Oscars 2026: 'One Battle After Another' Sweeps the Night with Six Awards
The 2026 Oscars are officially in the books — and it was Paul Thomas Anderson's night. His counter-culture caper One Battle After Another, inspired by Thomas Pynchon's novel Vineland, walked away with six Academy Awards including the coveted Best Picture.
Anderson, who had been nominated multiple times throughout his career for films like Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, and Phantom Thread, finally clinched his first-ever Oscar wins. In his acceptance speech, the director said he wrote the film "for my kids to say sorry for the housekeeping mess we left in this world," and expressed hope that a younger generation would bring back "common sense and decency."
The ceremony was essentially a two-horse race between One Battle After Another and Ryan Coogler's vampire blockbuster Sinners, which entered the night with a record-breaking 16 nominations. Sinners still took home four awards — including Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan, who became only the sixth Black winner in that category. Coogler also won Best Original Screenplay, making him just the second Black winner in that category after Jordan Peele.
On the actress side, Jessie Buckley made history as the first-ever Irish winner of Best Actress for her role in Chloé Zhao's Shakespeare drama Hamnet. Meanwhile, 75-year-old Amy Madigan won Best Supporting Actress for the horror hit Weapons, setting a record for the longest gap between nominations before a win. Sean Penn nabbed Best Supporting Actor for One Battle After Another — his third Oscar — though he wasn't present to accept it.
Other notable wins: Norway's Sentimental Value took Best International Feature, Mr Nobody Against Putin won Best Documentary, and Frankenstein scored three awards. The ceremony also featured Javier Bardem saying "no to war and free Palestine" while co-presenting an award.
Source: The Guardian
