Paul Thomas Anderson won his first Academy Awards on Sunday night — Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay — while Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman and first Black person to win Best Cinematography, and Michael B. Jordan gave the evening its defining emotional moment.
Oscar winners 2026 arrived at the 98th Academy Awards with a result that felt both earned and overdue. One Battle After Another took home six Oscars, including Best Picture, giving Paul Thomas Anderson the first Academy Awards of his career — wins that drew sustained applause from a room that has long viewed him as one of American cinema’s defining voices. Sinners left with four, headlined by Michael B. Jordan’s Best Actor win and a cinematography victory that made history twice over.
The ceremony, held Sunday March 15 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, was hosted by Conan O’Brien in his second consecutive year on the Oscar stage. He opened with a running sketch that had him chased through clips of nominated films by a pack of children — a nod to Amy Madigan’s character in Weapons — before a live entrance into the theater. His monologue poked at the Timothée Chalamet opera controversy, the Paramount-Netflix bidding war over Warner Bros. Discovery, and the fact that “Bugonia” and “Hamnet” sound like off-brand lunch meats.
Full Oscar Winners 2026 List: Every Major Category
Best Picture: One Battle After Another
Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another (first Oscar)
Best Actor: Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
Best Actress: Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
Best Supporting Actor: Sean Penn, One Battle After Another (Penn was not present at the ceremony)
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Madigan, Weapons
Best Adapted Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another (first Oscar)
Best Original Screenplay: Ryan Coogler, Sinners (first Oscar)
Best Cinematography: Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Sinners
Best Original Score: Ludwig Göransson, Sinners
Best Film Editing: Andy Jurgensen, One Battle After Another
Best Casting: Cassandra Kulukundis, One Battle After Another (inaugural category — first awarded in Oscar history)
Best International Feature Film: Sentimental Value (Norway)
Best Documentary Feature: Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Best Animated Feature: KPop Demon Hunters
Best Original Song: “Golden,” KPop Demon Hunters
Best Production Design: Frankenstein (Tamara Deverell)
Best Costume Design: Frankenstein (Kate Hawley)
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Frankenstein
Best Sound: F1
Best Visual Effects: Avatar: Fire and Ash
Best Animated Short Film: The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Best Documentary Short Film: All the Empty Rooms
Best Live Action Short Film: Tie — The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva (only the seventh tie in Oscar history)
The Night’s Defining Moments
One Battle After Another won six of its 13 nominations. The film also marked the introduction of the first new Oscar category since Best Animated Feature was created in 2002: the Academy gave its inaugural Best Casting award to Cassandra Kulukundis for her work on the film. Sean Penn’s Best Supporting Actor win was accepted in absentia — Penn was not present at the ceremony.
Paul Thomas Anderson had never won a competitive Oscar before Sunday night. He won two in the same evening.
Michael B. Jordan plays twin brothers Smoke and Stack in Sinners — Ryan Coogler’s vampire film set in 1930s Mississippi. His acceptance speech thanked his family and addressed Coogler directly with an intimacy that stopped the room. “You’re an amazing, amazing person,” Jordan said. “You gave me the opportunity and space for me to be seen.” Backstage, Jordan told reporters he felt the win was “timely,” invoking Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, and Forest Whitaker as his predecessors. Coogler, who won his own first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, revealed he had been writing Smoke and Stack for Jordan from the earliest stages — and that Jordan had called him before he could call Jordan.
Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s Best Cinematography win for Sinners was the most historic single award of the night. She is the first woman and the first Black person to win the category in 97 years of its existence. “I really want all the women in this room to stand up,” she said as the audience rose. Arkapaw was only the third woman ever nominated in the category.
Director Maggie Kang’s Best Animated Feature win for KPop Demon Hunters made her the first filmmaker of South Korean descent to win in that category. The film’s song “Golden” — performed live by Rei Ami, EJAE, and Audrey Nuna — also won Best Original Song, marking the first K-pop track to win that award. “For those of you who look like me,” Kang said in her speech, “I am so sorry that it took us so long to see us in a movie like this.”
