Oscars 2026 highlights: ‘One Battle After Another’ wins big with six awards

The Vanity Fair party, the Oscars’ most storied post-ceremony soiree, is getting a new level of exclusive with tonight’s 32nd edition. The revamped party under new editor Mark Guiducci, relocated to the newly remodeled Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is no longer allowing reporters from outside outlets inside. That means The Associated Press won’t be there for the first time in many years. Here are some memorable moments from parties past from the reporter who observed them.

• Last year, I sidled up alongside the curious combo of Timothée Chalamet and tennis legend John McEnroe. Chalamet had just lost best actor for “A Complete Unknown.” As the two men hugged, Chalamet told the people around them, “For my next project, he was a big inspiration. I play a very intense table tennis player.”
• In 2022, Will Smith danced with his family to his own music after winning his Oscar, and slapping Chris Rock. I had to stay close to Smith to observe what he did and said, and you can’t just stand there in the middle of a dance floor. So I had to dance. Quite a bit. While quietly jotting down notes.
• In 2018, Frances McDormand stood to eat an In-N-Out Burger, but she was getting mobbed by famous fans. She had just won her second best actress Oscar, which was sitting next to her on a table. Some just wanted to congratulate her, others had heard the trophy had been briefly stolen earlier in the evening and wanted to know happened. Amid the crowd, I ended up pressed up against Jon Hamm. For quite a while. My nose was in his neck. He smelled amazing. (Later that night, McDormand finished half a cigarette and left it in an ashtray near me. I hadn’t smoked in years at that point, but how could I resist grabbing it and finishing an Oscar-blessed butt?)
• I walked past Faye Dunaway on the night in 2017 that she had, through no fault of her own, wrongly announced “La La Land” as the winner of best picture instead of the correct “Moonlight.” I gave her a sympathetic smile. She shrugged with a whaddya-gonna-do? face.

After his big wins of the night, Paul Thomas Anderson came to the press room to speak with reporters about his wins for best picture, director and adapted screenplay.

He answered three questions — the maximum the Academy had been allowing for winners consistently throughout the night — but the last question zeroed in on criticism of “One Battle After Another.” Some of the film’s detractors have found fault with the portrayal of the Black women characters, particularly Teyana Taylor’s Perfidia.

Anderson said the character is “flawed,” and that he and the filmmakers wanted to capture the nuance of her life.

“It’s complicated,” he said. “We always knew that we were trying to make something complicated.”

The point of Perfidia’s arc is to set up the story of her daughter, Willa, played by Chase Infiniti.

“What happens when your parents, who are damaged, and handed quite a difficult history to you, how do you manage that? That’s our story,” he said.

PTA and Jessie Buckley share a hug while waiting for engravings and MBJ draws a crowd inside.

Best actress winner Jessie Buckley elaborated on her thoughts on the “crazy alchemy” of winning the award on the U.K. and Ireland-version of Mother’s Day when speaking to reporters in the press room. She plays a grieving mother in the historical fiction drama “Hamnet.”

In addition to being Oscars Sunday, the day also marked Buckley’s first Mother’s Day as a mom, and Buckley said her daughter, who is eight months old, got her first tooth this week. It’s a big milestone, but perhaps not quite as big as her mom snagging her first Oscar.

“It feels like some kind of crazy alchemy that all these things are colliding,” she said of the historic win backstage, plus the collision with Mother’s Day in the U.K and Ireland.

When best actor winner Michael B. Jordan came backstage, he had to wait about a full minute for many in the crowd of reporters to stop cheering and sit down before he could answer any questions.

The “Sinners” star who played twin brothers in the genre-bending vampire epic said his win feels “timely.”

“I’m here because of the people who came before me,” he said.

“I’ve been extremely blessed in my life,” he continued. “There’s a lot of people who’ve seen me grow up in this industry, grow up in this town, and they looked out for me — and they didn’t have to.”

Backstage, reporters are supposed to raise their placards if they have questions. Academy officials have been limiting questions to three per winner. Most placards seemed in the air when Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan, respectively, walked in. Both Coogler and Jordan seemed surprised at being moved along so quickly.

Stellan Skarsgård is casually drinking a beer while chatting with his castmates. Autumn Durald Arkapaw brought her son with her and is showing him her Oscar as she hands it over to get it engraved.

Backstage, Ryan Coogler was greeted with cheers and many a raised placard for questions by members of the press. He credited an English professor when he was 17 who read an assignment and suggested he go to Hollywood and write screenplays.

At the Governors Ball the happiest area was the Warner Bros. “One Battle After Another” tables where Leonardo DiCaprio, sipping red wine, and Benicio Del Toro, with champagne and not a few small beers, held court with studio executives, including producer Pam Abdy.

