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One Battle After Another, a satire directed by Paul Thomas Anderson that touches on immigration, radical politics and race, won Best Picture, along with five other prizes, at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday.
Anderson also took home his first Best Director trophy, beating out Ryan Coogler for horror genre-bender Sinners, Oscar winner Chloé Zhao for Shakespeare drama Hamnet and Josh Safdie for Marty Supreme, the table tennis film starring Timothée Chalamet.
“You make a guy work hard for one of these,” said Anderson, whose long career includes acclaimed films such as Boogie Nights, Magnolia and There Will Be Blood. He is the only filmmaker to have won the top directing prizes at Cannes, Berlin and Venice, but the Oscars had eluded him.
“There will always be some doubt in your heart that you deserve” the Oscar, said Anderson, “but there is no question about the pleasure of having it for myself.”
Jessie Buckley won Best Actress for her role in Hamnet, while Michael B Jordan took home the actor prize for his performance in Sinners.
Coogler’s film won four Oscars, including for the screenplay he wrote, after being nominated for a record 16 categories.
Sentimental Value, a Norwegian family drama directed by Joachim Trier, won Best International Feature Film. Trier was also nominated for Best Director.
It was a good night for Warner Bros, the studio behind One Battle After Another, Sinners and Weapons, which garnered a Best Supporting Actress award for Amy Madigan.
Warner Bros Discovery has been at the centre of its own Hollywood drama. The legendary studio agreed to be sold to Netflix in December, only to take a higher offer from Paramount last month. The deal has not been approved but would mark a major reordering of the Hollywood landscape.
The ceremony took place against the backdrop of the war in Iran and immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles and around the country.
Protesters projected slogans on Hollywood landmarks railing against US President Donald Trump’s aggressive deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, including one sign that read: “ICE Won’t Quit. Neither Will We.”
Some political messages also surfaced during the ceremony, which was hosted by comedian Conan O’Brien.
Jimmy Kimmel, whose late-night show was briefly suspended last year for his comments on rightwing activist Charlie Kirk’s killing, joked about Melania, the Amazon documentary about Melania Trump.
Introducing the documentary category, he said the nominees were not the type “where you walk around the White House trying on shoes” and that Trump would be “mad that his wife wasn’t nominated for this”.
He also alluded to the political shifts at the CBS television network, which has been a target of the Trump administration. Last month, the comedian Stephen Colbert said he had been told not to air an interview with Texas Democrat James Talarico because of warnings from the Federal Communications Commission.
“As you know there are some countries whose leaders don’t support free speech,” said Kimmel. “I’m not at liberty to say which — let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS.”
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Accepting the Oscar for Best Documentary for Mr Nobody Against Putin, director David Borenstein said the film was about “how you lose your country”.
“You lose it through countless small little acts of complicity, when we act complicit, when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities,” he said, in an apparent reference to the fatal shooting of two US citizens by ICE officers in Minneapolis this year.
Javier Bardem, the Oscar-winning Spanish actor, spoke out against the war in Iran as he introduced the award for Best International Feature Film.
“No to war, and free Palestine,” said Bardem, who also donned patches with slogans on his tuxedo jacket.
Full list of winners
‘One Battle After Another’ co-producer Sara Murphy and director Paul Thomas Anderson hold Oscar statuettes after the Academy Awards ceremony © Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Best Picture
One Battle After Another
Director
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Actor
Michael B Jordan, Sinners
Actress
Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
Supporting Actor
Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
Supporting Actress
Amy Madigan, Weapons
International Feature Film
Sentimental Value (Norway)
Documentary Feature
Mr Nobody Against Putin
Animated Feature Film
KPop Demon Hunters
Cinematography
Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Sinners
Film Editing
Andy Jurgensen, One Battle After Another
Original Screenplay
Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Adapted Screenplay
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Original Score
Ludwig Göransson, Sinners
Original Song
“Golden”, KPop Demon Hunters
Visual Effects
Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett, Avatar: Fire and Ash
Sound
Gareth John, Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A Rizzo and Juan Peralta, F1
Production Design
Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau, Frankenstein
Costume Design
Kate Hawley, Frankenstein
Make-up and Hairstyling
Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel and Cliona Furey, Frankenstein
Casting
Cassandra Kulukundis, One Battle After Another
Live Action Short Film
The Singers
Documentary Short Film
All the Empty Rooms
Animated Short Film
The Girl Who Cried Pearls