The 98th Academy Awards on Sunday saw “One Battle After Another” win big with six awards, including best picture, director, supporting actor and casting.
“Sinners” followed with four awards, including best actor for leading man Michael B. Jordan.
Jessie Buckley took home best actress for “Hamnet.”
Comedian Conan O’Brien returned for a second year to host the ceremony, held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
The Latest at the Academy Awards:
Anderson talks the racial politics of ‘One Battle After Another’
After his big wins of the night, Paul Thomas Anderson came to the press room to speak with reporters about his wins for best picture, director and adapted screenplay. He answered three questions — the maximum the Academy had been allowing for winners consistently throughout the night — but the last question zeroed in on criticism of “One Battle After Another.” Some of the film’s detractors have found fault with the portrayal of the Black women characters, particularly Teyana Taylor’s Perfidia. Anderson said the character is “flawed,” and that he and the filmmakers wanted to capture the nuance of her life. “It’s complicated,” he said. “We always knew that we were trying to make something complicated.” The point of Perfidia’s arc is to set up the story of her daughter, Willa, played by Chase Infiniti. “What happens when your parents, who are damaged, and handed quite a difficult history to you, how do you manage that? That’s our story,” he said.
First Oscar, first tooth
Best actress winner Jessie Buckley elaborated on her thoughts on the “crazy alchemy” of winning the award on the U.K. and Ireland version of Mother’s Day when speaking to reporters in the press room. She plays a grieving mother in the historical fiction drama “Hamnet.”
In addition to being Oscars Sunday, the day also marked Buckley’s first Mother’s Day as a mom, and Buckley said her daughter, who is eight months old, got her first tooth this week. It’s a big milestone, but perhaps not quite as big as her mom snagging her first Oscar.
Jessie Buckley on being first Irish winner of best actress
“It feels like some kind of crazy alchemy that all these things are colliding,” she said of the historic win backstage, plus the collision with Mother’s Day in the U.K. and Ireland.
Michael B. Jordan gets standing ovation from reporters, expresses gratitude
When best actor winner Michael B. Jordan came backstage, he had to wait about a full minute for many in the crowd of reporters to stop cheering and sit down before he could answer any questions.
The “Sinners” star who played twin brothers in the genre-bending vampire epic said his win feels “timely.”
“I’m here because of the people who came before me,” he said.
“I’ve been extremely blessed in my life,” he continued. “There’s a lot of people who’ve seen me grow up in this industry, grow up in this town, and they looked out for me — and they didn’t have to.”
Ryan Coogler praises teachers
Backstage, Ryan Coogler was greeted with cheers and many a raised placard for questions by members of the press. He credited an English professor when he was 17 who read an assignment and suggested he go to Hollywood and write screenplays.
The scene from the Governors Ball
At the Governors Ball the happiest area was the Warner Bros. “One Battle After Another” tables where Leonardo DiCaprio, sipping red wine, and Benicio Del Toro, with champagne and not a few small beers, held court with studio executives, including producer Pam Abdy.
Elsewhere, Renate Reinsve ditched her shoes and walked barefoot through the party, which was carpeted. Mandy Patinkin sat alone sampling sushi and trying to make a phone call as the music blared. Kirsten Dunst stayed close to Alicia Silverstone, and Kerry Condon sampled the prime rib.
Ryan Coogler used to run plays. Now he wins Oscars for screenplays
The best original screenplay Oscar winner for “Sinners” was once a star wide receiver at Sacramento State, where he had 112 catches over his college career.
Coogler was also a two-time All-Academic selection in the Big Sky Conference.
He joins a rather exclusive club of sports figures who won Oscars, one that includes NBA greats Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry, Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Durant and Mike Conley Jr.
Why Joachim Trier quoted James Baldwin
Joachim Trier said he cited James Baldwin — “All adults are responsible for all children” — because of revelations about crimes being done to children and the conflicts being waged in the world.
“Me and most people around me have been at times crying a lot,” Trier, a father, said, citing Palestinian, Ukrainian and Sudanese children suffering, in addition to other conflicts.
He said people need to “cross the aisle” to be more collaborative in protecting children.
Serena on MBJ: ‘So happy’
Serena Williams put a clip of Michael B. Jordan’s best actor speech onto social media and needed two words to sum up her feelings.
“So happy,” the tennis legend wrote in reaction to the “Sinners” star getting the Oscar.
Best original song winners had many more thanks to give backstage
The winners for “Golden” in “KPop Demon Hunters” thanked additional colleagues and family members after they were cut off during their acceptance speech.
Singer songwriter EJAE said she wanted to shoutout her fellow performers Rei Ami and Audrey Nuna, who voiced the singing parts along her in the film.
