Michael B. Jordan wins best actor Oscar, Paul Thomas Anderson wins best director

By Canadian Press on March 15, 2026.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Michael B. Jordan has won best actor at the 98th Academy Awards for his double-duty performance as the twins Smoke and Stack in Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.”

The win was a triumphant moment for Jordan, one of Hollywood’s most widely loved young actors, whose ascent to Hollywood stardom began, partly, with Coogler’s feature debut, 2013’s “Fruitvale Station.”

The Dolby Theatre rose to its feet in the most thunderous applause of the night.

“Yo, momma, what’s up?” said Jordan after staggering to the stage.

Later, Jordan added: “I stand here because of the people who came here before me,” listing best actor winners from Sidney Poitier to Will Smith.

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After a lionized career stretching back three decades, Paul Thomas Anderson won his first Oscar for best director, a long-in-coming coronation for the “One Battle After Another” filmmaker.

Anderson, a widely admired figure in Hollywood who grew up in San Fernando Valley and made his first short at age 18, had not won an Academy Award before Sunday. Earlier in the ceremony, he won his first, for best adapted screenplay.

“You make a guy work hard for one of these,” said Anderson.

“Sinners” cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw has made Oscar history, becoming the first female director of photography to win the award in the 98 year history of the Academy Awards.

The win was a long-in-coming triumph for women behind the camera. Arkapaw was just the fourth woman ever nominated in the category; the first was Rachel Morrison in 2018 for “Mudbound.” The Dolby Theatre audience rose to a standing ovation as she took the stage.

“I really want all the women in room to stand up,” said Arkapaw. “Because I don’t feel like I get here without you guys.”

Anderson and Ryan Coogler each won their first Oscars, moving tributes were paid to Robert Redford, Diane Keaton and Rob Reiner and an absent Sean Penn won best supporting actor at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday.

“One Battle After Another” came into the show the best picture favorite, and it picked up three wins in the first half of the ceremony. Anderson, the film’s writer-director, earned a standing ovation for his first win in 14 nominations.

“I wrote this movie for my kids to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world — we’re handing off to them,” said Anderson, who loosely adapted Thomas Pynchon’s “Vineland.”. “But also with the encouragement that they will be the generation that hopefully brings us some common sense and decency.”

The film also won the first award for best casting, for Cassandra Kulukundis, and best supporting actor for Penn. Penn, a previous two-time Oscar winner, had skipped other recent award ceremonies, too. Presenter Kieran Culkin said he “couldn’t be here this evening — or didn’t want to.”

Immediately after Anderson’s first Oscar, Coogler notched his first Academy Award, too. The “Sinners” writer-director won best original screenplay, and earned his own standing ovation. (“Sinners” later added the award for best score.)

‘KPop’ and ‘Frankeinstein’ win for Netflix

From the start, when host Conan O’Brien sprinted through the year’s nominees as Amy Madigan’s character in the horror thriller “Weapons” in a pre-taped bit, Sunday’s ceremony was quirky, a little clunky and preoccupied with the shifting place of movies in culture. There was, of all things, a tie for best live-action short film.

As expected, the Netflix sensation “KPop Demon Hunters,” 2025’s most-watched film, won best animated feature, as well as best song for “Golden.” It was a big win for Netflix but a more qualified victory for the movie’s producer, Sony Pictures. Though it developed and produced the film, Sony sold “KPop Demon Hunters” to the streaming giant instead of giving it a theatrical release.

On Netflix, “KPop Demon Hunters” became a cultural phenomenon and the streaming platform’s biggest hit. It has more than 325 million views and counting.

“This is for Korea and Koreans everywhere,” said co-director Maggie Kang.

Another Netflix release, Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” picked up three awards for its lavish craft, for costume design, makeup and hairstyling and for production design.

Amy Madigan won best supporting actress for her performance in the horror thriller “Weapons,” a win that came 40 years after the 75-year-old actor was first nominated, in 1986, for “Twice in a Lifetime.” Letting out a giant laugh as she hit the stage, Madigan exclaimed, “This is great!”

O’Brien presides over a ceremony shadowed by politics

Hosting for the second time, O’Brien began the Dolby Theatre show alluding to “chaotic and frightening times.” But he argued that the current geopolitical climate made the Oscars all the more resonate as a globally unifying force.

“We pay tribute tonight, not just to film, but to the ideals of global artistry, collaboration, patience, resilience and that rarest of qualities today — optimism,” O’Brien said. “We’re going to celebrate. Not because we think all is well, but because we work, and hope, for better.”

Throughout the show, O’Brien hit a number of targets, like Timothée Chalamet for his diss of opera and ballet. But the ceremony seldom wasn’t shadowed by politics, whether in references to changes under U.S. President Donald Trump or the recently launched war in Iran.

Joachim Trier, whose Norwegian family drama “Sentimental Value” won best international film, quoted James Baldwin in his acceptance speech.

“All adults are responsible for all children,” he said. “Let’s not vote for politicians that don’t take this seriously into account.”

Presenter Jimmy Kimmel, whose late-night show last year was suspended after comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s killing, was among the most blunt.

“There are some countries that 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.”

Shortly after, “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” a film about a Russian primary school teacher who documents his students’ indoctrination to support Russia’s war with Ukraine, won best documentary.

“’Mr. Nobody Against Putin’ is about how you lose your country,” co-director said. “And what we saw when working with this footage is that you lose it through countless, small, little acts of complicity.”

“We all face a moral choice,” he added, “but, luckily, a nobody is more powerful than you think.”

Tributes to Reiner, Redford and others

Elegy also marked the Oscars. Producers expanded the in memoriam segment following a year that featured the deaths of so many Hollywood legends, including Keaton, Robert Duvall and Redford. Barbra Streisand spoke about Redford, her “The Way We Were” co-star.

“Bob had real backbone,” said Streisand, who called Redford “an intellectual cowboy” before singing a few bars of “The Way We Were.”

Billy Crystal paid tribute to Rob and Michele Reiner, who were killed in their home in December. Crystal, a close friend of Rob Reiner’s who memorably starred in 1989’s “When Harry Met Sally…” and 1987’s “Princess Bride.” In his moving remarks, Crystal quoted the latter.

“All we can say is: Buddy, how much fun we had storming the castle,” said Crystal.

Theatrical looks to best streaming, again

It seemed all but certain that the night’s final award wouldn’t go to a streaming release; Apple’s “CODA” remains the only streaming film to achieve that distinction. Instead, best picture is likely to go to an anomaly in today’s movie industry: big-budget original films from a personal vision.

“Sinners” and “One Battle After Another” were both theatrical releases shot on film. And both came from Warner Bros., the legacy studio that’s agreed to merge with David Ellison’s new media colossus, Paramount Skydance. The $111 billion deal, which awaits regulatory approval, has rattled an industry already reconciling itself to the acquisitions of MGM (by Amazon) and 20th Century Fox (by The Walt Disney Co.).

Apple’s “F1,” a movie that it partnered with Warner Bros. to distribute theatrically, won for best sound. The lone blockbuster of the year to go home with a win was “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” for visual effects.

Some of O’Brien’s best digs came at the expense of the streamers. Netflix chief Ted Sarandos, he joked, was in a theater for the first time. The host also lamented the lack of nominees for Amazon MGM: “Why isn’t the website I order toilet paper from winning more Oscars?”

“I’m honored to be the last human host of the Academy Awards,” said O’Brien. “Next year it’s going to be a Waymo in a tux.”

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For more coverage of the Oscars, visit https://apnews.com/hub/academy-awards.

Jake Coyle, The Associated Press