That’s all, folks
Thank you for joining us for the live coverage of the 98th annual Academy Awards.
For takeaways from tonight’s ceremony, check out our analysis here.
To learn more about one of the nominees at tonight’s ceremony, The Voice of Hind Rajab, read our coverage here.
And find out what has happened after last year’s Best Documentary Feature winner, No Other Land, with this portrait of one of its directors.
Key takeaways from the 98th Oscars
- After many nominations and few wins, it was writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s night, as his political thriller One Battle After Another swept six award categories, including Best Picture and Best Director.
- But Ryan Coogler’s vampire blockbuster Sinners was close behind, earning the second biggest Oscar haul of the night, with four awards.
- Sinners actor Michael B Jordan scored one of the biggest triumphs of all, emerging victorious in a tight race against Timothee Chalamet for the Best Actor Oscar.
- True to the odds, Jessie Buckley of the Shakespearean drama Hamnet scored her much-anticipated first win in the Best Actress category.
- Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, meanwhile, reigned supreme in three of the technical categories, including Best Costume, Best Production Design and Best Hairstyling and Makeup.
- KPop Demon Hunters won both the categories it was nominated in: Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song.
- But leaving empty-handed are Marty Supreme, The Secret Agent and Bugonia, despite each having multiple nominations.
- The night included notable political overtones, including antiwar
comments and jokes about free speech, but US President Donald Trump was only gestured at, never named. US actor Sterling K Brown and host Conan O’Brien perform onstage during the 98th Annual Academy Awards [Patrick T Fallon/AFP]
History-making moments at tonight’s awards
Every win at the Academy Awards is memorable, but some serve as historic milestones for representation in film and culture.
This year, Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman of colour to win the Best Cinematography award for her work on the vampire film Sinners.
A rare tie also occurred in the best live-action short film section, with The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva sharing the award.
This has only happened on six other occasions in the academy’s history. The last time it happened was in 2012, when Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty both won for best sound editing.
Here’s the final tally of the night for the heavy-hitters
One Battle After Another: Six wins
- Best Picture
- Best Director
- Best Supporting Actor
- Best Casting
- Best Film Editing
- Best Adapted Screenplay
Sinners: Four wins
- Best Actor
- Best Original Screenplay
- Best Cinematography
- Best Original Score
Frankenstein: Three wins
- Best Hair and Makeup
- Best Production Design
- Best Costume Design
KPop Demon Hunters: Two wins
- Best Original Song
- Best Animated Feature
Several films also scooped up notable Oscars, including Weapons (Best Supporting Actress), Hamnet (Best Actress), Sentimental Value (Best International Feature) and Mr Nobody Against Putin (Best Documentary Feature).
Who got snubbed at this year’s Academy Awards?
This year’s Oscars ceremony largely came down to a three-way race between One Battle After Another, Sinners and a dark horse, Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein.
But some films left nearly empty-handed, and the list of snubs is long.
The ping-pong drama Marty Supreme, for instance, was expected to be a leading contender in several categories, among them Best Actor for 30-year-old Timothee Chalamet’s ruthless portrayal.
But Marty Supreme earned zero Oscars tonight, despite having ample odds with nine nominations.
Likewise, the much-lauded Brazilian film The Secret Agent struck out in all four of its categories, despite a recent Golden Globe win for star Wagner Moura.
The Shakespearean drama Hamnet did only slightly better, winning a single Oscar in the Best Actress category, despite its eight nominations total.
Images from a memorable night at the Oscars
Host Conan O’Brien speaks onstage during the 98th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, California [Mike Blake/Reuters]
Rei Ami, EJAE and Audrey Nuna from KPop Demon Hunters perform on stage [Mike Blake/Reuters]
Michael B Jordan accepts the Best Actor Oscar for Sinners [Mike Blake/Reuters]
Javier Bardem arrives at the Oscars with a pin featuring the Palestinian icon Handala and a patch that says ‘no to the war’ in Spanish [John Locher/AP Photo]
Paul Thomas Anderson accepts the directing award for One Battle After Another [Chris Pizzello/AP Photo]
Conan O’Brien’s closing skit pokes fun at One Battle After Another
A video played out the final moments of the 98th Oscar ceremony, with host Conan O’Brien inserting himself into one last film: Best Picture winner One Battle After Another.
This time, he took on the role of the villainous Colonel Lockjaw, who ends the film winning membership into an exclusive – and explicitly racist – club.
As Lockjaw is happily shown to his new office, the door behind him locks, and a mysterious gas pours through the vent, killing him on the spot.
In O’Brien’s version of the scene, he has just been named “host for life” at the Oscars, an honour he discovers to be a poisoned pill as well. A cheeky bit of gallows humour from the now two-time host.
Paul Thomas Anderson thanks One Battle After Another’s cast
Taking the stage again after his Best Director win, Paul Thomas Anderson accepted the much-coveted Oscar for Best Picture.
But he used his time in the spotlight to acknowledge a goof in his previous speech.
“ I really blew it when I won a Best Director award, and I forgot to thank my cast,” Anderson said, surrounded by stars like Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti and Leonardo DiCaprio.
He also took a moment to express admiration for the other films nominated for Best Picture.
“ I just want to say that, in 1975, the Oscar nominees for Best Picture were Dog Day Afternoon, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Jaws, Nashville and Barry Lyndon,” Anderson said, ticking off films all considered to be classics.
“There is no best among them. There is just what the mood might be that day.”
US filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson and actor Leonardo DiCaprio hug as they accept the award for Best Picture [Patrick T Fallon/AFP]
One Battle After Another wins Best Picture
Paul Thomas Anderson’s fast-paced, thrilling film One Battle After Another has been crowned Best Picture of 2026.
With emotionally compelling themes of family and identity and resistance to authoritarianism, standout performances from a stacked cast, and some of the most memorable scenes of the year, it quickly emerged as a frontrunner for best film.
