The moment has finally arrived: after months of promotional campaigns, predictions, and pre-award ceremonies, Hollywood came to a standstill to crown the winners of the 98th Academy Awards. In this article, we’ll tell you how the evening unfolded, what happened, and, most importantly, who took home the Oscar.
Following our predictions for the 2026 Oscars, the evening saw the triumph of One Battle After Another, which won six statuettes, including Best Picture, edging out its rival Sinners, which ended up with four wins after an all-time record of 16 nominations.
The 2026 Oscars began with the usual opening remarks from host Conan O’Brien, who returned for his second consecutive year hosting the event following the success of the 2025 ceremony. After a show that was nothing short of over-the-top, the ceremony truly began with the presentation of the first statuette, for Best Supporting Actress, presented by last year’s winner Zoe Saldana: the award went to Amy Madigan, the extraordinary portrayer of the evil witch Aunt Gladys in Zach Cregger’s horror masterpiece Weapons. In the history of the Academy Awards, hers was only the sixth acting Oscar won by a horror film, following those of Fredric March (1932, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), Ruth Gordon (1969, Rosemary’s Baby), Kathy Bates (1991, Misery), and Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster (1992, The Silence of the Lambs).
Just enough time for a few lighthearted jokes about the fact that starting in 2029 the Oscars will be streamed live on YouTube, and the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film was awarded: as expected, the award went to KPOP Demon Hunters, a hit on the Netflix streaming platform that this summer became the most-watched title ever on the service (among both movies and TV series); It is, incidentally, the second Oscar for animation won by Netflix, following Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. In the same segment, the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film was also awarded, going to The Girl Who Cried Pearls.
After an exciting Sinners-themed performance, featuring the song “I Lied to You” sung on stage against a backdrop that recreated the atmosphere of the iconic blues club from Ryan Coogler’s film (one of the highlights of the evening), the Oscars for Costume Design and Makeup and Hairstyling were awarded: the winner was, as expected, Frankenstein, in both categories. One could say that the biggest surprise, in this case, was the presence on stage of Anna Wintour, who presented the two statuettes alongside Anne Hathaway to promote the release of The Devil Wears Prada 2.
Next, the first-ever Oscar for Best Casting was awarded: this new category, which recognizes the behind-the-scenes work of casting directors, was introduced this year; it is the first new category added since the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film, but it won’t be the last, as the Oscar for Best Stunt Work is also coming soon. After a heartfelt introduction by Paul Mescal, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chase Infinity, Wagner Moura, and Delroy Lindo, the very first Oscar statuette in history for Best Casting went to Battle After Battle: in some ways, it was the first surprise of the evening, given that Sinners was the slight favorite in this category, but it also set the tone for the rest of the ceremony…
Moving on, there was another surprise right away: the Oscar for Best Short Film was awarded as a tie, with the statuettes going to the magnificent The Singers (it’s on Netflix—go check it out! It’s only 18 minutes long, after all…) and to Two People Exchanging Saliva. Before this year, the last tie dated back to the 2013 ceremony, when “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Skyfall” shared the award for Best Sound Editing: In total, there have been 7 ties in Oscar history, including the 1932 tie when the Best Actor award went to Wallace Beery (“The Champ”) and Fredric March (“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”); in 1949, when the award for Best Documentary Short Subject was awarded to “A Chance to Live” and “So Much for So Little”; in 1986, when the award for Best Documentary Feature went to “Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got” and “Down and Out in America”; in 1994, when the award for Best Live-Action Short Film went to “Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Trevor”; and 1968, the most memorable of all, when Katharine Hepburn (“The Lion in Winter”) and Barbra Streisand (“Funny Girl”) shared the award for Best Actress.
The next segment focused on the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor: in a category where The Battle of Algiers dominated with two nominations—one each for Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn—the statuette went, as widely predicted, to the latter, who portrayed the film’s iconic main villain, Colonel Steven Lockjaw; ironically, Sean Penn was not present at the ceremony (having missed all previous award season ceremonies) and did not accept the third Oscar of his career in person.
