Paul Thomas Anderson has spent three decades making films that critics worship and the Academy respects from a distance. “Boogie Nights” earned him his first nomination in 1998. “There Will Be Blood” won Daniel Day-Lewis a second Oscar but left Anderson empty-handed for Best Director. “Phantom Thread” and “Licorice Pizza” continued the pattern: reverence without trophies. At 55, Anderson had become the most decorated filmmaker in Hollywood who had never actually won.
That changed Sunday night. “One Battle After Another” took six Oscars at the 98th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn. It was the kind of sweep that felt less like a surprise and more like an overdue correction, the Academy finally catching up to what cinephiles have argued for a quarter century.
The Film That Broke Through
“One Battle After Another” is classic Anderson: sprawling, character-driven, meticulously composed, and deeply interested in the systems that shape American life. The film arrived in theaters last fall to the kind of reviews that studios print on posters and competitors dread. It carried a sense of inevitability through awards season, building momentum through the guild awards and surviving a late charge from Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” that made the Best Picture race more competitive than early predictions suggested.
But the final vote was not close. Six wins out of its nominations made “One Battle After Another” the most dominant Best Picture winner since “Everything Everywhere All at Once” took seven awards in 2023. Anderson’s acceptance speech was typically understated: brief, slightly awkward, and completely devoid of the kind of performative emotion that makes Oscar speeches feel manufactured. He thanked his collaborators, his family, and the audience, then walked off. It was, in its own way, the most Anderson moment of the night.
Michael B. Jordan and Jessie Buckley Deliver Career-Defining Wins
The acting categories delivered two wins that felt earned in every sense. Michael B. Jordan took Best Actor for “Sinners,” Ryan Coogler’s ambitious genre film that marked their third collaboration after “Fruitvale Station” and “Creed.” Jordan has been one of Hollywood’s most reliable leading men for a decade, but the Oscar had eluded him. His performance in “Sinners,” which critics described as his most physically and emotionally demanding work, closed that gap decisively.
Jessie Buckley won Best Actress for “Hamnet,” her portrayal of Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare’s wife, not the actress) in Maggie O’Farrell’s adaptation. Buckley has been building toward this moment since her breakout in “Wild Rose” and her Oscar-nominated turn in “The Lost Daughter.” She is the rare performer who can hold the screen with absolute stillness, and “Hamnet” gave her the material to prove it on the biggest stage.
Sean Penn’s Best Supporting Actor win for “One Battle After Another” added another trophy to a career that already includes two Best Actor Oscars. Penn at 65 remains one of the most intense screen presences working, and his role in Anderson’s film reportedly required the kind of physical transformation that younger actors build entire press tours around. Amy Madigan took Best Supporting Actress for “Weapons,” a win that drew one of the loudest ovations of the night from an industry crowd that has admired her work for four decades.
The “Sinners” Question and What the Split Means
The most interesting subplot of the night was how the Academy handled “Sinners.” Coogler’s film entered the ceremony as the strongest challenger to “One Battle After Another,” and it did not leave empty-handed: Coogler won Best Original Screenplay, a significant consolation that recognized the ambition of his writing even as the directing and picture awards went elsewhere.
The split tells a story about where the Academy is right now. “One Battle After Another” is a film made in the tradition of the great American auteurs: dense, literary, formally rigorous. “Sinners” is bolder and stranger, a genre-bending work that takes bigger swings and divides opinion more sharply. The Academy chose craft over audacity, which is what the Academy almost always does. Whether that is a compliment or a criticism depends on what you think the Oscars are for.
The K-Pop Moment Nobody Saw Coming
If you watched the ceremony hoping for a moment that would break through the awards-show bubble and reach people who do not care about Best Adapted Screenplay, it came during Best Original Song. “Golden,” from the animated film “KPop Demon Hunters,” became the first K-pop song to win an Oscar. The performance was the most-replayed moment of the night on social media within an hour of airing, and “KPop Demon Hunters” also took Best Animated Feature, capping a remarkable run for a film that was not on most prediction lists six months ago.
The win matters beyond the trophy. K-pop’s global commercial dominance has been obvious for years, but institutional recognition from the Academy represents a different kind of validation. It signals that the voting body, long criticized for its insularity, is at least beginning to reflect the entertainment landscape as it actually exists rather than as it existed in 1995.
Conan O’Brien and the Tone of the Room
Conan O’Brien hosted the 98th ceremony with exactly the energy you would expect: self-deprecating, quick on his feet, willing to acknowledge the absurdity of the format without undermining it. He threaded a difficult needle all night. The country is at war. The government is partially shut down. The room was full of people wearing designer gowns while TSA agents worked without pay three miles away at LAX. Conan acknowledged the tension without dwelling on it, which is probably the only approach that works when your job is to keep a four-hour telecast moving.
The broadcast ratings will land later this week, and they will almost certainly be compared unfavorably to the ceremony’s peak viewership in the late 1990s. That comparison misses the point. The Oscars have become a cultural event that people experience through clips, social media, and morning-after recaps rather than through live viewership. By that measure, the K-pop performance, Anderson’s speech, and Jordan’s emotional reaction to his name being called will reach tens of millions of people who never tuned in.
What Anderson’s Win Means for American Film
The significance of Anderson’s sweep extends beyond one night. For years, the narrative around the Oscars has been that they reward safe choices, that the voting body gravitates toward prestige biopics and crowd-pleasers at the expense of genuine artistry. Anderson’s filmography is a direct challenge to that narrative. His films are not easy. They do not follow formula. They demand attention and reward patience. The fact that the Academy gave its highest honor to a filmmaker who has never once compromised his vision suggests that the institution, for all its flaws, can still recognize what excellence looks like when it walks through the door.
Anderson will wake up Monday morning with the validation he never seemed to need but clearly deserved. The rest of Hollywood will wake up with a reminder that making something great is still, occasionally, enough.