Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another won best picture at the 98th Academy Awards on March 15, 2026, and took six Oscars in all, the most of any film that night. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, which came in with a record 16 nominations, finished second with four.
The short version: The 2026 Oscar winners were spread wider than the nomination count suggested. Anderson collected three statuettes himself (picture, director, adapted screenplay), Michael B. Jordan and Jessie Buckley won the lead acting prizes, and Cassandra Kulukundis became the first person ever to win the Academy’s new casting award. Below is every category, followed by the records and firsts that made the night unusual.
The complete list of 2026 Oscar winners
The table follows the official results as published by NPR and by Reuters and the Associated Press on the night. Where a category honors a named craftsperson, the main winner is listed beside the film.
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Picture | One Battle After Another |
| Directing | Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another) |
| Lead actress | Jessie Buckley (Hamnet) |
| Lead actor | Michael B. Jordan (Sinners) |
| Supporting actress | Amy Madigan (Weapons) |
| Supporting actor | Sean Penn (One Battle After Another) |
| Original screenplay | Ryan Coogler (Sinners) |
| Adapted screenplay | Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another) |
| Casting (new) | Cassandra Kulukundis (One Battle After Another) |
| Cinematography | Autumn Durald Arkapaw (Sinners) |
| Film editing | Andy Jurgensen (One Battle After Another) |
| Original score | Ludwig Goransson (Sinners) |
| Original song | “Golden” (KPop Demon Hunters) |
| Animated feature | KPop Demon Hunters |
| International feature | Sentimental Value (Norway) |
| Documentary feature | Mr. Nobody Against Putin |
| Sound | F1 |
| Visual effects | Avatar: Fire and Ash |
| Production design | Frankenstein |
| Costume design | Frankenstein (Kate Hawley) |
| Makeup and hairstyling | Frankenstein |
| Live action short | Tie: The Singers; Two People Exchanging Saliva |
| Animated short | The Girl Who Cried Pearls |
| Documentary short | All the Empty Rooms |
Ten films were nominated for best picture. Alongside the winner, the field was Sinners, Hamnet, Frankenstein, Sentimental Value, Marty Supreme, The Secret Agent, Bugonia, F1 and Train Dreams. PBS clocked the broadcast at three hours and 40 minutes. Conan O’Brien hosted for the second time and predicted he would be the last human to do it: “Next year, it will be a Waymo with a tux.”
Which films won the most
| Film | Oscars won | Which ones |
|---|---|---|
| One Battle After Another | 6 | Picture, directing, adapted screenplay, supporting actor, editing, casting |
| Sinners | 4 | Lead actor, original screenplay, score, cinematography |
| Frankenstein | 3 | Production design, costumes, makeup and hairstyling |
| KPop Demon Hunters | 2 | Animated feature, original song |
The headline contest was the one most awards watchers expected, between the revolutionaries and the vampires. NPR critic Linda Holmes summed it up the next morning: One Battle After Another won picture and director, while Sinners still had “a very good night” with wins across acting, writing and craft. Frankenstein won all three of the design awards (production design, costumes, makeup and hairstyling), and KPop Demon Hunters converted both of its nominations. A note on that last count: the Al Jazeera write-up of the Reuters and AP results says Frankenstein “also secured two awards” in its summary, but its own category list, like NPR’s, shows three.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s first Oscars
The night’s biggest story was a long wait ending. Anderson, whose films include Boogie Nights, Magnolia and There Will Be Blood, had been nominated 14 times without a win, PBS noted, five of them for screenplays and three for directing. NPR listed the previous directing nods: There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread and Licorice Pizza. Wins earlier in the season from both the BAFTAs and the Directors Guild of America had made him the favorite.
He won adapted screenplay first, then director. “You make a guy work hard for this,” he told the room, and by the time best picture closed the show he was ready for a drink: “Let’s have a martini. This is amazing.” Sean Penn’s supporting actor win and Andy Jurgensen’s editing award rounded out the haul. Readers who want to know who is who in that sprawling ensemble can use our One Battle After Another cast guide.
The acting winners
Michael B. Jordan, Sinners. Jordan won on his first nomination, for playing the twins Smoke and Stack. Holmes pointed out how rarely the Academy rewards acting in horror: “Those are not the kinds of films that most often win Oscars for actors.” She suggested the last comparable genre win “might have been Joaquin Phoenix for Joker.” The film’s plot and final scenes are unpacked in our Sinners ending explained.