The evening then moved on to two of the major awards, those for screenwriting… but in this case, there were no surprises: in fact, as widely expected, the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay went to Sinners, written by Ryan Coogler, while the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay went to One Battle After Another, written by Paul Thomas Anderson. Interestingly, for both directors, this was the first win of their careers: specifically, PTA had 14 nominations without a win, so in many ways this was also a historic moment… Paul Thomas Anderson’s first acceptance speech on the Oscar stage! (And no, it wasn’t the only one of the night…).
After the moving “In Memoriam” segment, which began with a special tribute to Rob Reiner and concluded with one for Diane Keaton and a standing ovation for Val Kilmer, Robert Duvall, and Robert Redford (though James Van Der Beek and Brigitte Bardot, among others, were overlooked!), the ceremony continued with the Oscar for Best Production Design, which went, as expected, to Frankenstein; shortly after another unsurprising result, as the Oscar for Best Visual Effects was awarded to Avatar: Fire and Ash: for the Avatar saga, this marks the third Oscar out of three in this category, the fourth consecutive win for a James Cameron film (including Titanic), and the seventh film out of nine in the visionary Canadian filmmaker’s career to take home this statuette.
The next segment was dedicated to documentaries: the award for Best Documentary Short Film went to All the Empty Rooms, which focuses on the victims of school mass shootings, while the award for Best Documentary Feature went to Mr. Nobody Against Putin, which, set against the backdrop of a school in Karabash, explores how the Russian government attempts to control and shape public opinion during the Russia-Ukraine War.
Next, the Oscar for Best Original Score was awarded to Sinners: composer Ludwig Göransson thus claimed his third Oscar, following his wins for Black Panther (also directed by Ryan Coogler) and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (we’ll “hear” him again this summer with the score for The Odyssey, set for release on July 17). Moments later, the Oscar for Best Sound went to F1, Joseph Kosinski’s sports blockbuster starring Brad Pitt and centered on the world of Formula 1.
The technical awards continued with the Oscar for Best Film Editing, awarded to One Battle After Another, while a few seconds later the Oscar for Best Cinematography went to Sinners. The head-to-head competition between the two films of the evening was briefly interrupted by a performance of “Golden,” the hugely popular song from the animated film KPOP Demon Hunters, and then by the presentation of the Oscar for Best International Feature Film: again, no surprises here, as the statuette went to Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, which had already been nominated in the same category (and also for Best Original Screenplay) in 2022 for his film The Worst Person in the World.
The final segment of the evening, as usual, kicked off with the presentation of the Oscar for Best Original Song: the real surprise here was the return to the stage of the legendary Lionel Richie, since the award had already been decided and, as expected, went to “Golden” by K-POP group Demon Hunters. The song, which marked the second Oscar for the Netflix animated film, also became the first Korean/K-POP song to win at the Academy Awards—a final flourish for Korean cinema, which has triumphed in recent years (and was notably absent from this year’s ceremony given the snub of Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice).
Immediately afterward, Robert Pattinson and Zendaya (whom we’ll see in three films this year: The Drama, The Odyssey, and Dune: Part 3) presented the Best Director Award, which went to Paul Thomas Anderson: the director of The Battle of the Sexes accepted his second statuette of the evening and of his career, his first ever in the Best Director category. In a moment for true cinephiles, the director dedicated the statuette to Adam Sandler, his close friend and star of the cult classic Re-ubriaco d’amore.
In the closing moments of the ceremony, there were no surprises in the acting categories: the Oscar for Best Actor went to Michael B. Jordan, who, in his first-ever nomination, took home the statuette for his iconic dual role as the brothers Smoke and Stack in Sinners, while the Oscar for Best Actress went to Jessie Buckley, star of Hamnet.
The final statuette of the evening—and the most important one—was, of course, the Best Picture award, which went to The Battle of the Year: Paul Thomas Anderson, who had never won an Oscar before this year and had received 14 personal nominations, also accepted this statuette as a producer—his third of the evening.
