Merry MacLellan
Reporter
On March 15, the 98th Academy Awards, a highlight of award season, gave the film world historic wins, surprise sweeps and shocking losses.
This year featured a steep competition, with strong and popular films battling for many of the same categories. Before the award show began on Sunday night, there was already commotion surrounding the nominations. Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” broke the record for the most nominations by receiving 16 nominations.
Popular choice and Best Male Actor nominee, Timothee Chalamet for “Marty Supreme” made a controversial statement against the opera and ballet.
And with different categories having a stacked competition for nominees, people across the globe tuned in for the award show to see who would be taking home the awards.
So, how did the night hosted by Conan O’Brien play out?
The Wins
Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” received six awards, including some of the biggest awards for the night.
This included Best Picture, Best Directing, and Best Writing for Adapted Screenplay. This was Anderson’s first time to win an Academy Award for one of his films despite sitting at fourteen nominations, four of which were for Best Directing.
With its sweep in nominations, “Sinners” also saw success and broke a record for the night. It is now the second film by a black filmmaker to receive the award for Best Original Screenplay.
Michael B. Jordan was named Best Actor in a Leading Role, beating out multi-time nominees Leonardo DiCaprio, Ethan Hawke, and Timothee Chalamet.
One of the most surprising achievements of the night was Autumn Durald Arkapaw being the first woman to win the award for Best Cinematography for her work on ‘Sinners.’
Pop culture phenomenon and straight-to-streaming film, “KPop Demon Hunters,” won the awards for Best Original Song and Best Animated Feature Film.
As the first Netflix animated film to be nominated and win, these awards show just how much impact the movie had on audiences.
The Losses
Despite its popularity among audiences and having the newness factor to aid in its campaign for Academy Awards, “Marty Supreme” did not bring home any awards despite receiving nine nominations. For “Bugonia”, “Train Dreams,” and “The Secret Agent,” though each received four nominations, none of the films took home any awards.
For Dianne Warren, this was again not the year for her to receive Best Original Song for “Dianne Warren: Relentless.” She has been nominated 17 times for the category, a difficult losing streak to carry.
The 98th Academy Awards marked the end of the 2026 award season. For film fans across the globe, however, the outcome of the awards will help to shape predictions for the films of this year.
2025 Winners:
Best Picture: ‘One Battle After Another’
Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Best Original Screenplay: ‘Sinners’
Best Adapted Screenplay: ‘One Battle After Another
Best Lead Actor: Michael B. Jordan (‘Sinners’)
Best Lead Actress: Jessie Buckley (‘Hamnet’)
Best Supporting Actor: Sean Penn (‘One Battle After Another’)
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Madigan (‘Weapons’)
Best Cinematography: Autumn Durald Arkapaw (‘Sinners’)
Best Film Editing: ‘One Battle After Another’
Best Casting: ‘One Battle After Another’
Best Costume Design: ‘Frankenstein’
Best Makeup, Hairstyling: ‘Frankenstein’
Best Score: Ludwig Goransson (‘Sinners’)