Jessie Buckley offers teary acceptance speech marking UK Mother’s Day
“I’d like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart.”
Accepting the Best Actress Oscar, Irish performer Jessie Buckley marks Mother’s Day in the United Kingdom with reflections from her life as a new mother to an eight-month-old.
“ We all come from a lineage of women who continue to create against all odds,” she said from the Oscar stage, thanking her director, Chloe Zhao, and writer Maggie O’Farrell for their work on Hamnet.
Hamnet walks away from tonight with a single Oscar so far, with only one category remaining.
Buckley added a cheeky message to her partner from the stage: “You’re my best friend, and I want to have 20,000 more babies with you.”
Irish actress Jessie Buckley accepts the award for Best Actress [Patrick T Fallon/AFP]
Jessie Buckley wins Hamnet’s first win in Best Actress category
She began her career as a reality TV show contestant, competing for a chance to star in a West End musical. Now, Irish performer Jessie Buckley is taking home a much bigger prize: her first Oscar.
Her Academy Award for Best Actress comes in honour of her performance as Agnes, the wife of English playwright William Shakespeare, in the film Hamnet.
From her first moments on screen, dirt-streaked and roguish, Buckley sets the tone for the rest of the film. No prim period drama here. Her performance is a gritty, down-to-earth exploration of love and one of the harshest forms of loss, the death of a child.
Tonight’s win follows her victory at the Actor Awards, the BAFTAs, the Critics’ Choice Awards and the Golden Globes for Hamnet. This was her second Oscar nomination, following 2022’s drama The Lost Daughter.
Michael B Jordan of Sinners wins Best Actor in a Leading Role
The race for the Best Actor trophy has largely come down to Timothee Chalamet and Michael B Jordan — but it’s Jordan who has just claimed the prize.
The 39-year-old takes the stage to accept the Oscar for his starring role in Sinners, a vampire film infused with social commentary.
Only Jordan didn’t just play one role for the film. He played two: a pair of twins with starkly different personalities.
One of the brothers, Smoke, is responsible and sedate. The other, Stack, is passionate and impulsive. To keep the two characters’ personalities separate, Jordan deployed an array of tactics, even wearing overly small shoes to capture Stack’s discomfort with standing still.
It’s an ambitious double-sized performance for Jordan, who was nominated at the Oscars for the first time this year. Jordan also received this year’s Actor Award for his performance.
“ I stand here because of the people that came before me: Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Hallie Berrie, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, Will Smith,” Jordan said.
Michael B Jordan accepts the Oscar for Best Actor [Mike Blake/Reuters]
Paul Thomas Anderson jokes about four nominations in Best Director category
Had Paul Thomas Anderson been yearning for that Best Director statuette? Apparently so.
“ You make a guy work hard for one of these,” he said, as his fourth nomination in the category became his first win.
While he honoured his fellow nominees, he reflected on what finally receiving the win meant to him.
“There will always be some doubt in your heart that you deserve it, but there is no question at [the] pleasure [of] having it for myself,” he said.
“ This is a wonderful gift, and I’m so happy to call the movies home.”
US director Paul Thomas Anderson accepts the award for Best Director [Patrick T Fallon/AFP]
Best Director goes to One Battle After Another’s Paul Thomas Anderson
The fourth time’s the charm for Paul Thomas Anderson. He has been nominated for the Oscar for Best Director three times. And only now, in his fourth outing, does he finally get to take home the trophy.
Anderson is tonight being honoured for his work on the epic thriller One Battle After Another, which he also produced and wrote.
The film follows a former revolutionary who goes into hiding with his young daughter, until an obsessive colonel tracks them down for a deadly confrontation.
The film is one pulse-pounding chase after another, but it comes studded with political themes tailored to the present moment: It probes questions of race, immigration and the circular nature of history.
Anderson was previously nominated for Best Director for his work on There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread and Licorice Pizza.
KPop Demon Hunters wins Best Original Song
No surprise here: The animated film KPop Demon Hunters makes good on its promise and takes home the prize for Best Original Song.
It’s a historic win for the Oscars, which has never before honoured a K-pop song with one of its golden statuettes. But the film’s hit song Golden has been on a winning streak all year, having won a Golden Globe in this category and a Grammy.
Singer-songwriter EJAE has spoken about how the song was inspired by a gold tooth filling she received during the production of the film, as well as by her experiences struggling in the K-pop industry.
But now, Golden has turned her into a bona fide chart-topper, as she provides the lead vocals for the song’s gruelling three-octave range.
The music and lyrics are by EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seon and Teddy Park.
Sentimental Value director Joachim Trier offers election-year message
“ I’m just a film nerd from Norway.”
Norway’s Joachim Trier acknowledged the group effort that went into his film Sentimental Value, this year’s Best International Film.
“I think I’ve made films to feel at home with people, and I’ve really felt at home with the crew. There’s 1,072 people on these credits, and I love them all,” he said.
He then offered an election-season message to the adults in the room: to protect the children around them.
“ I want to end by quoting or paraphrasing, rather, the wonderful American writer James Baldwin, who makes us remember that all adults are responsible for all children,” Trier said. “Let’s not vote for politicians who don’t take this seriously into account.”
Danish-Norwegian film director and writer Joachim Trier [Patrick T Fallon/AFP]
Best International Feature goes to Sentimental Value and Norway
Norway has just won the Oscar for Best International Feature for the drama Sentimental Value, starring Stellan Skarsgard and Renate Reinsve.
The film, directed by Joachim Trier, paints a portrait of a dysfunctional family of artists in modern-day Oslo. Their disparate paths converge, however, on the family home.
Within its walls, the father, a dissolute director played by Skarsgard, hopes to film a new movie starring his daughter. But the daughter refuses to be a part of the production as old wounds fester.
It’s a film that raises questions about the value of what we hold onto and what we let go of. In addition to its Best International Feature statuette, the film has received four acting nominations at tonight’s Oscars. It also won the Grand Prix at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Bardem voices support for Palestine
“No to war, and free Palestine!”
