The 98th Oscars Delivered Three Historic Nights in One
Hollywood had been building to March 15, 2026 for months. When the night finally ended at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, three stories had defined the 98th Academy Awards: Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another claiming the biggest prize of the night with six wins; Michael B. Jordan making history with a Best Actor win that sent the press room to its feet; and K-pop's formal arrival at the Academy Awards through KPop Demon Hunters — followed immediately by one of the most talked-about moments of controversy in recent Oscars memory.
Conan O'Brien hosted for the second consecutive year. Matt Berry handled announcing duties. The night produced its first Best Casting award since the category was created in 2001. A tie in Best Live-Action Short ruined 22 million Oscar pools. And Sean Penn won his third Oscar without being in the building, flying to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the following morning instead.
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Best Picture: Paul Thomas Anderson Finally Wins
One Battle After Another entered the night as the second-most nominated film with 13 nominations. It left with six Oscars — Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Supporting Actor, and the inaugural Best Casting award. For Paul Thomas Anderson, who has been nominated for Academy Awards across multiple previous films without winning the top prizes, the night represented a long-overdue reckoning with Hollywood's most coveted recognition.
Accepting his Best Director award, Anderson referenced his decades of near-misses with characteristic dry humour: "You make a guy work hard for one of these, I really appreciate it." He had previously been nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay on multiple occasions across a career that includes some of the most celebrated films of the past two decades.
According to NPR's coverage of the ceremony, the Best Adapted Screenplay win for Anderson added a third major award to a dominant night. The new Best Casting category — the first new Oscar category since Best Animated Feature was introduced in 2001 — went to casting director Cassandra Kulukundis for One Battle After Another, an upset over widely expected favourite Francine Maisler.
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Michael B. Jordan Makes History in Best Actor
If there was a single moment that stopped the 98th Oscars in its tracks, it was the Best Actor announcement. Michael B. Jordan won for his role in Ryan Coogler's Sinners — specifically, for his dual performance as twins Smoke and Stack, a feat that required him to create two entirely distinct characters within the same film.
The significance of the win extended well beyond the performance itself. Jordan was the sixth Black man in Academy Awards history to win Best Actor — a category where, across nearly a century of Oscars, only five Black men had previously taken home the prize. He was also the first performer ever to be honoured specifically for a dual role in a single film.
The reaction was immediate and visceral. CBC's Oscars correspondent reported that the Oscars press room — hardened journalists and Academy staff — erupted when his name was called, with members of the press on their feet, cheering and calling out responses to his speech as he opened with "God is great." Jordan thanked the Black actors who came before him, an acknowledgement of the history that made his win both overdue and meaningful.
Jordan topped a deeply competitive Best Actor field that included Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme), Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another), Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon), and Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent) — a lineup that was considered among the strongest Best Actor races in years. Early season odds had favoured Moura and Chalamet, but Jordan's wins at the Actor Awards earlier in March signalled a late surge that the Oscars confirmed.
Sinners itself set a record on its own: with 16 nominations, it is now the most-nominated film in Academy Awards history, surpassing previous records. It ultimately won four: Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay (Ryan Coogler, his first Oscar), Best Cinematography (Autumn Durald Arkapaw, the first woman and first Black cinematographer ever to win the category), and Best Original Score (Ludwig Göransson).
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K-Pop Makes Oscar History — Then Gets Cut Off
If One Battle After Another dominated the evening and Michael B. Jordan provided its most emotional moment, KPop Demon Hunters produced its most talked-about sequence — beginning in triumph and ending in controversy.
The Netflix animated film won two awards: Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for "Golden," becoming the first K-pop song in history to win an Oscar. It had previously won the Grammy, the Golden Globe, and the Critics' Choice Award for Best Original Song — completing a historic awards season sweep. Director Maggie Kang, accepting the Best Animated Feature award, delivered what many observers called one of the night's most emotional speeches, dedicating the win to "Korea and Koreans everywhere" and saying through tears: "For those of you who look like me, I'm so sorry that it took us so long to see us in a movie like this."
Kang and her team became the first people of South Korean descent to win in the Best Animated Feature category. A sequel has already been confirmed by Netflix and Sony.
