The 98th Academy Awards Results

An Uneventful Evening Is Not Without History

While the Screen Actors Guild threw some last minute excitement into the proceedings by giving Sinners its highest honor, One Battle After Another took home the coveted Best Picture Oscar.

After sweeping many critic awards through the end of 2025, One Battle After Another took its domination to the Oscars stage where it won the most awards of the evening with 6 – Best Picture, Best Director (Paul Thomas Anderson), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Sean Penn), Best Editing, and the inaugural Best Casting award (Cassandra Kulukundis). Not only did One Battle After Another clean up on Oscar night, but it won the highest honor at the BAFTA's, Critics' Choice, and many others. Two voting bodies I contributed votes towards in 2025, BOFCA and RogerEbert.com, saw One Battle After Another winning top honors as well.

Even if One Battle After Another wasn't your favorite movie of 2025, there's no question that Paul Thomas Anderson is one of our best working directors in the business. His filmography includes classics like Magnolia, Boogie Nights, Phantom Thread, The Master, and There Will Be Blood. That body of work has never been awarded by the Academy until now.

Sinners still made history in many ways during the 98th Academy Awards. Before the ceremony even began, Sinners was nominated for a record breaking 16 nominations– That broke a long standing record of 14 shared by All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land. Of those 16 nominations, Sinners was awarded 4 – Best Actor (Michael B. Jordan), Best Original Screenplay (Ryan Coogler), Best Cinematography (Autumn Durald Arkapaw), and Best Original Score (Ludwig Goransson).

• Michael B. Jordan joins the very small list of Black Men to win the Best Actor award. Other winners include Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, and Will Smith.
• Autumn Durald Arkapaw is the FIRST woman to win Best Cinematography at the Academy Awards in its 98 year history.
• Ludwig Goransson wins his third Oscar for Best Original Score (His other two were Black Panther and Oppenheimer). He is one of most awarded composers under the age of 50. Other composers with 3 wins? Howard Shore for his work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Maurice Jarre for his work on epics like Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, and many more. John Williams is the most nominated composer with 54 nominations, but he only has 5 wins to his name.

The biggest winner was undoubtably Warner Bros. They were behind Sinners, One Battle After Another, and Weapons (Best Supporting Actress, Amy Madigan). That led to a total of 11 Oscars for the studio. Damn shame that they are selling the company now, but maybe the best time to get out is when you are on top.

Other big awards of the evening went to Jessie Buckley, who won Best Actress of her role in Hamnet. She became the first Irish woman to win in that category. Then there was KPop Demon Hunters which made Maggie Kang and Michelle Wong the first South Korean filmmakers to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. And there was even a tie! In the category of Live Action Short Film, Two People Exchanging Saliva and The Singers, both won. While I don't believe there should be ties in the Oscars, this will undoubtably bring more attention to those two shorts than if they had won outright.

Many films nominated for Best Picture won at least one award. I've already shared awards for One Battle After Another, Sinners, and Hamnet. Frankenstein went home with 3 (Production, Makeup and Hairstyling, Costume Design), F1 won Best Sound, and Sentimental Value won Best International Feature Film. The films that went home empty handed included Marty Supreme, Bugonia, The Secret Agent, and Train Dreams.

As for the show itself? It was a mixed bag! I thought Conan O'Brien had a fine opening monologue and some of the jokes on A.I. and repeating the plot in Casablanca were perfect, the show itself was plagued by sound issues. When I can barely hear Barbra Streisand talking about the late Robert Redford, you know there's some problems. Let's talk about good sound design for a second. Good sound design is often inconspicuous. You don't often hear cheers from people when there is good sound design, but you'll hear boos in droves when its bad. Too often during the broadcast I noticed that something was off. That can't happen.

The Oscars have always played off winners that weren't among the highest honors of the night, but it was really noticeable during this broadcast. I guess the nominees were told in advance not to thank their agents and "people audiences wouldn't know." It's a difficult balance because the Academy Awards wants to be an Entertainment show, but also be an industry event. Getting a shout out during the Academy Awards could lead to a lot more work for some of these people.

Maybe when the Academy Awards moves to YouTube in 2029, time restraints won't be as much of issue. But what do I know! On one hand, I want everyone to get a chance to have their moment. On the other, this was a broadcast that started at 7:00pm EST and ended at 10:43 EST. That's a broadcast of almost 4 hours. That's a long time for someone to watch an award show.

I'll have some more thoughts on the show with my co-host Evan Crean on a new episode of It's the Picture podcast this week.

