One Battle After Another won Best Picture at the 2026 Oscars on Sunday night, following a tight Oscar race with Sinners all awards season. I guess that’s one battle they can stop fighting!
The award—presented by Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor—was accepted by the film’s producers Adam Somner, Sara Murphy, and Paul Thomas Anderson. Murphy took the mic first, and said that working on the film was “the greatest film-making experience I can fathom, so receiving this award is just beyond. My heart is exploding with gratitude.”
Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson—who won for Best Director earlier in the night—was eager to take the mic next.
“I just want to say, that in 1975, the Oscar nominees for Best Picture were Dog Day Afternoon, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Jaws, Nashville, and Barry Lyndon,” Anderson said. “There is no best among them. There is just what mood there might be that day. But we’re happy to be part of this wonderful journey with our fellow nominees, our fellow filmmakers—filmmakers that even weren’t recognized by the Academy. There were so many great films this year.”
Other winners on Sunday night included Sean Penn for Best Supporting Actor in One Battle, Michael B. Jordan for Best Actor for Sinners, and Jessie Buckley for Hamnet.
The 2026 Oscars were an unusually close race, with no obvious Best Picture winner right up until Sunday night. The battle came down to Sinners vs. One Battle After Another, two very different movies with some overlapping themes. Though One Battle had the edge, a big night of wins at the Actor Awards earlier this month had some experts putting money on Sinners. Ultimately, this year, the winner went to the critical darling, One Battle After Another, instead of the crowd pleaser, Sinners. But at least MBJ got his due!
One Battle managed to take home the biggest award of the night over other the other nine nominees, including Bugonia, F1, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, Sinners, and Train Dreams.
It’s been a long few months of insufferable film bro discourse, but that’s finally a wrap on the 2025 awards season. See everyone next year!
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