Below is the complete list of all the official winners at the 2026 Oscars:
Best Picture
- Bugonia, Yorgos Lanthimos/Emma Stone
- F1, Joseph Kosinski/Brad Pitt/Jerry Bruckheimer
- Frankenstein, Guillermo Del Toro/Scott Stuber
- Hamnet, Steven Spielberg/Sam Mendes
- Marty Supreme, Josh Safdie/Timothée Chalamet
- One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson
- The Secret Agent, Emilie Lesclaux
- Sentimental Value, Maria Ekerhovd and Andrea Berentsen Ottmar
- Sinners, Ryan Coogler and Zinzi Coogler
- Train Dreams, Marissa McMahon and Michael Heimler
Best Director
- Chloe Zhao, Hamnet
- Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
- Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
- Joaquim Trier, Sentimental Value
- Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Best Lead Actor
- Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme
- Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
- Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
- Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
- Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Best Actress
- Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
- Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
- Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue
- Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value
- Emma Stone, Bugonia
Best Supporting Actor
- Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another
- Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
- Delroy Lindo, Sinners
- Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
- Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value
Best Supporting Actress
- Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
- Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
- Amy Madigan, Weapons
- Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
- Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
Best Casting
- Hamnet
- Marty Supreme
- One Battle After Another
- The Secret Agent
- Sinners
Best Original Screenplay
- Blue Moon, Robert Kaplow
- A Simple Accident, Jafar Panahi
- Marty Supreme, Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie
- Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier & Eskil Vogt
- Sinners, Ryan Coogler
Best Adapted Screenplay
- Bugonia, Will Tracy
- Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro
- Hamnet, Chloé Zhao & Maggie O’Farrell
- One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson
- Train Dreams, Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar
Best International Film
- The Secret Agent
- A Simple Accident
- Sentimental Value
- Sirat
- The Voice of Hind Rajab
Best Animated Film
- Arco
- Elio
- KPOP Demon Hunters
- Little Amelie
- Zootopia 2
Best Editing
- F1
- Marty Supreme
- One Battle After Another
- Sentimental Value
- Sinners
Best Production Design
- Frankenstein
- Hamnet
- Marty Supreme
- One Battle After Another
- Sinners
Best Cinematography
- Frankenstein
- Marty Supreme
- One Battle After Another
- Sinners
- Train Dreams
Best Costume Design
- Avatar: Fire and Ashes
- Frankenstein
- Hamnet
- Marty Supreme
- Sinners
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
- Frankenstein
- Kokuho
- Sinners
- The Smashing Machine
- The Ugly Stepsister
Best Special Effects
- Avatar: Fire and Ash
- F1
- Jurassic World: Resurgence
- The Lost Bus
- Sinners
Best Sound
- F1
- Frankenstein
- One Battle After Another
- Sinners
- Sirat
Best Original Score
- Bugonia
- Frankenstein
- Hamnet
- One Battle After Another
- Sinners
Best Original Song
- “Dear Me,” by Diane Warren: Relentless
- “Golden,” by KPOP Demon Hunters
- “I Lied to You,” from Sinners
- “Sweet Dreams of Joy,” from Viva Verdi!
- Train Dreams by Nick Cave, from Train Dreams
Best Documentary
- The Alabama Solution
- Come see me in the good light
- Cutting through rocks
- Mr. Nobody against Putin
- The Perfect Neighbor
Best Documentary Short Film
- All the Empty Rooms
- Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud
- Children No More: Were and Are Gone
- The Devil Is Busy
- Perfectly a Strangeness
Best Short Film
- Butcher’s Stain
- A Friend of Dorothy
- Jane Austen’s Period Drama
- The Singers
- Two People Exchanging Saliva
Best Animated Short Film
- Butterfly
- Forevergreen
- The Girl Who Cried Pearls
- Retirement Plan
- The Three Sisters
Are you happy with these results? Let us know in the comments section! For more content, check out 6 animated films sadly missing from the 2026 Oscars.
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