Oscars 2026: ‘One Battle After Another’ wins Best Picture, Canada Reviews

After an interminably long awards season that had us arguing over cats and ballet by the end of it, the 98th annual Academy Awards are finally, mercifully over. And, after one of the more unpredictable closing stretches of the race in recent years, we more or less ended up where most of us thought we would three months go, with Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another ruling the night.

The political action thriller won six awards, including Best Picture, with Anderson winning his first Best Director statuette and the conspicuously absent Sean Penn collecting his third overall, this time for Best Supporting Actor. Casting director Cassandra Kulukundis also won the inaugural award for Best Casting.

As for One Battle’s arch rival, Sinners, the Ryan Coogler-directed period vampire gangster blues musical blockbuster made history in a few different ways. After being nominated for a record-breaking 16 nominations, it ended up setting a record for most losses, winning four and losing 12. In perhaps the most surprising win of the night, at least given the longstanding predictions, star Michael B Jordan took home Best Actor, a victory that seemed like a longshot up until he prevailed at the Actor Awards two weeks. He is only the sixth Black actor to win the category. Coogler lost out on director but won Best Original Screenplay, becoming the third to win in either screenwriting category. (Anderson won Best Adapted Screenplay.) Ludwig Göransson won his third Oscar for Best Original Score, while Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first female cinematographer to win Best Cinematography.

Elsewhere, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein cleaned up the craft categories, winning Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling and Best Production Design. Best Actress went to Jessie Buckley for Hamnet, a win ordained almost from the moment the movie first premiered. Amy Madigan, who went 40 years between nominations, won for her memorable portrayal of the malevolent Aunt Gladys in Weapons, while Best International Feature went to Norway for Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value.

It was night short on true shocks, unless you count the first tie for an award in 13 years (and seventh in history) in the Best Live-Action Short category. Unsurprisingly, Conan O’Brien made for an excellent host a second year in the row, parodying the endings of both Weapons and One Battle After Another, and lightly zinging those in the audience and certain unnamed presidents likely stewing at home. (‘We’re coming to you live from the Has a Small Penis Theatre. Let’s see him put his name in front of that!’) That was pretty much it for political content, with the exception of presenter Javier Bardem declarations of ‘No War’ and ‘Free Palestine.’ As one might say: the battle goes on.

Check out the full list of nominees, with winners in bold.

Best Picture

Bugonia

Formula 1

Frankenstein

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

One Battle After Another

The Secret Agent

Sentimental Value

Sinners

Train Dreams

 

Best Actor

Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme)

Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another)

Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon)

Michael B Jordan (Sinners)

Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent)

 

Best Actress

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 Director

Chloé Zhao (Hamnet)

Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme)

Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another)

Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value)

Ryan Coogler (Sinners)

 

Best Supporting Actress

Elle Fanning (Sentimental Value)

Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Sentimental Value)

Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners)

Teyanna Taylor (One Battle After Another)

Amy Madigan (Weapons)

 

Best Supporting Actor

Benicio del Toro (One Battle After Another)

Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein)

Delroy Lindo (Sinners)

Sean Penn (One Battle After Another)

Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value)

 

Best Animated Feature

Arco

Elio

KPop Demon Hunters

Little Amélie, or the Character of Rain

Zootopia 2

 

Best International Feature Film

The Secret Agent (Brazil)

Sentimental Value (Norway)

Sirat (Spain)

The Voice of Hind Rajab (Tunisia)

 

Best Production Design

Frankenstein

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

One Battle After Another

Sinners

 

Best Adapted Screenplay

Bugonia, screenplay by Will Tracy

Frankenstein, written for the screen by Guillermo del Toro

Hamnet, screenplay by Chloé Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell

One Battle After Another, written by Paul Thomas Anderson

Train Dreams, screenplay by Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar

 

Best Original Screenplay

Blue Moon, written by Robert Kaplow

It Was Just an Accident, written by Jafar Panahi; script collaborators: Nader Saïvar, Shadmehr Rastin, and Mehdi Mahmoudian

Marty Supreme, written by Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie

Sentimental Value, written by Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier

Sinners, written by Ryan Coogler

 

Best Casting

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

One Battle After Another

Sinners

The Secret Agent

 

Best Original Score

Bugonia, Jerskin Fendrix

Frankenstein, Alexandre Desplat

Hamnet, Max Richter

One Battle After Another, Jonny Greenwood

Sinners, Ludwig Göransson

 

Best Original Song

“Dear Me,” Diane Warren: Relentless

“Golden,” KPop Demon Hunters

“I Lied to You,” Sinners

“Sweet Dreams of Joy,” Viva Verdi!

“Train Dreams,” Train Dreams

 

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Frankenstein

Kokuho

Sinners

The Smashing Machine

The Ugly Stepsister

 

Best Costume Design

Avatar: Fire and Ash, Deborah L. Scott

Frankenstein, Kate Hawley

Hamnet, Malgosia Turzanska

Marty Supreme, Miyako Bellizzi

Sinners, Ruth E. Carter

 

Best Cinematography

Frankenstein, Dan Laustsen

Marty Supreme, Darius Khondji

One Battle After Another, Michael Bauman

Sinners, Autumn Durald Arkapaw

Train Dreams, Adolpho Veloso

 

Best Documentary Feature

The Alabama Solution

Come See Me in the Good Light

Cutting Through Rocks

Mr. Nobody Against Putin

The Perfect Neighbor

 

Best Editing

F1, Stephen Mirrione

Marty Supreme, Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie

One Battle After Another, Andy Jurgensen

Sentimental Value, Olivier Bugge Coutté

Sinners, Michael P. Shawver

Best Visual Effects

Avatar: Fire and Ash

F1

Jurassic World Rebirth

The Lost Bus

Sinners

 

Best Sound

F1

Frankenstein

One Battle After Another

Sinners

Sirāt

 

Best Live-Action Short

Butcher’s Stain

A Friend of Dorothy

Jane Austen’s Period Drama

The Singers

Two People Exchanging Saliva

 

Best Animated Short

Butterfly

Forevergreen

The Girl Who Cried Pearls

Retirement Plan

The Three Sisters

 

Best Documentary Short

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