The 2026 awards season came to a successful conclusion Sunday night at the 98th Academy Awards ceremony. Hollywood’s biggest night was dominated by One Battle After Another and Sinners. While Sinners entered the night with a record-breaking 16 nominations, it was One Battle After Another that was the most awarded with six wins, including Best Picture. Performances by Jessie Buckley, Michael B. Jordan, Amy Madigan, and Sean Penn were celebrated alongside the behind-the-scenes work from Paul Thomas Anderson and Ryan Coogler.
Anderson’s wins for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay closed out his extremely successful awards season. Although he is widely considered a visionary in modern film, Anderson has had an interesting history at the Academy Awards. Spanning over 25 years, Anderson has received 11 total nominations. His films There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread, and Licorice Pizza all earned him nominations for Best Picture and Best Director but ultimately lost. This year, however, One Battle After Another earned him his first Oscar wins. These wins not only reinforced Anderson’s legacy, but served as the Academy’s long overdue recognition of one of the most influential figures in modern cinema.
Buckley’s portrayal of Agnes Shakespeare in Hamnet has made an immense impact on her career, elevating her from a widely respected character actress to a prominent leading performer of her generation. Buckley’s performance was deeply moving to audiences, showcasing the emotional complexity of a grieving mother. This role allowed her to display her immense dramatic abilities, and it quickly became one of the most praised performances of the year. Her work as young Leda Caruso in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, however, Hamnet was what established her as one of the industry’s most compelling young performers.
Throughout this awards season, Michael B. Jordan has not been considered a front-runner in the Best Actor category. However, following his win at the Actor Awards, Jordan quickly went from being considered an underdog to serious contender. His portrayal as twins Elijah “Smoke” Moore and Elias “Stack” Moore in the powerhouse film Sinners earned him his first Oscar nomination and win, making him only the sixth Black man to take home Best Actor. Jordan’s performance is widely regarded as the most powerful performance of his career. Playing twins required him to craft two separate characters and establish their relationship. Jordan’s relationship with Sinners director Ryan Coogler made his win for this role even more significant. With their first collaboration on Coogler’s directorial debut Fruitvale Station, they began one of the most notable actor-director relationships in Hollywood today. Their partnership continued with Creed and Black Panther and has become a defining aspect of both of their careers. One of this year’s biggest rivalries was between Jordan and Timothée Chalamet. While Chalamet won the BAFTA and Critics’ Choice Award, his loss to Jordan at the Actor Awards caused a huge shift in his Oscar odds. His win reflected the significance and impact of Sinners and demonstrated his continued growth as one of Hollywood’s most influential actors.
The Best Supporting Actor and Actress categories were stacked with talent this year. There was not a standout front-runner for either category this awards season, and they were two of the most competitive categories. Amy Madigan’s win for her role as Gladys in Weapons earned her a long-awaited Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She received a nomination for the same award for her performance in Twice in a Lifetime but has otherwise gone overlooked by the Academy. Her performance also bears significance as she became only the second actress to win the award for a horror film and the sixth to win in any acting category for a horror film. Meanwhile, Sean Penn took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his intense role as Col. Steven J. Lockjaw in One Battle After Another. Penn is a deeply respected actor with this being his third Oscar and sixth nomination.
The most historical win of the night was by Sinners’ director of photography Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who became the first woman to take home the Oscar for Best Cinematography. Arkapaw’s cinematography played an extremely crucial role in establishing the film’s visual identity. She created a compelling visual style using carefully composed shots and camera movement. The visual storytelling of Sinners helped to immerse audiences in 1932 Clarksdale, Mississippi and contributed to the overall impact of the film. Arkapaw’s win is widely celebrated as a milestone for women in the film industry and highlighted the recognition for women behind the camera. Sentimental Value also made history as the first Norwegian film to win an Oscar. The film tied with Frankenstein and Marty Supreme as the third most nominated film of the night with nine nominations in several major categories including Best Picture. Of the nine nominations, the only award the film took home was Best International Feature. Sentimental Value focuses on a strained family dynamic between a father and his two daughters after a significant loss.
The prestigious Best Picture award went to One Battle After Another. Directed by Anderson, the film followed Bob Ferguson, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and his daughter Willa Ferguson, played by newcomer Chase Infiniti, through a series of chaotic events caused by Bob’s past as an activist. The film blends dark humor with intense drama and explores themes such as power and resistance. It represented a broader reflection on political and social change by focusing on deeply personal stories within a larger cultural context. The conversation surrounding the Best Picture category mostly consisted of One Battle After Another and Sinners, which were the two rivals this awards season. The Best Picture win represented a huge milestone in Anderson’s career as it delivered his first Oscar win in the category. This award cemented Anderson’s legacy as an extremely influential filmmaker.