Jessie Buckley, Hamnet. Buckley won for playing Agnes Shakespeare in Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, which Zhao adapted with Maggie O’Farrell. According to PBS, that made her the first Irish performer to win best actress.
Amy Madigan, Weapons. The first winner announced on the night was also the one who had waited longest. Madigan’s earlier nomination came for 1985’s Twice in a Lifetime, when she lost to Anjelica Huston. PBS calculated the gap at 40 years, a record wait for the supporting actress category. She won for Aunt Gladys, the character at the center of Weapons’ ending.
Sean Penn, One Battle After Another. Penn beat his own co-star Benicio del Toro, as well as Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein), Delroy Lindo (Sinners) and Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value).
The first casting Oscar
Achievement in casting made its debut this year, the first new competitive category in more than two decades, according to PBS. NPR reported before the ceremony that all five nominees worked on best picture contenders: Kulukundis for One Battle After Another, Nina Gold for Hamnet, Jennifer Venditti for Marty Supreme, Gabriel Domingues for The Secret Agent and Francine Maisler for Sinners.
The award closed a long gap. Lynn Stalmaster became the first casting director credited on screen with The Thomas Crown Affair in 1968; a 1991 push by Robert Redford, Paul Newman and Clint Eastwood for a special Oscar for Marion Dougherty failed, and Stalmaster received an honorary Oscar in 2016. Richard Hicks, an Academy governor for the casting branch, told NPR before the show: “It’s something the casting community has been hoping for 30 years.”
Kulukundis has cast every Anderson film. For this one she said she avoided stacking the ensemble with famous faces: “We didn’t want to have too many recognizable names, because at some point that’s like overkill.” She found Eric Schweig, who plays the bounty hunter Avanti, living in Inuvik, north of the Arctic Circle. For how the Academy’s voting and the guild prizes that precede it fit together, see our explainer on awards season from the guilds to the Oscars.
Records and firsts from the night
- A record nomination haul for Sinners: 16 nominations, the most any film has received, according to the Reuters and AP results.
- First woman to win for cinematography: Autumn Durald Arkapaw, for Sinners. NPR noted she was only the fourth woman ever nominated in the category and the first woman of color.
- A first for K-pop: “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters won best original song, which PBS called the genre’s first Oscar.
- A tie: The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva shared live action short, the first tie since 2013, when Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall split the sound editing award.
- The longest supporting actress wait: Madigan’s 40 years between nomination and win.
- Three Oscars in one night for Anderson, after a career of 14 nominations without a win.
The rest of the field
Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value won international feature for Norway, ahead of Brazil’s The Secret Agent, France’s It Was Just an Accident, Spain’s Sirāt and Tunisia’s The Voice of Hind Rajab. Mr. Nobody Against Putin won documentary feature; its co-director Pavel Talankin shot footage while working at a Russian school, NPR reported. Avatar: Fire and Ash took visual effects for Joe Letteri’s team, and F1 won sound. Timothée Chalamet, nominated for Marty Supreme, went home empty-handed, as did Leonardo DiCaprio, nominated for One Battle After Another, and Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon. Among the best picture nominees, Bugonia, Marty Supreme, The Secret Agent and Train Dreams left without a single Oscar; Hamnet’s only win was Buckley’s.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who won best picture at the 2026 Oscars?
One Battle After Another, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, won best picture at the 98th Academy Awards on March 15, 2026. It won six Oscars in total.
Who won best actor and best actress at the 2026 Oscars?
Michael B. Jordan won best actor for Sinners, and Jessie Buckley won best actress for Hamnet. Sean Penn (One Battle After Another) and Amy Madigan (Weapons) won the supporting prizes.
What movie won the most Oscars in 2026?
One Battle After Another, with six: picture, director, adapted screenplay, supporting actor, film editing and casting. Sinners was second with four, Frankenstein won three and KPop Demon Hunters two.
Who won the first Oscar for casting?
Cassandra Kulukundis, for One Battle After Another. Achievement in casting was presented for the first time at the 98th Academy Awards.
Who hosted the 2026 Oscars?
Conan O’Brien, hosting for the second time.
Sources
- ‘One Battle After Another’ takes best picture. Here’s the full list of Oscar winners — Clare Lombardo and Beth Novey, NPR, March 15, 2026
- Oscars 2026: 5 takeaways from the night — Linda Holmes, NPR, March 16, 2026
- 7 key moments from the 2026 Academy Awards — PBS News, March 2026
- Oscars 2026: Full list of winners — Reuters and The Associated Press, via Al Jazeera, March 16, 2026
- Casting directors get their Oscar, at last — NPR, March 5, 2026