Elsewhere Renate Reinsve ditched her shoes and walked barefoot through the party, which was carpeted. Mandy Patinkin sat alone sampling sushi and trying to make a phone call as the music blared. Kirsten Dunst stayed close to Alicia Silverstone and Kerry Condon sampled the prime rib.

Ryan Coogler used to run plays. Now he wins Oscars for screenplays.

The best original screenplay Oscar winner for “Sinners” was once a star wide receiver at Sacramento State, where he had 112 catches over his college career.

And stay in school, kids. You might win Oscars. Coogler was a two-time All-Academic selection in the Big Sky Conference, too.

He joins a rather exclusive club of sports figures who won Oscars, one that includes NBA greats Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry, Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Durant and Mike Conley Jr.

Joachim Trier said he cited James Baldwin — “All adults are responsible for all children” — because of revelations about crimes being done to children and the conflicts being waged in the world.

“Me and most people around me have been at times crying a lot,” Trier, a father, said, citing Palestinian, Ukrainian and Sudanese children suffering, in addition to other conflicts.

He said people need to “cross the aisle” to be more collaborative in protecting children.

“It’s been like a traveling summer camp,” the “Sentimental Value” director said, describing how he bonded with his fellow nominees. The Norwegian film won best international feature.

Backstage, Ludwig Göransson — who is now a three-time Oscar winner, thanks to his score win for “Sinners” — says his dad fought hard to name him Albert, after bluesman Albert King. But his mom won that naming battle.

Serena Williams put a clip of Michael B. Jordan’s best actor speech onto social media and needed two words to sum up her feelings.

“So happy,” the tennis legend wrote in reaction to the “Sinners” star getting the Oscar.

OK now that they’ve all been handed out, here’s the pertinent info. The Oscar statuette is the heaviest of the big performance awards, more of an arm lift than a Tony, Grammy, Emmy or Golden Globe. Each solid bronze Academy Award clocks in at 8.5 pounds (3.85 kilograms).

That’s about a gallon of water. Or six basketballs. Or 34 sticks of butter. Or 13 cans of Campbell’s Condensed Tomato Soup.

Eight and a half pounds is the same amount of kimchi that competitive eater Miki Sudo wolfed down in six minutes in 2013. It’s also the size of a Grand Cayman blue iguana that bit a Columbus Zoo & Aquarium zookeeper in 2024.

Marlon Brando in 1955 is believed to be the first Oscar winner to admit to being surprised by the heft of his new shiny award.

“It’s much heavier than I thought,” he said after winning best actor for “On the Waterfront.”

The winners thanked additional colleagues and family members backstage after they were cut off during their acceptance speech.

Singer songwriter EJAE said she wanted to shoutout her fellow performers Rei Ami and Audrey Nuna, who voiced the singing parts along her in the film.

The cast also delivered thanks to their fans watching in South Korea.

“I was very nervous but it was such an honor to be performing, it’s such an incredible stage,” EJAE said. “It was not on my bucket list because I did not think it was possible.”

The Korean American said it was an “incredible experience” to honor their ancestors by beginning their performance with Korean traditional music.

For major stars, the Governors Ball is just a quick pit stop before their nights get more interesting (or at least out of view of the press). Winners go with one main objective: getting their Oscars engraved.

It’s not exactly known for its dance parties, though Greta Gerwig did a bit during her “Little Women” year. Sometimes the funniest sightings are the ones where people are trying to rally partners and friends to leave. Rooney Mara managed to intercept a nonstop flow of people hoping to speak to Joaquin Phoenix after his “Joker” win to tell him in no uncertain terms that it was time to go.

Another year, Hugh Grant made his desires known by simply pointing at the door.

Going back to the tie in the best live-action short category — “The Singers” and “Two People Exchanging Saliva” was just the seventh in Oscar history.

Barbra Streisand, who was part of the in memoriam at these awards, was involved in one of those previous ties, too.

The full list of previous ties:

2012: sound editing, “Skyfall” and “Zero Dark Thirty”

1994: live-action short, “Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Trevor”

1986: documentary, “Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got” and “Down and Out in America”

1968: best actress, Barbra Streisand and Katharine Hepburn

1949: documentary, “A Chance to Live” and “So Much for So Little”

1931-32: best actor, Fredric March and Wallace Beery

Cord-cutters will have to wait a little while longer before the Oscars switch from a traditional broadcaster over to YouTube. The video sharing platform and the academy announced earlier this year that the awards show will head to YouTube in 2029, severing the long-held grasp ABC has had on the ceremony.