The cast also delivered thanks to their fans watching in Korea.
“I was very nervous but it was such an honor to be performing, it’s such an incredible stage,” EJAE said. “It was not on my bucket list because I did not think it was possible.”
The Korean American said it was an “incredible experience” to honor their ancestors by beginning their performance with Korean traditional music.
After the show, it’s time to eat and drink
First stop for Oscar winners and invited guests after the show ends is the Governors Ball. They’ll ride escalators up to the Ray Dolby Ballroom atop the shopping and entertainment complex where the ceremony is held.
The show typically runs three hours or more, creating a powerful need for immediate food and drink after sitting that long.
Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck is in his 32nd year catering the party. He’s supported by 75 savory chefs and 45 pastry chefs.
Winners can sip on signature cocktails like “The Sequel” with tequila and “After Glow” without booze while waiting for their names to be engraved on their golden statues.
This isn’t a sit-down dinner. It’s the first chance for Oscar-goers to let their hair down on the night’s party circuit, gossip about the show over the din of a live band and move on to the next bash. Over 300 servers swarm the crowd with food on trays and small plates. More elaborate grazing stations feature cheese and charcuterie, wood-fired pizzas, Japanese izakaya, and hand-carved wagyu and steak frites.
A slider bar serves ribeye burgers, Thai sausage dogs, pastrami and fried cod to go with tempura onion rings. A handroll and sushi bar includes spicy ahi tuna, sea bream and salmon. Need to soothe your incurable sweet tooth? Hit the tables featuring patisserie, madeleine and tiramisu, chocolate decadence, and gelato.
Vegans will feel at home since the party has offered over 50% plant-based and vegetarian dishes since 2013.
Everyone leaves feeling like a winner after picking up one of the 2,000 mini chocolate Oscars airbrushed with 24-karat edible gold dust.
Conan keeps things (pretty much) on schedule
The runtime of the show clocked in at 3 hours and 40 minutes, which is pretty typical for the show and somewhat modest considering 24 awards were handed out Sunday evening. The longest ceremony lasted over four hours in 2002.
A bizarre, pre-taped epilogue to the Oscars showed O’Brien being named the Oscars’ “Host for Life” after his performance tonight.
That’s before he’s locked into an office where a green gas fills the room. An unconscious O’Brien is carried out to show his name plaque replaced by… Mr. Beast?
‘One Battle After Another’ wins best picture
The film was the big winner at this year’s Oscars, leading the way with six wins.
It becomes the 42nd film in Oscars history with at least six statuettes.
“Sinners” won four this year and “Frankenstein” won three.
Jessie Buckley, ‘Hamnet,’ wins best actress
Four people in Jessie Buckley’s Irish family stood up and waved toward the stage from the mezzanine, far out of sight of the stage.
“My family, my Irish family, they’re all here, Ireland bought them flights,” Buckley said. “Mom, dad, thank you for teaching me to dream and to never be defined by expectation but to carve your own passion.”
“We all come from a lineage of women who continue to create against all odds. Thank you for recognizing me in this role,” she said.
Historic Oscar winner shouts out ‘little girls who look like me’
Autumn Durald Arkapaw, the first woman and Black person to win the cinematography award told reporters in the press room that she was worried about using her time wisely for her acceptance speech. “Are they going to kick me off?” she recalled wondering. Still, she managed to give a grounded, moving speech, and one she hopes will inspire future filmmakers.
“A lot of little girls who look like me will sleep really well tonight because they’ll want to become cinematographers,” she said. “I know that.”
She decided to ask all the women in the Dolby Theatre to stand up during her speech because “moments like this don’t happen without women kind of standing up for you and advocating for you,” she said.
The win “isn’t about me anymore,” she continued. “It’s about so much more and I wanted it for all of the ladies in the room, and I wanted it for all the girls at home.”
Michael B. Jordan, ‘Sinners,’ wins best actor
The loudest and rowdiest applause of the evening likely came from inside the press room when Michael B. Jordan was announced as the winner of the best actor prize. Reporters in the room burst into raucous cheers before presenter Adrien Brody could even finish reading out the “Sinners” star’s name.
Michael B. Jordan’s dad stood up and pumped his fist toward the stage. The actor said his father flew in from Ghana for the Oscars.
He was one of the many, many people who gave the “Sinners” star a rousing, standing ovation for his first Oscar win.
“I stand here because of the people that came before me,” he said, adding thanks for the support he’s received throughout his life.
“I feel it, I know you guys want to me to do well, and I want to do that because you guys bet on me.”
