Michael B. Jordan holds his Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for 'Sinners'.
Image: ANGELA WEISS / AFP
Hollywood had been holding its breath for months. When the curtain finally came down at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday night, two films split the glory and together made the 98th Academy Awards one of the most memorable in recent history.
Ryan Coogler's “Sinners” and Paul Thomas Anderson's “Battle After Another” didn't just win Oscars. They made history.
Anderson's gripping political drama walked away as the night's biggest winner, claiming six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor, Best Editing and the brand new Best Casting award.
For Anderson, who had been nominated fourteen times before Sunday night, the wins felt both overdue and deeply earned.
Accepting his screenplay award, he told the audience he wrote the film as a message to his children, an apology for the world being handed to them, and a belief that their generation would be the one to set things right.
His cast delivered memorable moments, too.
Sean Penn's supporting performance earned him a record third acting Oscar, though he wasn't present to collect it.
The Best Casting win, claimed by casting director Cassandra Kulukundis, was a landmark moment in its own right.
The first new Oscar category introduced in 25 years, it finally gave formal recognition to one of the industry's most overlooked crafts.
Both “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners” are Warner Bros. productions, meaning the studio dominated the night with ten Oscars between its two flagship films.
US casting director Cassandra Kulukundis, US actor James Raterman, US rapper and actress Shayna McHayle US actress Regina Hall, US actress Teyana Taylor, director of photography Michael Bauman, set designer Anthony Carlino, executive producer Will Weiske, US filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, US producer Sara Murphy and US actress Chase Infiniti celebrate the award for Best Picture for "One Battle After Another".
Image: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP
Going into the night carrying a record-shattering 16 nominations, more than any film in Oscar history, “Sinners” arrived under enormous pressure.
It didn't take Best Picture, but the four awards it did claim may prove far more enduring.
Coogler's blues-drenched vampire epic, which reimagines America's racial history through the music and culture of the Deep South, won Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography and Best Actor.
For Coogler, the screenplay win marked his first personal Oscar, a milestone for one of his generation's most distinctive voices.
Composer Ludwig Göransson added a third career Oscar to his mantle with the score win, having previously claimed the prize for “Black Panther” and “Oppenheimer”.
US film director, producer Ryan Coogler accepts the award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) for "Sinners" onstage during the 98th Annual Academy Awards.
Image: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP
If there was one moment that defined the entire evening, it was Michael B. Jordan walking to that stage.
His performance as twins Smoke and Stack was a tour de force work, and made history in its own right, marking the first time an actor has won an Oscar for playing two roles in the same film.
Even more remarkably, it was Jordan's first-ever Oscar nomination.
Timothée Chalamet, himself a frontrunner for much of the awards season, was immediately on his feet leading the applause.
Jordan was visibly emotional at the podium, thanking God, thanking Coogler, and taking a moment to honour the Black actors who walked the path before him.
Backstage, he reflected on what the win meant to him personally, describing reaching this pinnacle as something almost selfish in the best possible way. A private triumph as much as a public one.
No account of “Sinners” night is complete without Autumn Durald Arkapaw.
The film's cinematographer stepped onto that stage and into the history books, becoming the first woman ever to win the Oscar for Best Cinematography.
Backstage, she spoke about what it meant beyond herself.
Girls who look like her, she said, would sleep better that night because now they could see themselves in that role.
It was the kind of win that doesn't just reward one person. It opens a door.
US cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw accepts the award for Best Cinematography for "Sinners".
Image: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP
Two films. Ten Oscars. One night that Hollywood won't forget quickly.
The 98th Academy Awards delivered exactly the kind of compelling, history-making drama that reminds us why we still watch.
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