From City News Service
HOLLYWOOD — “One Battle After Another,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s dark comedy about aging revolutionaries, completed its successful run through Hollywood’s awards season, winning the Oscar for best picture and five other prizes, including directing and adapted screenplay honors for Anderson.
The film out-dueled Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” which entered the March 15 ceremony with a record-setting 16 nominations. “Sinners” star Michael B. Jordan won the Academy Award for best actor, while Coogler won for best original screenplay. The film also collected honors for original score and cinematography.
But “One Battle” ruled the evening at the Dolby Theatre, earning a total of six honors, including the top prize for best picture.
“Getting to make this film with this cast and this crew and Paul has already been the greatest filmmaking experience I can fathom,” producer Sara Murphy told the crowd on behalf of the cast and crew. “So receiving this award is just beyond. My heart is exploding with gratitude.”
Anderson took time to praise the other nominated films, noting that in 1975 the best picture nominees were “Dog Day Afternoon,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Jaws,” “Nashville” and “Barry Lyndon.”
“There is no best among them,” he said. “There is just what that mood might be that day. But we’re happy to be part of this. A wonderful, wonderful journey with our fellow filmmakers, and filmmakers that even weren’t recognized by the Academy. There’s so many great films this year.”
Earlier in the evening, Anderson won his first career Oscar for adapted screenplay, then collected another for best director. They were his first wins despite nearly a dozen previous nominations.
“You make a guy work hard for one of these, I really appreciate it,” he said when he accepted the directing prize. “There will always be some doubt in your heart that you deserve it, but there is no question at the pleasure of having it for myself.
“I’m here because of people’s faith in me,” he added. “They give me their faith and their time, and that’s the best part of being on a film crew, is being with people. We need each other. This is a wonderful gift, and I’m so happy to call the movies home.”
Jordan won his first career Oscar on his first nomination for his dual role as twin brothers Smoke and Stack in “Sinners.”
“God is good. God is good,” the 39-year-old said as he accepted the prize. “I stand here because of the people that came before me — Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, Will Smith. To be amongst those giants, among those greats, amongst my ancestors, amongst my guys. Thank you everybody in this room and everybody at home who supported me over my career. I feel it.”
He also thanked people who went to see “Sinners.”
“I love you guys and everybody at home who supported ‘Sinners’ and went to see the movie once, twice, three, four or five times. Thank you because you made this movie what it is. I love you,” he said.
Jessie Buckley, 36, won her first Oscar, claiming the honor for best actress for her work as a grieving mother — the wife of William Shakespeare — in the period drama “Hamnet.”
“Thank you so much, this is really something,” she said, giving thanks to her parents who had flown in from Ireland for the ceremony.
Buckley also heaped praise on director Chloé Zhao and screenwriter Maggie O’Farrell.
“To get to know this incandescent woman, and journey to understand the capacity of a mother’s love is the greatest collision of my life,” she said. “It’s Mother’s Day in the UK today. So I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart. We all come from a lineage of women who continue to create against all odds. Thank you for recognizing me in this role.”
Amy Madigan, 75, won the prize for best supporting actress for her performance as Aunt Gladys in the horror film “Weapons.” Madigan, who was only on screen for about 15 minutes in the film, gave thanks to the members of her behind-the-scenes team and the filmmakers.
“You know, we’re kind of advised that, you know, don’t say all these names because nobody knows who the hell these people are, but you’re not rattling them off,” she said. “They’re people that mean something to you, that you wouldn’t be here without them.”
But she saved her highest praise for her husband, Ed Harris.
“The most important is my beloved Ed, who’s been with me forever, and that’s a long-ass time,” she said. “And none of this would mean anything if he wasn’t by my side.”
It was Madigan’s first Oscar win. She was previously nominated 40 years ago for her supporting role in “Twice in a Lifetime.”
Sean Penn, 65, won the award for best supporting actor for his role in “One Battle After Another.” It was his third career Oscar, having previously won best actor prizes in 2009 for “Milk” and 2004 for “Mystic River.”
Penn did not attend the Oscar ceremony.
Casting director Cassandra Kulukundis made history by winning the first Oscar in the newly created category for casting, for her work on “One Battle After Another.”
