“Cinema is healthy. When Hollywood stops trying to fix the ceremony and starts celebrating the craft, the world still watches.” — 98th Oscars verdict
The 98th Academy Awards, held on March 15, 2026 at the Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, marked a triumphant moment for world cinema. Hosted for the second consecutive year by Conan O’Brien, the ceremony blended prestige with populist appeal — and delivered historic firsts across acting, technical, and administrative categories.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic historical film One Battle After Another dominated with six wins, including Best Picture and Best Director. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners followed with four wins despite entering with a record-breaking 16 nominations. Global viewership rose by 15%, reinforcing cinema’s enduring power.
🏆 The Sweep: Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another
For years, Paul Thomas Anderson was the “always a bridesmaid” of the Academy — critically celebrated but repeatedly overlooked at Oscar night. That ended definitively on March 15, 2026. His sprawling, visceral historical epic One Battle After Another swept six categories.
Key wins for the film included Best Picture, Best Director (Anderson), Best Supporting Actor (Sean Penn), Best Adapted Screenplay (Anderson), Best Film Editing (Andy Jurgensen), and the inaugural Best Casting award (Cassandra Kulukundis).
Anderson’s Best Director speech — a tribute to celluloid and the “ghosts of the editing room” — received the night’s longest standing ovation and became an instant classic of Oscar oratory.
The introduction of Best Casting as a competitive Oscar category is a landmark moment. Casting directors — who shape the entire human face of a film — had been excluded from Oscar recognition for 97 years. Cassandra Kulukundis’s win writes a new chapter in how the industry defines creative authorship.
Sean Penn’s Third Oscar: Penn won Best Supporting Actor for One Battle After Another, making him only the third actor in history to win three competitive acting Oscars (after Meryl Streep and Daniel Day-Lewis).
🎭 Acting History: Michael B. Jordan and Jessie Buckley
Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor for his role in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners — a performance demanding both physical intensity and psychological depth. Jordan’s win placed him in a rare circle of Black men to hold the Best Actor Oscar. In his acceptance speech, he used the platform to advocate for arts education funding in public schools.
Jessie Buckley claimed Best Actress for her performance as Agnes Hathaway in Hamnet — the story of Shakespeare’s son and the grief that may have shaped his greatest plays. Critics described Buckley’s portrayal as the most technically precise performance of the decade. Notably, her win marked the first time an Irish actress had claimed the Best Actress Oscar in the Academy’s history.
Don’t confuse films and awards: Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor for Sinners (Ryan Coogler’s film), NOT for One Battle After Another. PTA’s film won Best Picture — Jordan’s film Sinners had the most nominations (16) but won four awards. Keep the film-award-person matrix clear.
🎬 Technical Firsts & Milestones
The 98th Oscars delivered a defining technical milestone: Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman in the Academy’s 98-year history to win Best Cinematography, for her visually stunning work on Sinners. Her signature techniques — infrared night sequences and suffocating close-ups — defined the visual language of 2025–26 cinema.
On the production design and costume front, Frankenstein triumphed in three categories: Best Production Design (Tamara Deverell & Shane Vieau), Best Costume Design (Kate Hawley), and Best Makeup & Hairstyling (Mike Hill et al.).
Norway’s Sentimental Value won Best International Feature Film. The animated feature prize went to Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters, whose title song “Golden” also won Best Original Song. Best Visual Effects went to Avatar: Fire and Ash (Joe Letteri et al.).
Think of the 98th Oscars as a triple breakthrough: a new acting record (Sean Penn’s third Oscar), a first-ever gender milestone in cinematography, and the birth of a brand-new category (Best Casting). Each of these shook the Academy’s 98-year-old rulebook.
📋 Complete Winners List: 98th Academy Awards
The ceremony covered all 24 competitive categories. One Battle After Another led with six wins; Sinners secured four; Frankenstein won three. Here is the complete list:
| Category | Winner | Film |
|---|---|---|
| Best Picture | Warner Bros. | 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 Original Screenplay | Ryan Coogler | Sinners |
| Best Adapted Screenplay | Paul Thomas Anderson | One Battle After Another |
| Best Animated Feature | Netflix | KPop Demon Hunters |
| Best International Feature | Norway | Sentimental Value |
| Best Documentary Feature | David Borenstein et al. | Mr Nobody Against Putin |
| Best Casting (Inaugural) | Cassandra Kulukundis | One Battle After Another |
| Best Cinematography | Autumn Durald Arkapaw | Sinners |
| Best Film Editing | Andy Jurgensen | One Battle After Another |
| Best Original Score | Ludwig Göransson | Sinners |
| Best Original Song | Ejae et al. (“Golden”) | KPop Demon Hunters |
| Best Sound | Gareth John et al. | F1 |
| Best Production Design | Tamara Deverell & Shane Vieau | Frankenstein |
| Best Costume Design | Kate Hawley | Frankenstein |
| Best Makeup & Hairstyling | Mike Hill et al. | Frankenstein |
| Best Visual Effects | Joe Letteri et al. | Avatar: Fire and Ash |
| Best Animated Short | Chris Lavis & M. Szczerbowski | The Girl Who Cried Pearls |
| Best Documentary Short | Joshua Seftel & Conall Jones | All the Empty Rooms |
| Best Live Action Short | Tie: Sam A. Davis & Jack Piatt / Alexandre Singh & Natalie Musteata | The Singers / Two People Exchanging Saliva |
🌟 Special & Honorary Awards
The evening’s Honorary Oscars were presented to three luminaries: Debbie Allen, Tom Cruise, and Wynn Thomas — each recognized for lifetime contributions to cinema and performance arts.
The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award went to Dolly Parton, honouring her decades of philanthropic work — including her Imagination Library, which has gifted millions of books to children worldwide. The In Memoriam segment, led by Barbra Streisand, paid tribute to the late Robert Redford, marking a symbolic end of the 1970s New Hollywood era.
🌍 Why the 98th Oscars Matter for Indian Exam Aspirants
The Oscars routinely appear in competitive exam GK sections. The 98th ceremony is exam-rich due to multiple firsts and records. Key angles to note:
- First woman to win Best Cinematography (Autumn Durald Arkapaw) — relevant to gender milestones in world culture
- Inaugural Best Casting Oscar — a new category worth tracking for future MCQs
- Best International Feature Film: Norway’s Sentimental Value — country-film pairing is a frequent MCQ trap
- Sean Penn’s third Oscar — record-holder details appear in actor-award match questions
- Jessie Buckley: First Irish Best Actress — nationality milestone questions
- India connection: No Indian film featured in the major categories this year, but the global ceremony remains GK standard
The 98th Oscars raise a rich GDPI question: Should global awards like the Oscars be considered universal benchmarks of cinematic excellence, or do they reflect a persistent Western/Hollywood bias? The absence of major Asian, African, or South Asian films in key categories despite global streaming penetration invites critical analysis of soft power, cultural representation, and who defines “great cinema.”
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One Battle After Another by Paul Thomas Anderson led all films with 6 wins, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Autumn Durald Arkapaw won Best Cinematography for Sinners — the first woman to win this Oscar in the Academy’s 98-year history.
Norway won Best International Feature Film for Sentimental Value at the 98th Academy Awards.
Best Casting was introduced as an inaugural competitive Oscar category at the 98th ceremony. Cassandra Kulukundis was the first winner, for One Battle After Another.
Jessie Buckley won Best Actress for Hamnet, becoming the first Irish actress to win this award in Oscar history.