Spanish actor Javier Bardem took the stage as a presenter for Best International Feature, but he started his remarks with a quick aside to protest Israeli abuses against Palestine.
KPop Demon Hunters performance brings global phenomenon to LA stage
A colourful performance with dancing and music from the animation sensation KPop Demon Hunters has lit up the stage with its hit song Golden.
It previously won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song as well as a Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media.
Rei Ami, EJAE, and Audrey Nuna perform on stage during the Oscars show in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, on March 15 [Mike Blake/Reuters]
Autumn Durald Arkapaw marks historic win with emotional speech
There was a touching moment at the start of cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s acceptance speech, when director Ryan Coogler hoisted her child into his arms to carry him to the front of the Dolby Theatre to better see his mom on stage.
“ That’s the kind of guy that I get to make films with,” Durald Arkapaw said, gesturing to Coogler and adding, “Thank you for believing in me and thank you for trusting me.”
Durald Arkapaw also paid tribute to the female filmmakers in the audience.
“I really want all the women in this room to stand up, because I feel like I don’t get here without you guys,” she said.
“ I’ve felt so much love from all the women on this whole campaign and gotten to meet so many people. And I just feel like moments like this happened because of you guys.”
US cinem atographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw [Patrick T Fallon/AFP]
Another Sinners win! A history-making score in Best Cinematography
She was the first woman of colour to be nominated for Best Cinematography. Now, Autumn Durald Arkapaw is the first woman of colour to win as well.
Durald Arkapaw is honoured tonight for her work on the vampire film Sinners, which uses wide-format IMAX film to bring to life 1930s Mississippi.
Whether through sweeping shots of cotton fields or claustrophobic interior scenes, Durald Arkapaw’s work captures the oppressive nature of the Jim Crow South, where the film’s fatal drama unfolds.
This is Durald Arkapaw’s second time collaborating with director Ryan Coogler, after 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
One Battle After Another wins Best Film Editing
A first nomination followed by a first win for editor Andy Jurgensen! It was his nimble work on the film One Battle After Another that brought Jurgensen the win for Best Editing.
The film trapezes across generations, landscapes and genres, telling a story both pulse-pounding and funny.
One Battle After Another follows Bob, a former revolutionary who ditched activism for a small-town life raising his daughter, Willa. But the reason for his low-key lifestyle becomes clear to Willa when they find themselves being hunted by an obsessive military colonel with scores to settle.
Jurgensen has worked with director Paul Thomas Anderson on several projects before, including 2021’s Licorice Pizza.
If you’re keeping score
No film has broken ahead in the race for the most wins at tonight’s Academy Awards. The competition is still tight between One Battle After Another, Sinners and Frankenstein.
Here is where our frontrunners sit so far.
One Battle After Another
- Best Supporting Actor
- Best Adapted Screenplay
- Best Casting
Sinners
- Best Original Screenplay
- Best Original Score
Frankenstein
- Best Hair and Makeup
- Best Costume Design
- Best Production Design
Racing blockbuster F1 wins its first Oscar for Best Sound
Wave the chequered flag. The racing film F1 is bringing home Oscar gold for Best Sound.
The film captures the high-octane world of Formula One, as its characters travel to race tracks from Mexico to Abu Dhabi. But each track has its own sound, its own feel. To capture the noise of authentic Formula One racing, F1’s sound team mounted microphones on real racecars.
Gareth John, Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A Rizzo and Juan Peralta share the Oscar for their work on the film’s sound.
Swedish composer Ludwig Goransson accepts his Oscar [Patrick T Fallon/AFP]
Kimmel speaks on limitations to free speech
Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel has become the face of attacks on free speech under the presidency of Donald Trump, after his show was temporarily pulled from the US airwaves last September.
The suspension came amid FCC threats to ABC’s broadcasting licence. Still, Kimmel emphasised that the situation that some documentarians face is far more dire.
“We hear a lot about courage at shows like this,” Kimmel said at the ceremony. “But telling a story that could get you killed for telling it is real courage.”
He then took aim at the Trump administration.
“There are some countries whose leaders don’t support free speech. I’m not at liberty to say which. Let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS,” he quipped, referring to a channel that is cancelling another late-night show.
As he introduced the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, Kimmel launched one last barb, this time at First Lady Melania Trump’s documentary.
“Oh man, is he going to be mad that his wife wasn’t nominated for this,” Kimmel said of Trump.
US television host Jimmy Kimmel presents the award for Best Documentary Short Film and Best Documentary Feature [Patrick T Fallon/AFP]
‘Stop all of these wars now’: Filmmaker Pavel Talankin
The film Mr Nobody Against Putin tackles questions of authoritarianism in Russia. Its filmmakers had a warning for the US audience at the Oscars, too.
“Mr Nobody against Putin is about how you lose your country. And what we saw when working with this footage is that you lose it through countless small little acts of complicity: when we act complicit, when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities, when we don’t say anything, when oligarchs take over the media and control how we can produce it and consume it,” said director David Borenstein.
“A moral choice, but luckily, even a nobody is more powerful than you think.”
Pavel Talankin, Borenstein’s co-director and the subject of the documentary, followed those statements with an appeal for peace. He evoked the image of a child watching shooting stars at night and instead seeing drones.
“There are countries where, instead of shooting stars, they have shooting bombs and shooting drones. In the name of our future, in the name of all of our children, stop all of these wars now,” he said
US documentary filmmaker David Borenstein accepts the award for Best Documentary Feature Film [AFP]
Best Documentary Feature goes to Mr Nobody Against Putin
Mr Nobody Against Putin was a film put together in secret – and now, it’s the winner of the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
One of tonight’s honourees, co-director Pavel Talankin, is also the subject of the documentary. Until recently, he was a primary-school teacher in the small Russian town of Karabash.
