One Battle After Another Conquers The Oscars With Best Picture Win

Big night, big swing: the 98th Academy Awards closed out a crowded season by handing Best Picture to a film that bulldozed its way through the campaign with momentum to spare.

The field going in

It was a packed year. Nearly a dozen 2025 releases lined up for a real shot at hardware, led by Ryan Coogler's Sinners, which set an all-time Oscar record with 16 nominations. That haul kept Coogler and his stars Michael B. Jordan and Hailee Steinfeld front and center for most of the last year.

Also breathing down the frontrunner's neck: One Battle After Another, Leonardo DiCaprio's latest hit. The movie rode a wave of praise for its ensemble and its big, bruising action sequences, and it already pocketed the 2026 Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy.

Strong contenders rounded out the slate. Yorgos Lanthimos brought Bugonia. Chloé Zhao's Hamnet arrived with serious heat after winning the 2026 Golden Globe for Best Drama. And Joseph Kosinski's F1 gunned for a podium finish of its own.

Best Picture: One Battle After Another

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named One Battle After Another Best Picture. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the film turned 13 nominations into six wins:

• Best Picture
• Best Director
• Best Supporting Actor
• Best Adapted Screenplay
• Best Casting
• Best Film Editing

That tally also gives Anderson the second Oscar of his career, earned here for Best Director on the same film.

How the season landed

Sinners walked into the night as the nominations leader with a record 16, which is a flex by any measure. But it was One Battle After Another that sealed the deal when it counted, parlaying that Globes win and months of buzz into the industry's top prize. With Hamnet and Bugonia in close orbit and F1 roaring in the mix, this race stayed lively right up to the final envelope. The result: a decisive finish for a movie that turned critical love and crowd energy into a clean, across-the-board haul.