Summary
- One Battle After Another dominated the 98th Oscars with six wins, including Best Picture and Best Director for Paul Thomas Anderson — his first wins after 11 career nominations.
- Michael B. Jordan took Best Actor for his dual role in Sinners, which snagged four total wins, while Jessie Buckley made history as the first Irishwoman to win Best Actress.
- The ceremony introduced Best Casting as the first new Oscar category in 25 years, and Sean Penn won Best Supporting Actor without even showing up.
Sunday night (March 15, 2026) at the Dolby Theatre, Hollywood had its reckoning. The 98th Academy Awards — hosted for the second consecutive year by Conan O’Brien, who once again proved himself the rare comedian who actually makes the room feel good — delivered a night of long-overdue crownings, one massive upset, and at least one trophy accepted by someone who wasn’t even in the building.
Let’s get to it.
One Battle After Another took home six awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, while Sinners scooped up four, including Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan, and Frankenstein nabbed three. In other words: it was Paul Thomas Anderson‘s night, Ryan Coogler‘s night, and Guillermo del Toro‘s night — which is a pretty excellent sentence to write about a single awards show.
PTA has been in the wilderness for a long time, Oscar-wise. Paul Thomas Anderson took the statuette for Best Directing after winning earlier for Best Adapted Screenplay for One Battle After Another — his first Academy Award after 11 previous nominations dating to 1998. Eleven nominations. Eleven. The Academy made him wait through Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, The Master, Phantom Thread, and more before finally deciding he was good enough. Better late than never, we suppose.
One Battle also landed an Oscar for Best Film Editing for Andy Jurgensen, and Cassandra Kulukundis won the Oscar for the newly created Best Casting category. That last one is a genuinely big deal: Best Casting is the first new category at the Academy Awards in 25 years. A long time coming for the people who found your favorites before you knew you loved them.
Then there’s Best Supporting Actor, which went to Sean Penn for One Battle After Another — and Sean Penn, who wasn’t at the ceremony, won Best Supporting Actor for One Battle After Another, setting a record with his win. He set a record from his couch (or wherever he was). Classic Sean Penn.
Over in the Sinners corner, Michael B. Jordan won the contentious Best Actor race for his dual role as Smoke and Stack in Sinners, following up his triumph at the Actor Awards two weeks ago. It was his first career Academy Award nomination. First nomination, first win. That’s one way to make an entrance at the Oscars.
Ludwig Göransson won his third career Oscar for Best Score for Sinners. The Black Panther and Oppenheimer composer paid loving tribute to his father during his acceptance speech. At this point, Göransson is the most decorated film composer working — and he somehow keeps getting better.
Best Actress was never really in doubt. Jessie Buckley surprised no one with her Best Actress win for Focus Features’ Hamnet. She picked up her first career Oscar on her first nomination and became the first Irishwoman to win the prize, after steamrolling through awards season for her aching portrayal of William Shakespeare’s partner Agnes.
Best Supporting Actress went to Amy Madigan for Weapons, a win that lands as one of the night’s more emotional moments for those who’ve watched her career over the decades.
On the craft side, Netflix’s Frankenstein took three craft awards, including two back-to-back wins for Best Makeup & Hairstyling and Best Costume Design, with Guillermo del Toro’s pic later winning the statuette for Production Design.
The In Memoriam segment hit differently this year. Billy Crystal began the lengthy segment with a tribute to his “best friend” Rob Reiner, who was killed along with his wife Michele in their home last year. Barbra Streisand paid heartfelt tribute to her late The Way We Were co-star Robert Redford and then sang a passage from its Oscar-winning theme song. There wasn’t a dry eye in the Dolby.
The 2026 Oscar winners remind us why the awards still matter when the right films are in the room: they force Hollywood to acknowledge its own best instincts. Anderson, Jordan, Buckley — these are artists at the height of their craft, and for one Sunday night in March, the Academy actually got it right.
See the full list of winners at the 98th Academy Awards below.