But Talankin became alarmed about what he saw in the classroom after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Teachers were required to organise “patriotic” lessons and then film proof that they were carrying out the curriculum faithfully.
Talankin instead sent copies of that footage to his co-director, David Borenstein, to create tonight’s Best Documentary winner, a portrait of youth indoctrination in modern-day Russia.
All the Empty Rooms wins Best Documentary Short Film
It’s a film that captures the human toll of school shootings. Now, All The Empty Rooms has been honoured as this year’s Best Documentary Short. Director Joshua Seftel and his co-producer Conall Jones are accepting the Oscar for their work shadowing broadcast news journalist Steve Hartman, as he embarked on a new way of covering school shootings.
What if, Hartman asks, less time was focused on the shooters themselves, and more time was spent remembering the lives lost? That question sends him on a cross-country mission to document the bedrooms of the children killed, to capture their lives, their dreams, their passions.
Avatar: Fire and Ash continues streak with Oscar for Best Visual Effects
The Avatar film series has been dominant in the Oscars’ visual effects category — and its third instalment keeps the golden streak alive.
Designers Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett accept the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for the third film in the franchise, Avatar: Fire and Ash.
The film tells the story of Jake Sully and his Na’vi family, who live on a planet increasingly threatened by human encroachment. But equally devastating is a clash unfolding between the Na’vi themselves, as the warlike Mangkwan clan seeks to annihilate other groups.
Avatar: Fire and Ash is a spectacle of fire and water, floating islands and flying beasts, earning it not only tonight’s trophy but also the most honours at this year’s Visual Effects Society Awards.
Tonight’s win is extra special, as Avatar star Sigourney Weaver was the presenter who handed the visual effects artists the Oscar.
Eric Saindon, Richard Baneham, Daniel Barrett and Joe Letteri accept the award for Best Visual Effects [Patrick T Fallon/AFP]
Frankenstein picks up another win with Best Production Design
Gothic towers perched over seascapes. Lonely chalets in the woodlands. And a wooden ship, icebound in the Arctic.
These are the landscapes that come to life in Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Frankenstein — and now, they’ve won the Oscar for Best Production Design.
Frankenstein marked the second Oscar nomination for production designer Tamara Deverell and set decorator Shane Vieau, who also collaborated with Del Toro on the film Nightmare Alley.
Streisand pays tribute to Robert Redford, makes rare singing appearance
Reflecting on the death of her co-star Robert Redford, singer-actor Barbra Streisand appeared to make a parallel between the post-war time period of their film The Way We Were and the present day.
She emphasised that it was a time when people were “informing on one another and subject to loyalty oaths”.
She then took the microphone to sing the title track from the film, a romance about divided lovers.
US singer Barbra Streisand speaks during the in-memoriam segment [Patrick T Fallon/AFP]
Deceased entertainers honoured during annual ‘in-memoriam’ segment
The Oscars always include a moment to honour the memories of those who recently passed away in the world of film and entertainment.
This year’s in-memoriam tribute honoured Robert Duvall, known for his roles in legendary films such as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, and Diane Keaton, who won the Best Actress award in 1977 for the romantic comedy Annie Hall.
A special goodbye was given to actress Catherine O’Hara, who charmed audiences for more than 50 years in films such as Home Alone and TV shows like Schitt’s Creek.
Robert Redford, whose decades-long career included standout performances in films such as All the President’s Men and Three Days of the Condor, was also honoured.
But the night’s most emotional tribute was for Rob Reiner, the director of feel-good films such as The Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally.
Reiner and his wife, Michele, were allegedly murdered in December, sending shockwaves through Hollywood. Those who knew Reiner have praised his contributions to film as well as his warmth, personal kindness, and social justice activism on issues such as LGBTQ marriage equality.
Reiner’s son Nick is facing first-degree murder charges in relation to their death, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
The in-memoriam segment [Patrick T Fallon/AFP]
Screenwriting winners pay tribute to family
The screenplay awards tonight have gone to the two films considered the frontrunners in tonight’s show, Sinners and One Battle After Another.
Both writer-directors – Ryan Coogler for Sinners and Paul Thomas Anderson for One Battle – paid tribute to the sacrifices their families make to allow them to pursue filmmaking.
“To my babies that are at home watching, I apologise for all the time away. Dad loves you. Memories are all we have. I hope I give you some great ones,” Coogler said to his kids. “When dad becomes just a memory, I want y’all to remember this one thing: I love y’all more than anything.”
Anderson, meanwhile, acknowledged “ a huge debt of admiration and love to Thomas Pynchon”, the novelist who inspired his movie.
So far, Sinners has won one Oscar, and One Battle three.
Coogler wins it again! Best Original Screenplay Oscar goes to Sinners
Fresh off his win last month at the BAFTAs, writer-director Ryan Coogler has done it again. He’s taking home another award for Best Original Screenplay for his blockbuster film Sinners.
Coogler, a filmmaker from Oakland, California, has cited his ancestry as a source of inspiration for the film. His family has roots in segregated Mississippi.
Sinners unfolds over the course of a day in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the legendary home of the American blues. It’s 1932, and two twin brothers hope to open a juke joint for the Black community. But their music draws unwanted attention from white supremacists – and vampires.
This is the third major screenplay trophy Coogler has brought home in as many months. Not only did he win the category at the BAFTAs, he also won Best Original Screenplay at the Critics’ Choice Awards in January.
One Battle After Another wins for Best Adapted Screenplay
Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson takes home the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for tonight’s heavy-hitter, One Battle After Another.
Based loosely on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, the film follows a former revolutionary who escapes with his daughter into a life of suburban obscurity – until the obsessive pursuit of a military colonel forces them to go on the run again.
The project is one Anderson has been tinkering with for decades, with early versions of the script stretching hundreds of pages long. Tonight, the project earns Anderson his first writing Oscar.