Paul Thomas Anderson, ‘One Battle After Another,’ wins best director
Anderson dedicated his win to Adam Somner.
“He’s in a really big bar up in the sky right now,” Anderson said of his late collaborator. “He’s having a gin and tonic, and he is so happy.”
Anderson said of the trophy for best director: “There will always be some doubt in your heart that you deserve it. But there is no question the pleasure of having it for myself.”
‘Golden’ from ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ wins best original song
The vocalists behind the song, EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami, performed it live for the Oscars audience earlier in the night.
As the group of winners accepted the award, the music started up. EJAE, who spoke first, put her hand up and said, “Please stop.” The music kept going as her fellow winners tried to speak and then the lights dimmed as they cut to commercial.
Inside, two people continued to try to speak, the audience seemed a little upset and the mic was completely cut off. The play-off music was loud and definitive.
‘Sentimental Value’ wins best international feature for Norway
“This film is about a very dysfunctional family and it’s the opposite of what I felt with this beautiful group behind me,” the filmmaker behind the feature, Joachim Trier, said.
He also quoted James Baldwin: “All adults are responsible for all children,” adding that people should not vote for politicians who don’t take this into account.
Why France submitted ‘It Was Just an Accident’ and Tunisia did ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ for best international feature
Per Academy rules, a country may only submit one film for consideration in the international feature film category.
In Iran, a government-backed committee controlled film submissions, and was unlikely to consider dissident films like “It Was Just an Accident” by filmmaker Jafar Panahi.
So France submitted the film instead. Panahi lives in France for part of the year, the cofinancing company was French, some of the producers were French, the editing was done in Paris and the film played in France.
“The Voice of Hind Rajab,” about the story of a 6-year-old killed in Gaza, is Tunisia’s entry. The director Kaouther Ben Hania is Tunisian, and Palestine submitted a different film.
Mics are on
Audience members waved golden light sticks in the air, a common sight at Korean pop concerts, as “Kpop Demon Hunters” singers EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami took the stage to sing “Golden.”
Autumn Durald Arkapaw, ‘Sinners,’ wins best cinematography
Arkapaw becomes the first woman and Black person to win the award.
“I really want all the women in this room to stand up, because I feel like I don’t get here without you guys.”
The crowd began applauding as the women in the audience got on their feet.
Andy Jurgensen, ‘One Battle After Another,’ wins best film editing
“I would like to dedicate this to my aunt, Barbara Hall, who was film archivist for the Academy for over 25 years, showing me old movies and teaching me about film history,” Jurgensen said.
‘F1’ gets best sound win
The prize recognized the work of Gareth John, Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A. Rizzo and Juan Peralta in the movie.
Ludwig Göransson, ‘Sinners,’ wins best score
Blues changed the life of Göransson’s family.
“My dad bought his first blues album in Sweden, 1964,” Göransson said.
“Even though it was on the other side of the world from a place my dad had never been, and a place he could not relate to, the music was so powerful it changed my dad’s life.”
‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’ wins best documentary feature
“‘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,” filmmaker David Borenstein said.
“We all face a moral choice, but luckily, even a nobody is more powerful than you think,” he said.
‘All the Empty Rooms’ wins best documentary short
In this short directed by Joshua Seftel and produced by Conall Jones, journalist Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp document the empty bedrooms of children killed in school shootings over the course of seven years.
Gloria Cazares, whose child was killed in the Uvalde school shooting, accepted the award.
“My daughter, Jackie, was nine years old when she was killed in Uvalde. Since that day, her bedroom has been frozen in time,” she said.
Jimmy Kimmel is back (again)
Jimmy Kimmel’s return to the Oscars stage (“Wait, am I not hosting?”) and ABC telecast where he served as host four times still can’t possibly be as dramatic as the year he just had.
ABC and parent company Disney yanked his late-night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air in September for remarks he made following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel’s indefinite suspension was celebrated by President Donald Trump. But it wouldn’t even be a week before he returned to the air with much stronger ratings than before.
His jokes at Trump’s expense prompted the president to post that ABC needed to “get the bum off the air.”
But Kimmel instead got a contract extension in December.
‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ gets win for best visual effects
The award recognizes the work of Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett.
‘Frankenstein,’ picks up another win
Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau won best production design for the film.
‘An intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail’
Barbra Streisand’s tribute to Robert Redford highlighted the late actor-director’s history of defending press freedoms, protecting the environment and encouraging new voices in film.
“Bob had real backbone on and off the screen,” she said.
Babs, as Redford used to call her, sang “The Way We Were” at the end of her tribute.
“I miss him now more than ever, even though he loved teasing me,” she said, explaining how she got the nickname.