Here is the list of winners from the 98th Academy Awards:

Best supporting actress

• Elle Fanning, "Sentimental Value"
• Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, "Sentimental Value"
• Amy Madigan, "Weapons" -- WINNER
• Wunmi Mosaku, "Sinners"
• Teyana Taylor, "One Battle After Another"

Best animated feature film

• "Arco"
• "Elio"
• "KPop Demon Hunters" -- WINNER
• "Little Amélie or the Character of Rain"
• "Zootopia 2"

Best animated short film

• "Butterfly"
• "Forevergreen"
• "The Girl Who Cried Pearls" -- WINNER
• "Retirement Plan"
• "The Three Sisters"

Best costume design

• "Avatar: Fire and Ash" -- Deborah L. Scott
• "Frankenstein" – Kate Hawley -- WINNER
• "Hamnet" -- Malgosia Turzanska
• "Marty Supreme" -- Miyako Bellizzi
• "Sinners" – Ruth E. Carter

Best makeup and hairstyling

• "Frankenstein" – WINNER
• "Kokuho"
• "Sinners"
• "The Smashing Machine"
• "The Ugly Stepsister"

Best casting

• "Hamnet" – Nina Gold
• "Marty Supreme" -- Jennifer Venditti
• "One Battle After Another" – Cassandra Kulukundis - WINNER
• "The Secret Agent" -- Gabriel Domingues
• "Sinners" – Francine Maisler

Best live action short film

• "Butcher's Stain"
• "Jane Austen's Period Drama"
• "A Friend of Dorothy"
• "The Singers" -- WINNER
• "Two People Exchanging Saliva" – WINNER

Best supporting actor

• Benicio del Toro, "One Battle After Another"
• Jacob Elordi, "Frankenstein"
• Delroy Lindo, "Sinners"
• Sean Penn, "One Battle After Another" -- WINNER
• Stellan Skarsgård, "Sentimental Value"

Best adapted screenplay

• "Bugonia" -- Will Tracy
• "Frankenstein" -- Guillermo Del Toro
• "Hamnet" -- Maggie O'Farrell and Chloé Zhao
• "One Battle After Another" -- Paul Thomas Anderson -- WINNER
• "Train Dreams" – Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar

Best original screenplay

• "Blue Moon" -- Robert Kaplow
• "It Was Just an Accident" -- Jafar Panahi
• "Marty Supreme" -- Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
• "Sentimental Value" -- Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt
• "Sinners" – Ryan Coogler – WINNER

Best production design

• "Frankenstein" – WINNER
• "Hamnet"
• "Marty Supreme"
• "One Battle After Another"
• "Sinners"

Best visual effects

• "Avatar: Fire and Ash" -- WINNER
• "F1"
• "Jurassic World Rebirth"
• "The Lost Bus"
• "Sinners"

Best documentary short film

• "All the Empty Rooms" -- WINNER
• "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"

Best documentary feature film

• "The Alabama Solution"
• "Come See Me in the Good Light"
• "Cutting Through Rocks"
• "Mr. Nobody Against Putin" – WINNER
• "The Perfect Neighbor"

Best original score

• "Bugonia" -- Jerskin Fendrix
• "Frankenstein" -- Alexandre Desplat
• "Hamnet" -- Max Richter
• "One Battle After Another" -- Jonny Greenwood
• "Sinners" – Ludwig Göransson – WINNER

Best sound

• "F1" – WINNER
• "Frankenstein"
• "One Battle After Another"
• "Sinners"
• "Sirât"

Best film editing

• "F1" -- Stephen Mirrione
• "Marty Supreme" -- Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
• "One Battle After Another" -- Andy Jurgensen -- WINNER
• "Sentimental Value" -- Olivier Bugge Coutté
• "Sinners" – Michael P. Shawver

Best cinematography

• "Frankenstein"
• "Marty Supreme"
• "One Battle After Another"
• "Sinners" – WINNER
• "Train Dreams"

Best international feature film

• Brazil, "The Secret Agent"
• France, "It Was Just an Accident"
• Norway, "Sentimental Value" -- WINNER
• Spain, "Sirât"
• Tunisia, "The Voice of Hind Rajab"

Best original song

• "Dear Me" from "Diane Warren: Relentless"
• "Golden" from "KPop Demon Hunters" -- WINNER
• "I Lied to You" from "Sinners"
• "Sweet Dreams of Joy" from "Viva Verdi!"
• "Train Dreams" from "Train Dreams"

Best director

• Chloé Zhao, "Hamnet"
• Josh Safdie, "Marty Supreme"
• Paul Thomas Anderson, "One Battle After Another" -- WINNER
• Joachim Trier, "Sentimental Value"
• Ryan Coogler, "Sinners"

Best actor

• Timothée Chalamet, "Marty Supreme"
• Leonardo DiCaprio, "One Battle After Another"
• Ethan Hawke, "Blue Moon"
• Michael B. Jordan, "Sinners" -- WINNER
• Wagner Moura, "The Secret Agent"

Best actress

• Jessie Buckley, "Hamnet" -- WINNER
• Rose Byrne, "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You"
• Kate Hudson, "Song Sung Blue"
• Renate Reinsve, "Sentimental Value"
• Emma Stone, "Bugonia"

Best picture

• "Bugonia"
• "F1"
• "Frankenstein"
• "Hamnet"
• "Marty Supreme"
• "One Battle After Another" – WINNER
• "The Secret Agent"
• "Sentimental Value"
• "Sinners"
• "Train Dreams"