bros. dominate Hollywood's biggest night with 11 trophies across three films.
The result ended a tightly contested race against Ryan Coogler's Sinners, which had entered the night with a record 16 nominations the most of any film in Oscar history and left with four awards including Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan and Best Original Screenplay for Coogler.
Jessie Buckley completed a clean sweep of the awards season by winning Best Actress for Hamnet, becoming the first Irish actress to win the prize in the Academy's 98-year history.
The ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, hosted by Conan O'Brien for the second consecutive year, was broadcast live on ABC and streamed on Hulu. Matt Berry handled announcing duties.
One Battle After Another: A Six-Oscar Night
Anderson's thriller about left-wing ex-revolutionaries starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro and Teyana Taylor had entered the evening as a frontrunner but not a certainty, with Sinners' record nomination haul making the Best Picture race genuinely unpredictable until the final envelope was opened.
In addition to Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, One Battle After Another won Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn his third Oscar Best Film Editing, and Best Casting for Cassandra Kulukundis, the latter being the first time the Academy has ever awarded a prize for achievement in casting in its history.
Anderson closed the ceremony with characteristic brevity. "What a night, you guys," he said. "Let's have a martini. This is amazing. Cheers." He also dedicated his adapted screenplay win to his children, saying he wrote the film "to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world."
Michael B. Jordan: First Oscar for Sinners
The most emotional moment of the acting categories came when Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor for his dual role as twin brothers Smoke and Stack in Ryan Coogler's vampire film Sinners. Jordan, who had been nominated previously but never won, thanked Coogler, his parents and Warner Bros. in his acceptance speech, receiving a standing ovation from the audience.
Coogler, who wrote and directed Sinners, won Best Original Screenplay his first Oscar while cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw made history as the first woman and first woman of colour ever to win the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Ludwig Göransson won Best Original Score for the film, his third Oscar and his second for a Coogler collaboration after Black Panther.
After thanking Coogler upon accepting the cinematography award, Arkapaw asked all the women in the room to stand. "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 said. "I have felt so much love from all the women on this campaign, and I just feel like moments like this happen because of you guys."
Also Read: Oscars 2026 Complete Winners List: One Battle After Another Wins Big
Jessie Buckley: First Irish Best Actress Winner
Jessie Buckley's win for Hamnet Chloé Zhao's adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's novel about William Shakespeare's wife Agnes and the death of their son was the most widely predicted result of the night, having swept the Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Critics Choice Awards and SAG-AFTRA Actor Awards in the lead actress category. The win nonetheless moved the Dolby Theatre audience to a standing ovation.
Buckley also praised her fellow nominees directly. "Thank you to the incredible women that I stand beside," she said. "I am inspired by your heart and your art and I want to work with every single one of you." She thanked director Chloé Zhao and author Maggie O'Farrell, telling Zhao: "To get to know this incandescent woman and journey to understand the capacity of a mother's love is the greatest collision of my life."
She revealed that Ireland's government had paid for her family's flights to attend the ceremony. Buckley becomes the first Irish actress to win Best Actress in the Academy's history, a fact that was not lost on the audience.
History, Politics and In Memoriam
The ceremony's first new category in 25 year Best Casting went to Kulukundis for One Battle After Another. The hit song Golden from KPop Demon Hunters became the first K-pop track ever to win Best Original Song. Best Sound went to Brad Pitt's F1. Netflix finished second in the studio standings with seven wins including three for Frankenstein.
The In Memoriam segment paid special tribute to Rob Reiner, who was murdered in December 2025, with a personal tribute from his friend Billy Crystal. Barbra Streisand honoured Robert Redford, who died in September, while Rachel McAdams paid tribute to Diane Keaton, Catherine O'Hara and Diane Ladd. Javier Bardem used his time presenting the International Feature Film category to say: "No to war and free Palestine."
The ceremony also carried a political undertone. The Committee for the First Amendment, a free speech advocacy group formed by Hollywood creatives during 1940s McCarthyism, issued a statement warning of "escalating attacks" on free speech, citing FCC Chair Brendan Carr's threats to revoke TV broadcasters' licences over Iran war coverage and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's call for CNN to be acquired by a Trump ally. "Today is not a normal Oscars," the group wrote.
Also Read: Oscars 2026: Organizers Receive Backlash Following KPop Demon Hunters' Historical Win
Warner Bros.' dominant night 11 Oscars across One Battle After Another, Sinners and Weapons came as the studio faces a potential acquisition by Paramount Skydance's David Ellison, who reportedly outbid Netflix in a deal that has sent shockwaves through the creative community. The irony of the studio's greatest awards night in years arriving on the eve of a possible sale was not lost on those inside the Dolby Theatre.