Rachel McAdams paid tribute to women — and Diane Keaton, in particular
“Believe me when I say there is an actress of my generation who was not inspired by and enthralled with her absolute singularity,” she said.
McAdams told the audience a Girl Scout song Keaton used to sing set on film sets:
“Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other is gold. A circle is round, it has no end. That’s how long, I will be your friend.”
Reiner’s actors join Billy Crystal onstage in tribute
Billy Crystal opened the in memoriam segment honoring his best friend, Rob Reiner.
He ticked off a list of Reiner’s films, including “When Harry Met Sally,” starring Crystal and Meg Ryan, “Stand By Me,” “Say Anything” and “This is Spinal Tap,” among many others.
A photo of Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, appeared behind Crystal.
The Reiners were found dead in their Los Angeles home in December. Their son, Nick Reiner, has been charged in the deaths of his parents and has pleaded not guilty.
Having a slew of actors with longstanding ties to Reiner — Meg Ryan, Kiefer Sutherland, Fred Savage, Demi Moore, John Cusack, Ione Skye and many others — come on stage for the tribute was reminiscent of how the Academy did the same for director John Hughes at the Oscars 16 years ago.
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This item has been updated to correct the spelling of Michele Singer Reiner’s first name. It is spelled Michele, not Michelle.
Ryan Coogler, ‘Sinners,’ wins best original screenplay
For his first original film, not adapted from any source material, Coogler won the original screenplay Oscar — his very first. He’s also up for more awards tonight.
Before accepting his award for original screenplay, Coogler embraced his wife, Zinzi Coogler, who is a producer and worked with him on “Sinners.” He then went down the line with his cast, hugging Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Delroy Lindo and, lastly, his frequent collaborator and friend, Michael B. Jordan.
During his speech, he asked the “Sinners” cast and crew to stand up. “You’re all winners in my book,” he said.
Paul Thomas Anderson, ‘One Battle After Another,’ wins best adapted screenplay
In adapting Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel about a subculture of aging rebels, “Vineland,” Anderson reworked everything from the timeline to the characters’ names to more details than can be listed in brief.
But he does capture the humor, the cynicism and the sweep of Pynchon, the sense of a ragged community of outsiders caught up by forces far beyond even its own paranoid assumptions.
“I wrote this movie for my kids to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world we’re handing off to them,” Anderson said.
Sean Penn, best supporting actor winner, has skipped the Oscars, again
He won as supporting actor for “One Battle After Another.”
“Sean Penn couldn’t be here this evening,” presenter Kieran Culkin said. “Or didn’t want to, so I’ll be accepting the award on his behalf.”
Penn did little campaigning this awards season, and also stayed away from the Actor Awards and BAFTA Awards, where he won trophies.
It’s not the first time Penn has no-showed at the Oscars.
The 65-year-old actor has never appeared too attached to Hollywood hardware, whether he wins or loses. He previously gave one of his Oscars to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
An Oscars tie is rare, but not a first
The live action short category resulted in a tie (“Two People Exchanging Saliva” and “The Singers” each got statuettes) this year. But this is not the first time this has happened at the Oscars.
The most recent tie came during the 2013 Oscars honoring films from 2012, when “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Skyfall” tied for the sound editing category. There have been five other ties in Oscars history, making Sunday’s tie the seventh.
The first tie, which was at the 5th Academy Awards almost 100 years ago, was based on an old rule. Wallace Beery (“The Champ”) and Fredric March (“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”) tied for best actor. They came within exactly one vote of each other, and in accordance with Academy rules at the time, they shared the recognition. That rule has since changed and only an exact match in totals would qualify as a tie today, according to the Academy.
2 live action shorts tie for the win in that category
“Thank you to the Academy for supporting a movie that is weird, that is queer, and made by a majority of women!” said Natalie Musteata of “Two People Exchanging Saliva.”
Director Sam A. Davis of “Singers” called his short a “simple story about the power of music and art to bring us together in a moment when we live in an increasingly isolated world.”
Cassandra Kulukundis, ‘One Battle After Another,’ win inaugural Oscar for best casting
Kulukundis thanked the academy for making this award happen: “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.”
Kulukundis has served as the casting director on past Oscar favorites including “The Brutalist” and “There Will Be Blood.”
She has worked on all 10 of “One Battle After Another” director Paul Thomas Anderson’s feature films, beginning as an intern on his debut film “Hard Eight” in 1996.
Conan teases the smartphone generation
Host Conan O’Brien aimed his comedic barbs towards screenagers and the generally phone-obsessed in a short pre-taped segment about a (surely fictional) film lab that reimagines classic films to be optimal for smart phone viewing.
