'One Battle After Another' wins 6 Oscars, including best picture at 98th Academy Awards

Paul Thomas Anderson’s "One Battle After Another" led the way at Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony with six awards, including for best picture, best director and adapted screenplay, while "Sinners" turned its record-breaking 16 nominations into four wins, including best actor for Michael B. Jordan, who played twins in the film.

"I stand here because of the people that came before," Jordan said, citing Black actors such as Sidney Poitier and Halle Berry. "Amongst those giants, amongst my ancestors, amongst my gods, thank you everybody in this room."

"Sinners" also notched a historic milestone for Autumn Durald Arkapaw as the first woman to win the Oscar for cinematography. "I’m so honored to be here, and I really want all the women in the world to stand up," Arkapaw said. "Because I feel like I don’t get here without you guys." 

Jessie Buckley became the first Irish winner of the best actress Oscar, for her role as a grieving mother in "Hamnet." Buckley noted that it was Mother’s Day in the UK and dedicated her award to "the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart."

The 98th Academy Awards kicked off Sunday night with Amy Madigan winning best supporting actress for her turn as the villainous Aunt Gladys from Zach Cregger’s horror film "Weapons," while her husband, Ed Harris, watched from the audience. After laughing almost hysterically for a moment, Madigan noted that reporters had been asking her about the difference between her last Oscar nomination, 40 years ago (for "Twice in a Lifetime"), and today’s. "What’s different," Madigan said, "is this little gold guy!"

Sean Penn won Best Supporting Actor for his role as a tough-as-nails military man in "One Battle After Another." But Penn was not in the audience to accept the award.

The evening capped an uncommonly close monthslong race between "Sinners," Ryan Coogler’s horror-musical, and "One Battle After Another," Paul Thomas Anderson’s absurdist political thriller. Both have been held up as proof that Hollywood is still taking risks on originality and that audiences would pay to see it. (The films made a combined $579 million worldwide, according to data at BoxOfficeMojo.com.) Yet while "One Battle After Another" seemed pre-anointed as the year’s Oscar heavyweight, it was "Sinners" that made nomination history and suggested that the Academy — following years of efforts to expand and diversify — may no longer be the fusty country-club it often appears to be.

"One Battle After Another" also won the inaugural Oscar for Achievement in Casting, an award that castinhg directors have long been pushing for. Winner Cassandra Kulukundis thanked Anderson, noting they’d made 10 films together. "We grew up together in a way," she said, holding her Oscar, and added: "I have one before you, which is also crazy.”

 Anderson won his first, an Oscar for adapted screenplay for "One Battle After Anoter." He noted that he wrote it for his children, "to say sorry for the housekeeping mess in this world that we’re handing off to them." Anderson also won Best Director.

But lurking in the show’s subconscious was the fear of an attack or disruption connected to American’s 3-week-old war against Iran. Following an FBI alert of a potential surprise attack on the West Coast, the security perimeter around the Dolby Theatre stretched for roughly a mile and included rooftop snipers and SWAT teams in addition to 1,000 LAPD officers, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"When I hosted last year, Los Angeles was on fire," second-time host Conan O’Brien noted in his opening monologue. "But this year, everything’s going great!"

That joke was about the closest O’Brien came to political commentary. As he did last year, the onetime late-night host stuck to silliness. He poked harmless fun at the movies by opening the show, in a prerecorded segment, dressed as Madigan’s clownish character  from "Weapons." He also joked that the opera and ballet communities might be planning an attack on the Oscars — a nod to Timothee Chalamet’s dismissive comments about those art forms while on the campaign trail. "They’re just mad you left out jazz," O’Brien added.

One of the least expected moments came during the live-action short film category, which resulted in a highly unusual tie — the third in history. The Oscar went to both "The Singers" and "Two People Exchanging Saliva." "Ironic," said presenter Kumail Nanjiani, "that the short film Oscars are going to take twice as long."

The show’s In Memoriam segment began with a tribute to director Rob Reiner, led by Billy Crystal, the star of his 1989 romcom "When Harry Met Sally ..." who stood on stage with other Reiner stars such as Meg Ryan, Cary Elwes and John Cusack. Rachel McAdams later saluted Diane Keaton; Barbra Streisand reminisced about Robert Redford, her co-star in "The Way We Were" and sang a segment of the film’s classic theme song.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com