Best Picture
Bugonia
F1
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
WINNER: One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Train Dreams
Best Director
Chloé Zhao, Hamnet
Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
WINNER: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Best Actor
Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme
Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
WINNER: Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Best Actress
WINNER: Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue
Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value
Emma Stone, Bugonia
Best Supporting Actor
Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
Delroy Lindo, Sinners
WINNER: Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value
Best Supporting Actress
Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
WINNER: Amy Madigan, Weapons
Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
Best International Feature
The Secret Agent (Brazil)
It Was Just an Accident (France)
WINNER: Sentimental Value (Norway)
Sirât (Spain)
The Voice of Hind Rajab (Tunisia)
Best Animated Feature
Arco
Elio
WINNER: KPop Demon Hunters
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Zootopia 2
Best Documentary Feature
The Alabama Solution
Come See Me in the Good Light
Cutting Through Rocks
WINNER: Mr Nobody Against Putin
The Perfect Neighbor
Best Original Screenplay
Robert Kaplow, Blue Moon
Jafar Panahi (script collaborators: Nader Saïvar, Shadmehr Rastin, Mehdi Mahmoudian), It Was Just an Accident
Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
WINNER: Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Best Adapted Screenplay
Will Tracy, Bugonia
Guillermo del Toro, Frankenstein
Chloé Zhao, Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet
WINNER: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Train Dreams
Best Casting
Nina Gold, Hamnet
Jennifer Venditti, Marty Supreme
WINNER: Cassandra Kulukundis, One Battle After Another
Gabriel Domingues, The Secret Agent
Francine Maisler, Sinners
Best Film Editing
Stephen Mirrione, F1
Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
WINNER: Andy Jurgensen, One Battle After Another
Olivier Bugge Coutté, Sentimental Value
Michael P. Shawver, Sinners
Best Cinematography
Dan Laustsen, Frankenstein
Darius Khondji, Marty Supreme
Michael Bauman, One Battle After Another
WINNER: Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Sinners
Adolpho Veloso, Train Dreams
Best Production Design
WINNER: Tamara Deverell, Shane Vieau, Frankenstein
Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton, Hamnet
Jack Fisk, Adam Willis, Marty Supreme
Florencia Martin, Anthony Carlino, One Battle After Another
Hannah Beachler, Monique Champagne, Sinners
Best Costume Design
Deborah L. Scott, Avatar: Fire and Ash
WINNER: Kate Hawley, Frankenstein
Malgosia Turzanska, Hamnet
Miyako Bellizzi, Marty Supreme
Ruth E. Carter, Sinners
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
WINNER: Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel, Cliona Furey, Frankenstein
Kyoko Toyokawa, Naomi Hibino, Tadashi Nishimatsu, Kokuho
Ken Diaz, Mike Fontaine, Shunika Terry, Sinners
Kazu Hiro, Glen Griffin, Bjoern Rehbein, The Smashing Machine
Thomas Foldberg, Anne Cathrine Sauerberg, The Ugly Stepsister
Best Original Song
“Dear Me,” Diane Warren: Relentless (music and lyrics by Diane Warren)
WINNER: “Golden,” KPop Demon Hunters (music and lyrics by EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seon, Teddy Park)
“I Lied to You,” Sinners (music and lyrics by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Goransson)
“Sweet Dreams of Joy,” Viva Verdi! (music and lyrics by Nicholas Pike)
“Train Dreams,” Train Dreams (music by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner; lyrics by Nick Cave)
Best Original Score
Jerskin Fendrix, Bugonia
Alexandre Desplat, Frankenstein
Max Richter, Hamnet
Jonny Greenwood, One Battle After Another
WINNER: Ludwig Goransson, Sinners
Best Sound
WINNER: Gareth John, Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A. Rizzo, Juan Peralta, F1
Greg Chapman, Nathan Robitaille, Nelson Ferreira, Christian Cooke, Brad Zoern, Frankenstein
José Antonio García, Christopher Scarabosio, Tony Villaflor, One Battle After Another
Chris Welcker, Benjamin A. Burtt, Felipe Pacheco, Brandon Proctor, Steve Boeddeker, Sinners
Amanda Villavieja, Laia Casanovas, Yasmina Praderas, Sirât
Best Visual Effects
WINNER: Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, Daniel Barrett, Avatar: Fire and Ash
Ryan Tudhope, Nicolas Chevallier, Robert Harrington, Keith Dawson, F1
David Vickery, Stephen Aplin, Charmaine Chan, Neil Corbould, Jurassic World: Rebirth
Charlie Noble, David Zaretti, Russell Bowen, Brandon K. McLaughlin, The Lost Bus
Michael Ralla, Espen Nordahl, Guido Wolter, Donnie Dean, Sinners
Best Live-Action Short
Butcher’s Stain
A Friend of Dorothy
Jane Austen’s Period Drama
TIE — WINNERS: The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva
Best Animated Short
Butterfly
Forevergreen
WINNER: The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Retirement Plan
The Three Sisters
Best Documentary Short
WINNER: All the Empty Rooms
Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud
Children No More: “Were and Are Gone”
The Devil Is Busy
Perfectly a Strangeness
Academy Honorary Awards
Tom Cruise
Debbie Allen
Wynn Thomas
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
Dolly Parton