So-called “advanced” technology isolates the most visually interesting part of the shot for the vertical-only version, but that is often not the most interesting or dynamic part of the shot. An example was the infamous orgasm scene from the late Rob Reiner’s “When Harry Met Sally,” where the vertical-only shot does not show an animated Meg Ryan, but rather a woman in the background who is taking a sip from a glass.
‘Frankenstein’ gets wins for best costume design and best hair and makeup
Only five awards into the night, “Frankenstein” is a two-time winner already after taking home the Oscar for costume design, as well as hair and makeup.
“While we’re making this film, we had the sense we’re part of something very special, and tonight confirms that,” makeup artist Mike Hill said. Jordan Samuel and Cliona Furey were the other artists on the award-winning team.
“On behalf of myself and the amazing team that I work with, the artisans, the alchemists, dream weavers, we’re so grateful to the Academy for recognizing our craft,” said Kate Hawley, the film’s costume designer.
‘Sinners’ starts off strong – and on stage
Miles Caton and Raphael Saadiq are performing “I Lied to You,” the nominated original song from “Sinners.” They’re joined by a bevy of performers onstage — Misty Copeland, Eric Gales, Buddy Guy, Brittany Howard, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Bobby Rush, Shaboozey and Alice Smith among them — for a near-recreation of the scene in “Sinners” where the song is introduced.
It is one of the more memorable moments in the film, where a blues song in a Mississippi juke joint opens up to showcase hip-hop DJs, rock ‘n’ roll guitarists, ballerinas and more, illustrating the Black music genre’s place at the foundation of American popular culture.
When the live tribute performance to “Sinners” wrapped on stage, there was a slew of applause, some of which came from people who stood for the ovation.
The highest praise may have come from Michael B. Jordan himself, who nodded and smiled.
The message was clear: The star approved, big time.
The Girl Who Cried Pearls’ wins best animated short
The Canadian film is about a poor boy who falls in love with a girl who cries those gemstones, and he decides to pawn them for money. Directed by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, the boy ends up making a choice between pearls and love. It takes place in Montreal.
“To Canada,” Lavis and Szczerbowski said while accepting their award.
‘KPop Demon Hunters’ wins best animated feature
Three years ago, Arden Cho was ready to walk away from acting. She’d landed her first lead role in the Netflix series “Partner Track,” only to see it canceled after one season. She was heartbroken.
Her agent wouldn’t let her go. “She refused to say, ‘You’re done.’ She just kept sending me things,” Cho said. “She just keep being like, ‘Look, I know you’re not auditioning. I know you’re done, but I think you’d like this.’”
Now, Cho is juggling multiple projects after voicing the lead character Rumi in Netflix’s animated summertime sensation “KPop Demon Hunters,” which has become the all-time most-streamed movie on the platform — and spawned inescapable earworms “Golden” and “Soda Pop” as its soundtrack dominated pop charts.
And now it’s an Oscar winner.
“This is for Korea and Koreans everywhere,” said “KPop Demon Hunters” co-director Maggie Kang.
Amy Madigan wins best supporting actress
Madigan, following a deep cackle, said she thought of her speech in the shower the day before.
“We’re kind of advised, ’Don’t say all these names, as nobody knows who the hell these people are,’” she said. “But you’re not rattling them off. They mean something to you; that you couldn’t be here without them.”
AP Film Writers Jake Coyle and Lindsey Bahr both picked Teyana Taylor (“One Battle After Another”) to win best supporting actress. So did 40% of readers on apnews.com, with Amy Madigan (“Weapons”) their second pick.
Madigan won — and Taylor seemed to be the first to leap from her seat in celebration when she was announced.
Conan’s off and running with the jokes
Conan O’Brien is off and running at the Oscars.
“I’m Conan O’Brien and I’m honored to be the last human host of the Academy Awards,” O’Brien said. “Yes! Yeah! Next year it’s going to be a Waymo in a tux.”
And the jokes kept coming.
“Last year when I hosted Los Angeles was on fire,” O’Brien said. “But this year, everything’s going great.”
He also quipped that there’s an alternate Oscars being hosted by Kid Rock, a nod to the hubbub over Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show.
And we’re off, with help from the Beastie Boys and Aunt Conan
Conan O’Brien’s opening skit: He complains about wearing too much makeup as Aunt Gladys from “Weapons,” says he looks like “Bette Davis with lupus” and it’s all done to the soundtrack of “Sabotage” from the Beastie Boys, all as he runs through various scenes of this year’s nominated films.
“I can’t believe I learned Norwegian for this,” he says, via subtitles, at one point. He then got chased onto the stage by a horde of children.
The irreverent tone for the opening is now set.
