The 98th Academy Awards concluded with a result that many industry observers had anticipated for weeks. One Battle After Another was crowned Best Picture on Sunday night, capping off a dominant awards season run and leading one of the most predictable Oscar ceremonies in recent memory. The film ultimately took home six Oscars, making it the biggest winner of the night and confirming the strong momentum it had built through the guild awards and international prizes leading up to Hollywood’s biggest ceremony.
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the film’s victory represented a major milestone not just for the project but for the director himself. Anderson won Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, marking the first time he has taken home Academy Awards despite being nominated numerous times over the course of his career. His long-awaited recognition was one of the central narratives of the night. For years, Anderson had been regarded as one of the most influential filmmakers working in Hollywood without an Oscar. With One Battle After Another, the Academy finally rewarded the director whose work has shaped contemporary American cinema for decades.
In addition to Best Picture and Anderson’s two wins, the film collected several other major awards. Sean Penn won Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film, adding another Oscar to his decorated career. The movie also secured wins for Best Film Editing, awarded to Andy Jurgensen, and Best Casting, which went to casting director Cassandra Kulukundis. The latter category was particularly notable because this year marked the first time the Academy introduced an award recognizing casting, making it the first new Oscar category added since Best Animated Feature debuted in 2002.
While One Battle After Another emerged as the night’s biggest winner, the supernatural drama Sinners also had a strong showing. The film walked away with four Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan, who delivered a widely praised dual performance as the twin brothers Smoke and Stack. The film also earned Best Original Screenplay for Ryan Coogler, Best Original Score for composer Ludwig Göransson, and Best Cinematography for Autumn Durald Arkapaw.
Arkapaw’s victory marked a historic moment, as she became the first woman ever to win the Oscar for cinematography, one of the evening’s most celebrated milestones.
The acting races largely unfolded as predicted by many awards watchers. In addition to Jordan’s Best Actor win, Jessie Buckley was named Best Actress for her performance in the period drama Hamnet, a performance that had already earned widespread critical acclaim during the awards season. Meanwhile, Amy Madigan won Best Supporting Actress for her role in the thriller Weapons. With these victories, most of the acting categories followed the trajectory set earlier by critics groups and industry awards, reinforcing the sense that the Oscars had few surprises in store.
One of the most significant industry narratives of the night was the dominance of Warner Bros.. Both One Battle After Another and Sinners were released by the studio, and together the two films accounted for ten Academy Awards, making it one of the most successful Oscar nights for a single studio in recent memory. The achievement is particularly notable given the broader corporate changes and strategic shifts happening at Warner Bros., underscoring the company’s continued influence in prestige filmmaking.
Beyond the major categories, several other films also left their mark on the ceremony. The animated musical fantasy KPop Demon Hunters won Best Animated Feature, while the film’s song “Golden” made history by becoming the first K-pop song to win the Oscar for Best Original Song. In the craft categories, the gothic horror film Frankenstein proved particularly strong, winning Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, and Production Design.
In the international categories, Sentimental Value took home the award for Best International Feature, while Mr. Nobody Against Putin won Best Documentary Feature. These wins highlighted the increasingly global scope of the Academy Awards, with international cinema continuing to play a prominent role in the ceremony.
Despite the many historic achievements and memorable moments, what stood out most about the 98th Academy Awards was the degree of consensus surrounding the winners. By the time final voting closed, many of the results had already been forecast by major awards bodies such as the Producers Guild, the Directors Guild, and the BAFTA Awards. One Battle After Another had swept several of these precursors, making its Best Picture victory appear almost inevitable. Similarly, many of the acting winners had dominated critics awards and guild prizes earlier in the season.
As a result, the ceremony unfolded with relatively few surprises. For many observers, this predictability did not diminish the significance of the wins but instead reflected a rare moment of industry agreement. Throughout the awards season, two films had consistently stood above the rest: One Battle After Another and Sinners. Together they shaped the narrative of the year in cinema and ultimately dominated the Academy Awards.
In the end, the 98th Oscars may be remembered less for unexpected upsets and more for the clarity of their outcome. Rather than producing shocking twists, the ceremony confirmed what the industry had been signaling for months — that Paul Thomas Anderson’s sweeping political drama and Ryan Coogler’s genre-bending epic were the defining films of the year.
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