Two People Exchanging Saliva director pokes fun at Chalamet
The filmmakers from Two People Exchanging Saliva came prepared to go on stage with some pointed remarks.
Director Alexandre Singh noted that one of his colleagues from Iran could not attend the ceremony, explaining she had just given birth to a girl.
He then took aim at actor Timothee Chalamet’s dismissive remarks about opera and ballet.
“You are the hope in a world that is dark and absurd and ridiculous and horrifying. But that is why we make films, isn’t it?” he said of the filmmakers’ children.
“Because we believe that art can change people’s souls. Maybe it takes 10 years’ time, but we can change society through art, through creativity, through theatre and ballet, and also cinema.”
One Battle After Another wins Best Supporting Oscar for Sean Penn
He’s racking them up. American actor Sean Penn makes off with the third Academy Award of his career, this time for his terrifying but funny turn in the political thriller One Battle After Another.
He plays Colonel Steven Lockjaw, a military officer whose chance encounter with a group of armed activists triggers a lifelong obsession.
From his very first moments on screen, Penn offers a grotesque portrait of a man consumed by conflicting fantasies of power and control.
It is a singularly memorable performance. Penn commits himself fully to the role, from Lockjaw’s stiff waddle to his musclebound physique.
A six-time Oscar nominee, Penn was honoured with Best Actor trophies in 2004 and 2009, for the films Mystic River and Milk, respectively. One Battle After Another earns him his first trophy for Best Supporting Actor.
Penn is not present at tonight’s ceremony.
The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva tie for Best Live Action Short Film
In a surprising turn of events, two films have tied for Best Live Action Short Film.
The Singers
The Singers by Sam A Davis and Jack Piatt is one of tonight’s winners in the category.
Davis is no stranger to the short film category. Just last year, he was nominated in the documentary short category for the film Nai Nai and Wai Po, and he was an editor and cinematographer on a documentary short that won the Oscar in 2019.
But this year, he competed in the fiction category, with a moody portrait of a gruff, working-class bar whose patrons reveal a hidden gift for song.
Two People Exchanging Saliva
Two People Exchanging Saliva is the second winner in this tied category.
One of the most provocative entries in the Live Action Short category, the French film is a Surreal meditation on isolation, intimacy and capitalism, and presents an alternative universe where slapping is a form of currency.
Purchases are made through ritualistic degradation: a slap for every dollar on the price tag. But in this world of pain, two women, a saleswoman and her client, form a tender bond, propelling them towards an action so forbidden, it could cost them their lives: kissing.
Writer-directors Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata take home the Oscar for the film.
Have ties ever happened before in Oscar history?
Yes. There have been six instances, before tonight, of films being tied for a win at the Oscars.
The last time it happened was in 2012, in the sound editing category. Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty both earned the award.
Two People Exchanging Saliva and Singers now become the seventh instance of a tie on the Oscars stage. They won in the Best Live Action Short category.
‘The Oscars are an international event’
Conan O’Brien is on stage with a leaf-blower, clearing the floor of the leftovers of the Sinners performance.
He also highlighted once again that cinema transcends borders: “The Oscars are an international event.”
Cassandra Kulukundis recognises work of casting directors across time
Never before have casting directors had an Academy Award category dedicated just to them.
That’s a fact Cassandra Kulukundis acknowledged in her acceptance speech tonight, as she becomes the first casting director to earn an Oscar.
“I have to obviously thank the Academy for even adding this category and for the casting directors that fought tirelessly to make it happen, despite everything in their way,” she said.
“I dedicate this to you and to the casting directors who never got a chance to get up here, who didn’t even get a chance to get their name on the movie.”
She also gave a wink to the secrecy surrounding the production of the film she helped cast, One Battle After Another.
“ When Paul Thomas Anderson calls you, you go into the PTA Witness Protection Program, and you literally don’t talk to your friends and your family unless they have somebody that’s right for the movie,” she quipped.
One Battle After Another is on the board with the very first Oscar for casting
And the first-ever Oscar for Best Casting goes to… Cassandra Kulukundis and the film One Battle After Another!
Cassandra Kulukundis began her career as an intern for director Paul Thomas Anderson, and now, she is being honoured for her work casting his latest film, a multigenerational epic about activism, politics and family.
One Battle After Another boasts a powerful ensemble cast, with breakout performances from actors like Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti, as well as humorous turns from Oscar winners like Sean Penn and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Frankenstein wins Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Up to 10 hours a day were spent on perfecting the look of Frankenstein’s monster in director Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of the literary classic.
Now, those efforts have paid off, as Frankenstein scores the Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel and Cliona Furey take home the trophy for transforming Australian actor Jacob Elordi into the monster, a patchwork creature whose skin glows blue and green depending on the light.
Kate Hawley accepts Oscar with ode to costume design
“To my family, who have put up with a lot of sh**.”
Well, Kate Hawley broke the barrier: She’s the first Oscar winner tonight to be bleeped for swearing on stage.
She acknowledged the “alchemists and dream-weavers” who put together cinema’s costumes, and thanked the Academy for recognising her craft.
Frankenstein wins the Best Costume Oscar
The Oscars have gone gothic. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein takes home the gold for Best Costume Design.
New Zealand designer Kate Hawley accepts the award on behalf of the film for her opulent designs, which blend gothic romance with the avant garde.
Jewel tones pervade throughout the film, whether it’s the blood-red fabrics that link Victor Frankenstein to his long-dead mother, or the rich greens and blues that draw Frankenstein’s creature to the woman he loves.
This is Hawley’s first nomination and first win, and it follows her recent success at the 2026 BAFTAs, where she likewise won for Best Costume Design.
Standout musical scene from Sinners recreated onstage
Sinners captivated audiences with a boisterous scene, showcasing the contributions of Black artists in the US across time.
On stage tonight at the Oscars, performers from Miles Caton to Brittany Howard to Shaboozey are recreating the scene, right down to its setting.