The Best Original Song win for "Golden" set multiple records simultaneously. According to Billboard, it became the first K-pop song to win an Oscar; the first song with more than four credited writers to win the award; and one of only three songs that spent eight or more weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 to win Best Original Song, alongside "You Light Up My Life" (1977) and Eminem's "Lose Yourself" (2002). Seven songwriters shared the award: EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu-Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seo and Teddy Park.
EJAE, who also provides the singing voice of demon hunter Rumi in the film, opened the acceptance speech with words that visibly moved the Dolby Theatre audience: "Growing up, people made fun of me for liking K-pop, but now everyone's singing our song and all the Korean lyrics. I'm so proud. And I realized, this award is not about success — it's about resilience."
Then the orchestra started playing.
When EJAE stepped aside to allow co-writer Yu-Han Lee to speak, the Oscars music swelled to play-off volume. Lee managed only a few words before the broadcast cut to commercial, leaving other members of the songwriting team still attempting to speak on stage in front of a visibly frustrated live audience. The backlash across social media was immediate and intense, with many viewers calling the decision disrespectful to a group of international artists in the middle of their first major Academy Award acceptance. The group were able to complete their remarks backstage for the press.
Walt Disney Television's Rob Mills acknowledged the fumble the following day, telling Variety: "One thing, as we post mortem for next year, will be to look at how we're handling speeches."
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The Other Stories That Made the Night
The Best Actress award went to Jessie Buckley for Hamnet, directed by Chloé Zhao — completing a sweep of the major Best Actress awards across the season, including the Golden Globe, Critics' Choice, Actor Award, and BAFTA. Amy Madigan won Best Supporting Actress for Weapons in what was widely described as a late-career triumph.
Autumn Durald Arkapaw's Best Cinematography win for Sinners was historic in two directions simultaneously: she became the first woman ever to win in the category, and the first Black cinematographer to take home the award. Accepting her Oscar, she asked all the women in the Dolby Theatre to stand.
Sean Penn won Best Supporting Actor for One Battle After Another — his third career Academy Award — while absent from the ceremony. By Monday morning he had arrived in Kyiv, where Ukrainian Railways posted video of him stepping off a train, cigarette in hand. Zelensky posted a photo of the two on X, thanking Penn for his continued support. Penn has been a consistent presence in Ukraine since Russia's 2022 invasion.
The Best Live-Action Short Film category produced only the seventh tie in Oscars history, with The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva sharing the award. When director Alexandre Singh approached the microphone for his remarks after The Singers' producers had spoken, the microphone began lowering back into the stage as he reached it. O'Brien's response to the gaffe: "I know we're tight, but to retract a microphone on a man as he's speaking is hilarious."
Best Documentary Feature went to Mr. Nobody Against Putin in a mild upset over projected winner The Perfect Neighbor. Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein won three awards: Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Costume Design, and Best Production Design. Warner Bros. led all distributors with 11 statuettes across the night; Netflix was second with seven.
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The Complete Winners List
Best Picture: One Battle After Another
Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson — One Battle After Another
Best Actor: Michael B. Jordan — Sinners
Best Actress: Jessie Buckley — Hamnet
Best Supporting Actor: Sean Penn — One Battle After Another
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Madigan — Weapons
Best Adapted Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson — One Battle After Another
Best Original Screenplay: Ryan Coogler — Sinners
Best Animated Feature: KPop Demon Hunters
Best International Feature Film: Sentimental Value (Norway)
Best Documentary Feature: Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Best Cinematography: Autumn Durald Arkapaw — Sinners
Best Film Editing: Andy Jurgensen — One Battle After Another
Best Original Score: Ludwig Göransson — Sinners
Best Original Song: "Golden" — KPop Demon Hunters
Best Production Design: Frankenstein
Best Costume Design: Frankenstein
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Frankenstein
Best Visual Effects: Avatar: Fire and Ash
Best Sound: F1
Best Casting (inaugural): Cassandra Kulukundis — One Battle After Another
Best Live-Action Short Film: The Singers / Two People Exchanging Saliva (tie)
Best Animated Short Film: The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Best Documentary Short: All the Empty Rooms
The 99th Academy Awards are expected to be held in March 2027. Whether the record-breaking Sinners conversation will carry into next year's campaign season — and what the breakthrough night for K-pop will mean for future international film representation at the Academy — are questions the industry will be parsing for months.
As awards season shifts from the 2025 film calendar to 2026 releases, WinTK will continue covering major entertainment news and cultural events across the region.