The In Memoriam segment was anchored by Barbra Streisand, who came onstage to pay tribute to Robert Redford. Billy Crystal honored Rob Reiner — who died December 14, 2025 — alongside Michele Singer Reiner, with Crystal describing the couple as “the driving force in the landmark decision for marriage equality.” The documentary short winner, All the Empty Rooms, produced one of the ceremony’s most quietly devastating speeches when Gloria Cazares, whose nine-year-old daughter Jackie was killed at Robb Elementary in Uvalde in 2022, addressed the audience: “Jackie is more than just a headline. She is our light and our life.”
What the Results Say About This Year’s Academy
Oscar winners 2026 confirm a pattern that has held through multiple recent seasons: when the Academy has a clear artistic consensus, it consolidates. One Battle After Another earned its Best Picture win across the full ballot, not just in the top-line category. It swept direction, writing, editing, casting, and supporting performance — a depth of support that makes the result feel definitive rather than squeaky.
The split with Sinners is equally telling. Coogler’s film had more cultural visibility throughout the season and a broader audience footprint — it was one of 2025’s most-discussed theatrical releases. The Academy honored its craft absolutely: Jordan’s performance, Arkapaw’s camera work, Göransson’s score, Coogler’s screenplay. What it did not do was give Sinners Best Picture, which is where auteur credibility and top-branch support still carries more weight than commercial momentum.
Both films were released by Warner Bros. — giving the studio a dominant night at a turbulent moment in its history. Warner Bros. Discovery is in the process of being sold to Paramount for roughly $111 billion, a deal expected to result in significant layoffs across both companies. Three of the night’s top winners came from the same lot.
If you follow awards season analysis and entertainment industry trends beyond Oscar night itself, The Tech Marketer covers how streaming platforms, studio consolidation, and AI-driven discovery are reshaping the entertainment business throughout the year.
FAQ
Q1: Who won Best Picture at the Oscar winners 2026 ceremony? One Battle After Another won Best Picture at the 98th Academy Awards, held March 15, 2026. The film took home six Oscars in total, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Paul Thomas Anderson — both of which were his first competitive Academy Awards — along with Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn, Best Film Editing for Andy Jurgensen, and the inaugural Best Casting award for Cassandra Kulukundis.
Q2: Who won Best Actor and Best Actress at the 2026 Oscars? Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor for his dual performance as twins Smoke and Stack in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. Jessie Buckley won Best Actress for her role as Agnes Shakespeare in Hamnet. Both are first-time Oscar winners.
Q3: What historic wins happened at the Oscar winners 2026 ceremony? Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman and the first Black person to win Best Cinematography for Sinners. KPop Demon Hunters director Maggie Kang became the first filmmaker of South Korean descent to win Best Animated Feature. The film’s song “Golden” became the first K-pop track to win Best Original Song. The Academy also gave its first-ever Best Casting award, won by Cassandra Kulukundis for One Battle After Another.
Q4: How many Oscars did Sinners win at the 2026 Academy Awards? Sinners won four Oscars: Best Actor (Michael B. Jordan), Best Original Screenplay (Ryan Coogler), Best Original Score (Ludwig Göransson), and Best Cinematography (Autumn Durald Arkapaw). Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan were both first-time Oscar winners.
Q5: What were the biggest surprises from the Oscar winners 2026 results? The most significant surprise was the depth of One Battle After Another’s sweep — Paul Thomas Anderson finally winning his first Oscars after decades of nominations stood as the evening’s most anticipated result. The rare tie in Best Live Action Short Film between The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva — only the seventh in Oscar history — was the night’s procedural shock. Sean Penn winning while absent from the ceremony was also notable.
Sources & References
- ABC7 Los Angeles — Oscars Highlights 2026: Best Moments from the 98th Academy Awards
- ABC7 Los Angeles — Full List of 2026 Oscar Winners
- NPR — One Battle After Another Takes Best Picture: Full 2026 Oscar Winners List
- Variety — Oscar Winners 2026 List: One Battle After Another Wins 6, Sinners at 4
- Hollywood Reporter — Oscars 2026 Winners: The Full List
- Rotten Tomatoes — 2026 Academy Awards: Full List of Winners
- New York Times — Oscars 2026 Winners List
- Yahoo Entertainment — 2026 Oscar Winners