The film largely takes place in an old factory transformed into a juke joint, a venue for music, dancing, food and drinking that was popular among African Americans in the US South.
KPop Demon Hunters filmmakers highlight representation
The artists behind KPop Demon Hunters highlighted the importance of representation in the arts.
“I’m so sorry that it took us so long to see us in a movie like this, but it’s here, and that means that the next generations don’t have to go longing,” producer Michelle Wong said.
“This is for Korea and for Koreans everywhere.”
Wong also made an appeal for unity across borders.
“ Music and stories have this power to connect us as humans, across cultures and borders,” she said.
Shots fired at increasing use of AI in film arts
“Thank you, Canada!”
The filmmakers in the animated film categories have given shout-outs to the countries that inspired them: South Korea for K-Pop Demon Hunters and Canada for The Girl Who Cried Pearls.
There have also been impassioned appeals for the creative industry to continue to value human artists over AI creations.
“People think it takes patience to take five years to make a puppet film,” the filmmakers behind The Girl Who Cried Pearls said. “Actually, it takes patience to live with someone who takes five years to make a puppet film.”
One of the presenters, Will Arnett, also emphasised the work involved in animation, telling the audience, “Tonight we are celebrating people, not AI, because animation – it’s more than a prompt.”
Best Animated Short goes to Canada’s The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Canada takes home the Oscar for Best Animated Short with the film The Girl Who Cried Pearls!
A stop-motion film whose puppets have the texture of well-worn papier-mache, The Girl Who Cried Pearls tells the enigmatic tale of a man who grew up poor on the streets of Montreal, until he discovered a way to get rich fast. But is his stroke of luck a fairy tale, or a fib? The story, he argues, makes all the difference.
Directors Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski were previously nominated in this category for their 2007 film Madame Tutli-Putli. Tonight marks their first Oscar win.
KPop Demon Hunters wins Best Animated Feature Film
Actors Will Arnett and Channing Tatum announce that KPop Demon Hunters from Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans and Michelle LM Wonghas have won Best Animated Feature Film!
It is Netflix’s most watched original film of all time.
And now, it’s a newly minted Oscar winner. KPop Demon Hunters scores the Oscar for Best Animated Feature — but no surprise there. With more than 500 million views online, it has quite a fan base.
This brisk and breezy film offers an homage to its title musical style, as it follows three Korean pop singers who double as warriors fighting soul-eating demons. But the film also critiques the K-pop industry’s push for perfectionism, offering a mirror for the isolation and shame that pressure can cause.
O’Brien takes a salty dig at Trump, advertisements
The comedian has taken a dig at Donald Trump’s propensity for putting his name on public buildings, though he has yet to identify the president by name in his jokes.
“We’re coming to you live from the ‘Has a Small Penis’ theatre. Let’s see him put his name in front of that,” O’Brien said, before joking about the way advertisements have creeped increasingly into the awards circuit.
Amy Madigan delivers a gleeful acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress
“This is great!”
Madigan took the stage and let out a big old cackle in a moment of unadulterated glee. She was last nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category four decades ago, the longest gap of any nominee. Now, she has won for her performance in Weapons.
She explained that reporters kept asking her, “Well, it’s been 40 years. What’s different about this time?”
Madigan delivered her reply from the stage, holding up her Oscar, “What’s different is that I’ve got this little gold guy!”
She thanked her husband, actor Ed Harris, her daughter and “all the dogs”, as well as her fellow nominees.
The first Oscar of the night goes to Amy Madigan for Weapons
A major score for horror movies at the Oscars!
US actress Amy Madigan, 75, turns her unsettling performance in the paranormal thriller Weapons into an Academy Award win for Best Supporting Actress.
Madigan is the veteran in this category: All the other competitors were first time nominees. But Madigan has been a Hollywood actor since the 1980s, and she earned her first nomination in this category back in 1986.
That puts a record 40 years between Madigan’s first nomination — and her first win tonight!
In Weapons, Madigan delivers a terrifying tour-de-force performance as the malevolently peppy Aunt Gladys, who shows up in the small town of Maybrook just as its third-graders disappear.
O’Brien skewers everyone from Amazon to Epstein accomplices
The comedian’s opening barbs have touched on issues from corporate consolidation to the powerful individuals named in the Epstein files.
O’Brien said this is the first time in years that Amazon Studios has no films nominated at the Oscars, and the first time since 2012 that no British people are nominated for Best Actor or Best Actress.
“A British spokesperson said, ‘Yeah, well, at least we arrest our paedophiles,'” O’Brien quipped, referencing several high-profile British figures who have been arrested in connection with the Epstein scandal.
Critics have noted that relatively few in the United States have faced the same level of accountability.
O’Brien frames Oscars as celebration of diversity, global collaboration
“If I can be serious for just a moment, everyone watching right now around the world is all too aware that these are very chaotic, frightening times.”
While O’Brien did not name any political figures in his opening monologue nor point to any global conflict, the comedian acknowledged the tensions overshadowing the night’s celebration.
But he argued that the silliness of the ceremony could be a balm and pointed to the diversity of the artists recognised among the nominees.
“It is at moments like these that I believe that the Oscars are particularly resonant. Check it out. Thirty-one countries across six continents are represented this evening, and every film we salute is the product of thousands of people speaking different languages,” he said.
scars ‘may get political’, host O’Brien warns
Oscars host Conan O’Brien has escaped the mob of children that began the show and has launched into his opening monologue, which has taken cracks at the encroachment of AI in the arts and the heightened security at this year’s ceremony.
O’Brien quipped that next year, he would be replaced by artificial intelligence: “Next year, it’s going to be a Waymo in a tux.”
He also noted the changing political climate in the US, with the return of President Donald Trump to the White House.
“When I hosted last year, Los Angeles was on fire. But this year, everything’s going great,” he said to laughter.