Kulukundis dedicated the prize to all casting directors who never previously got the chance to be recognized on the Oscar stage. She also hailed Anderson, with whom she has worked multiple times, noting that she had won an Academy Award before him, “which is crazy.” Anderson, of course, collected multiple Oscars later in the ceremony.
“One Battle” also won a prize for film editing for Andy Jurgensen — his first Oscar win on his first nomination.
This year’s ceremony saw a series of firsts and history-making wins.
The smash hit film “K-Pop Demon Hunters” won the award for best animated feature film, making co-director/writer Maggie Kang and producer Michelle Wong the first people of South Korean descent to win in the category.
The film also claimed the prize for best original song for “Golden,” which became the first K-pop song to win in the category.
“The Girl Who Cried Pearls” took the Oscar for animated short film.
The cinematography prize went to Autumn Durald Arkapaw for
“Sinners,” also winning on her first career nomination. She is the first woman — and first woman of color — to ever win in the cinematography category.
For best international film, the Oscar went to “Sentimental Value,” becoming the first film from Norway to win the Academy Award.
More Oscar history was made in the live-action short film category, when a tie vote resulted in prizes being awarded to both “The Singers” and “Two People Exchanging Saliva.” Tie votes are extremely rare at the Academy Awards, having occurred only six times previously in the Oscars’ 98-year history. The most recent occurrence was in 2013, when the sound-editing prize was shared by “Skyfall” and “Zero Dark Thirty.”
The Oscar for costume design went to Kate Hawley for “Frankenstein.” It was her first win on her first career nomination.
“Frankenstein” also earned an Oscar for makeup and hairstyling for the team of Cliona Furey, Jordan Samuel and Mike Hill, and for production design for Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau.
For visual effects, the prize went to Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, and Daniel Barrett for “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”
Ludwig Goransson won the original-score Oscar for “Sinners.” It was his third career Oscar, previously winning for “Black Panther: and “Oppenheimer.”
The Oscar for documentary feature film went to “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” the story of a Russian teacher who uncovers and documents the use of his school as a military recruitment center during the invasion of Ukraine.
“All the Empty Rooms,” the story of a journalist and photographer who embark on a journey to document the empty bedrooms of children killed in school shootings, won the Oscar for best documentary short film.
The ceremony included an emotional tribute to the life of actor/writer/director Rob Reiner, who was killed along with his wife Michele Singer in their Brentwood home, allegedly by their 32-year-old son Nick. The killings occurred hours after the trio attended a holiday party at the home of comedian Conan O’Brien — who hosted the Oscar ceremony for the second straight year.
Billy Crystal, who starred in Reiner’s films “When Harry Met Sally” and “The Princess Bride,” led the tribute.
“My friends, Rob’s movies will last for lifetimes because they were about what makes us laugh and cry and what we aspire to be — far better, in his eyes, far kinder, far funnier and far more human,” Crystal said. “And when Michele Singer entered his life, they were unstoppable. A gifted photographer, she not only produced films with Rob, but it was her energy that had them working tirelessly to fight social injustice in the country that they both loved.”
Crystal called their loss “immeasurable.”
“To the millions who have enjoyed his films all these years, I want you to know here and around the world, how many times Rob told me that it meant everything to him that his work meant something to you. And for those of us who had the privilege of working with and knowing him and loving him, all we can say is, ‘Buddy, what fun we had storming the castle.’”
Barbra Streisand, meanwhile, took the stage to honor her “The Way We Were” co-star Robert Redford, who died in September at age 89.
“Bob had real backbone, on and off the screen,” Streisand said. “He spoke up to defend freedom of the press, protect the environment and encourage new voices at his Sundance Institute, and some of whom are up for Oscars tonight, which is so great.
“He was thoughtful and bold. I called him an intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail, and won the Academy Award for best director. And I miss him now more than ever.”
The Oscar ceremony was held under tighter-than-usual security, given concerns about possibly retaliatory attacks by Iran in light of U.S. and Israeli military attacks on that nation.
O’Brien comically referenced the stepped-up security during his opening monologue, quipping that “there are concerns about attacks from both the opera and ballet communities” — a reference to recent widely publicized disparaging remarks about opera and ballet made by best-actor nominee Timothée Chalamet.