He joked that, if viewers didn’t like his opening, there would be an alternative broadcast from Kid Rock – just as the Trump supporter had done for the Super Bowl.
Then, O’Brien turned his attention to Best Actor nominee Timothee Chalamet, who courted controversy this year with his dismissive comments about theatrical arts.
Security is tight tonight, O’Brien explained, gesturing to Chalamet as the reason. “I’m told there are concerns about attacks from both the opera and ballet communities. They’re just mad you left out jazz.”
An opening segment that pays tribute to the year’s honourees
“I look like Betty Davis with lupus!”
Conan O’Brien kicks off the 98th Academy Awards with a tribute to the horror film Weapons, as he finds himself chased by a mob of children, all while dressed as the film’s pale-faced antagonist, Aunt Gladys.
But as he runs, he falls onto an F1 racetrack and the theatre scene from Hamnet, and even hitches a ride with Benicio del Toro in One Battle After Another.
It’s showtime!
Lights, camera, action! Tonight’s Academy Awards are starting now at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
In the US, the broadcast is available on ABC and the streaming platform Hulu, as well as live TV services online. Enjoy the show!
A closer look at the Oscars’ red carpet fashion
Instead of dramatic, bold colours, this year’s Oscars red carpet has shown ensembles that highlight texture, volume and sculptural elements.
Lapel pins – some bejewelled, others with messages of solidarity for Palestine – continue to be a trend, as do shimmery neutrals in shades of white, gold and champagne.
Who are tonight’s presenters?
While Conan O’Brien is returning to host tonight’s awards, he will have help from a list of celebrities and entertainment figures who will present the awards.
According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, tonight’s presenters include: Rose Byrne, Nicole Kidman, Jimmy Kimmel, Delroy Lindo, Ewan McGregor, Wagner Moura, Pedro Pascal, Bill Pullman, Lewis Pullman, Channing Tatum and Sigourney Weaver.
Additionally, Matt Berry is serving as the announcer for this year’s show.
A subdued colour palette on the Oscars red carpet
Tonight’s red carpet in Los Angeles, California, has been dominated by black-and-white ensembles and neutrals, with only a few pops of colour to be seen.
The subdued colours perhaps reflect a more sombre tone, as the award ceremony takes place against the backdrop of the US-Israel war against Iran.
Can reality TV be a path to the Oscars?
Absolutely. At least two contenders in the Best Actress competition this year got their start on the reality TV circuit.
One of the frontrunners, Jessie Buckley of the period drama Hamnet, got her start on the 2008 TV show I’d Do Anything. She was among a group of young theatre hopefuls competing to land a role in a West End rival of the musical Oliver.
Did Buckley make the cut? Sadly, no. The Irish actress – a curly-haired 18-year-old at the time – ended up being the runner-up, with judges in the reality TV competition criticising her movements as stiff.
Her Best Actress competitor, Emma Stone, was more successful in her own reality TV outing.
She won a VH1 reality TV show competition called In Search of the New Partridge Family at the tender age of 15. The prize was to star in a pilot for the remake of the classic TV show.
But unfortunately for Stone, the pilot tanked, and no further episodes were ordered. Still, Stone credits the experience with helping her make friends and contacts in the entertainment industry.
What musical performances to expect at tonight’s Oscars
Last year, for the first time in years, the Oscars ditched one of its rituals: performing each of the night’s Best Original Song nominees live on stage.
The decision was largely credited to concerns about the ceremony’s runtime. At nearly three hours, the awards show can feel long.
But musicians, including those in the Society of Composers and Lyricists, criticised the cuts as further proof that the entertainment industry was devaluing their artistry.
So fast-forward to today’s ceremony. The individual musical performances are not back, at least, not in their entirety. Instead, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has winnowed down the lineup to just two musical performances.
The first is from the animated film KPop Demon Hunters. Its fictional band of demon-slaying singers became one of the few cartoon acts to notch chart-topping hits, sailing past flesh-and-blood bands.
Now, the voices behind the characters take the stage: EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami. They will be joined by dancers and traditional musicians in a celebration of Korean music past and present.
The night’s second musical performance will also be a generation-spanning event. The film Sinners features a layered soundtrack that marries 1930s blues music with electric guitar and modern beats.
Actor-musician Miles Caton leads a performance of the song I Lied To You, accompanied by his co-star Buddy Guy and an array of Black talent, including country singer Shaboozey, singer-songwriter Alice Smith, rocker Brittany Howard and guitarist Eric Gales.
Even ballerina Misty Copeland, who retired last year, is set to take the stage as part of the ensemble.
Cast of The Voice of Hind Rajab calls for a just peace in Palestine
Wearing red pins with a white dove, the cast of the film The Voice of Hind Rajab are using their appearance on the Oscars red carpet to call for peace in Palestine.
“We’re demanding a permanent ceasefire,” actor Saja Kilani told the entertainment outlet Deadline on the red carpet. “There are bombings happening to this day. Destruction, displacement, all over the world; in Palestine, Lebanon, Iran and Venezuela.”
One of the film’s main stars, Palestinian actor Motaz Malhees, was unable to attend the awards because of US immigration restrictions largely barring Palestinians from entering the country.
“I am not allowed to enter the United States because of my Palestinian citizenship,” Malhees said in a social media post, stating that his inability to attend “hurts”.
The pins are part of the pro-Palestine solidarity movement Artists4Ceasefire. It is the third year artists are wearing such statements on their lapels.
Last year, and in 2024 as well, artists also sported red buttons in protest against Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
Oscar-winning filmmaker of No Other Land says harassment intensifying
Last year, the big winner in the Best Documentary Feature category was No Other Land, a film that showed how Israeli settlers were destroying the Palestinian community of Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank.
“We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together our voices are stronger,” filmmaker Yuval Abraham said from the Oscar stage.
But have things changed at all in the West Bank?
Last month, one of the film’s co-directors, Hamdan Ballal, told Al Jazeera that the situation has only gotten worse in Masafer Yatta.
He described how he was attacked by Israeli settlers upon returning from the Oscar ceremony last month.
His family has also faced arrest and harassment, and his relatives have even been blocked from ploughing their own land.
“My family is paying because of me, because I shared the movie and I shared the truth,” he said.
Read more from Al Jazeera’s coverage here.
Immigrants continue to play central role in US entertainment
The world of Hollywood filmmaking has been intimately shaped by immigration, and nowhere is that clearer than on the red carpet tonight.
Filmmakers from Iran, Brazil, Norway, Sweden, South Korea and Tunisia are expected to attend.
Even among domestic US productions, immigrants comprise a large percentage of the artists working on and off-screen. According to the American Immigration Council, they make up about 11 percent of the workforce.
Immigrants also account for nearly 18 percent of this year’s Oscar nominations, representing 17 different countries, the council said.
It’s part of a century-long legacy in Hollywood, which has seen waves of immigration shape its box office blockbusters.
Los Angeles, for instance, became a magnet for some of Europe’s most groundbreaking actors and directors as they fled the continent during the rise of fascism and World War II.
The founders of famous studios, such as 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Universal, were also immigrants.
For example, Louis B Mayer, who helped found the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, was one of many European Jews who came to the US after fleeing tsarist Russia in the late 19th century.
Who were the biggest snubs at the 2026 Oscars?
Every year, memorable performances get slighted, and some films go completely ignored in the list of Academy Award nominations.
Most of the 24 competition categories only have five slots, but hundreds of films are released each year, many without big-studio budgets for marketing and distribution.
But even with those advantages, some artists are left empty-handed. Here are some of the biggest snubs of the 2026 Oscars:
- Irish actor Paul Mescal, in Hamnet: An Oscar nominee for the 2022 family drama Aftersun, Mescal delivered a raw performance as William Shakespeare in Hamnet. But his portrayal of the playwright as a frustrated, grief-stricken dad failed to make the Oscar cut.
- British actress Cynthia Erivo in Wicked: For Good: Erivo is one Academy Award short of earning an EGOT, the acronym that stands for some of Hollywood’s biggest awards: the Emmys, Grammys, Oscars and Tonys. But mixed reviews for her latest movie, Wicked: For Good, overshadowed her vocal prowess and on-screen charisma.
- US director Richard Linklater: At France’s Cesar Awards, Linklater’s ode to French cinema, Nouvelle Vague, was the toast of the night, making off with four awards. At tonight’s Oscars, the film is not nominated at all. Linklater’s other entry, Blue Moon, is a distant prospect in two categories: Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor.
- US actress Jennifer Lawrence: A four-time Oscar nominee and one-time winner, Lawrence is making her comeback after a hiatus from acting. But despite positive buzz and a Golden Globe nomination for her film Die My Love, the Oscars decidedly passed her over in the Best Actress category.
- US actress Tessa Thompson: A decade ago, the film Hedda would have been perfect Oscar bait as a period piece with a modern edge. But even a glowing performance from Thompson couldn’t snag a single Oscar nod for the adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s play.
What Brazil’s The Secret Agent says about life under dictatorship
For the second year in a row, a Brazilian film set during the country’s military dictatorship is being considered for both Best Picture and International Feature Film, as well as an acting category.
Kleber Mendonca Filho’s The Secret Agent explores how the atmosphere of repression and paranoia during the dictatorship in the 1970s trickled down into the lives of everyday people.
The film was a favourite at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, and it has emerged as a frontrunner, particularly in the Best Actor category.
Wagner Moura plays a university professor caught up in the country’s repressive apparatus almost entirely by chance, when he offends a bigoted, well-connected government minister who places a hit on him.
The dictatorship is ever-present in the film but not explicitly mentioned. The 1970s setting is simply described as “a time of great mischief” in Brazil.
The Secret Agent follows in the footsteps of director Walter Salles’s family drama I’m Still Here, which won the Oscar for Best International Feature last year.
It also offered a devastating portrayal of death during the dictatorship, chronicling the forced disappearance of former Congressman Rubens Paiva.
But while I’m Still Here adopts a more sombre tone, The Secret Agent tackles similar subject matter with cheeky flair.
In one scene, a group of people reads a news story about a dismembered “hairy leg”, a real-life urban legend that emerged in the dictatorship period.
The news story describes how the “hairy leg” attacked sexually promiscuous individuals in a public park.
While the article may seem far-fetched, the idea was to mask real stories with comical ones to evade censorship. The “hairy leg” was a way to report on police raids against communities seen as sexually subversive.
It’s a scene that speaks to the subtlety of the film: Under smothering repression, people turn to Surrealism to express the absurdity of real life.
Iranian documentary subject unable to attend due to US travel ban
The US and Israel’s war against Iran is likely to loom over tonight’s Oscar ceremony, which features two films shot in Iran.
One is Jafar Panahi’s kidnapping thriller It Was Just an Accident, an internationally acclaimed drama that won the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.
A lesser-known film, Cutting Through Rocks, is also in the competition tonight for Best Documentary Short.
It follows Sara Shahverdi, a motorcycle-riding farmer who becomes the first woman to be elected to her local council in northwest Iran.
The film captures the backlash she faced after her election, as she pushed to elevate the role of women in her village. Her four-year term has since ended. Shahverdi will not be in attendance at tonight’s Academy Award ceremony.
On March 3, filmmakers Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni announced that Shahverdi could not make it due to a June travel ban imposed under US President Donald Trump.
“Due to the U.S. travel ban, along with the many ongoing circumstances in Iran, Sara Shahverdi is not able to be present at the Oscars,” they wrote on social media. “We truly hoped to be together after eight years of working on this film side by side, but unfortunately, that won’t be possible.”
In the days since, Khaki and Eyni told the magazine Vanity Fair that they are “grieving for our people who are under severe pressure” as the war in Iran continues.
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