ABC is hanging on long enough to broadcast the 100th Oscars in 2028. YouTube will then retain global rights to streaming the Oscars from 2029 through 2033. The ceremony will be free to stream worldwide on YouTube, and audio tracks in many languages and closed captioning will be available.

The Walt Disney Co.-owned ABC has been home to the Oscars for almost its entire history. Every show since 1976 has aired on ABC.

First stop for Oscar winners and invited guests after the show ends is the Governors Ball. They’ll ride escalators up to the Ray Dolby Ballroom atop the shopping and entertainment complex where the ceremony is held.

The show typically runs three hours or more, creating a powerful need for immediate food and drink after sitting that long.

Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck is in his 32nd year catering the party. He’s supported by 75 savory chefs and 45 pastry chefs.

Winners can sip on signature cocktails like “The Sequel” with tequila and “After Glow” without booze while waiting for their names to be engraved on their golden statues.

This isn’t a sit-down dinner. It’s the first chance for Oscar-goers to let their hair down on the night’s party circuit, gossip about the show over the din of a live band and move on to the next bash. Over 300 servers swarm the crowd with food on trays and small plates. More elaborate grazing stations feature cheese and charcuterie, wood-fired pizzas, Japanese izakaya, and hand-carved wagyu and steak frites.

A slider bar serves ribeye burgers, Thai sausage dogs, pastrami and fried cod to go with tempura onion rings. A handroll and sushi bar includes spicy ahi tuna, sea bream and salmon. Need to soothe your incurable sweet tooth? Hit the tables featuring patisserie, madeleine and tiramisu, chocolate decadence, and gelato.

Vegans will feel at home since the party has offered over 50% plant-based and vegetarian dishes since 2013.

Everyone leaves feeling like a winner after picking up one of the 2,000 mini chocolate Oscars airbrushed with 24-karat edible gold dust.

A pre-taped epilogue to the Oscars shows Conan O’Brien being named the Oscars’ “Host for Life” after his performance tonight.

That’s before he’s locked into an office where a green gas fills the room. An unconscious O’Brien is carried out to show his name plaque replaced by ... Mr. Beast?

Paul Thomas Anderson, while accepting the best picture Oscar for “One Battle After Another,” ran off the legendary list of nominees in the category from 40 years ago — 1975 films honored at the 1976 show:

“One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Barry Lyndon,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Nashville” and “Jaws.”

Anderson’s conclusion: “There are no winners.”

Though technically, there was one. “Cuckoo’s Nest” got the Oscar.

Jessie Buckley told her husband that she wants “to have 20,000 more babies with you,” evoking Kieran Culkin’s best supporting actor speech last year where he asked his wife for more children. (Culkin and Jazz Charton welcomed a child in November.)

The runtime of the show clocked in at 3 hours and 40 minutes, which is pretty typical for the show and somewhat modest considering 24 awards were handed out Sunday evening. The longest ceremony lasted over four hours in 2002.

Sunday’s show ended with a bizarre pre-taped segment in which Conan was given the honor of “host for life,” and then seemingly gassed, but it’s unclear if he will host again next year or not.

The big winners of the night surprised no one, or at least, not our AP film writers or our apnews.com voters.

AP film writers Jake Coyle and Lindsey Bahr, along with voters on this site, got all the top honors right: best director, best actor, best actress and best picture.

The consensus of apnews.com voters got 19 of the 24 categories right. Coyle made 18 correct picks and Bahr had 15.

“One Battle After Another” was the big winner at this year’s Oscars, leading the way with six wins.

It becomes the 42nd film in Oscars history with at least six statuettes.

“Sinners” won four this year and “Frankenstein” won three.

“My family, my Irish family, they’re all here, Ireland bought them flights,” Buckley said. “Mom, dad, thank you for teaching me to dream and to never be defined by expectation but to carve your own passion.”

“We all come from a lineage of women who continue to create against all odds. Thank you for recognizing me in this role,” she said.

Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor are presenting best picture, 25 years after they starred in “Moulin Rouge!” together. They sang some lines from “All You Need Is Love.”

Four people in Jessie Buckley’s Irish family stood up and waved toward the stage from the mezzanine, far out of sight of the stage. “Ireland bought them flights!” she said of her family’s large presence at the event.

Michael B. Jordan is only the 6th Black male actor to have ever won best actor. (Halle Berry was the first Black woman to win best actress in 2002.) He namechecked his predecessors in his speech.

Autumn Durald Arkapaw, the first woman and Black person to win the cinematography award told reporters in the press room that she was worried about using her time wisely for her acceptance speech. “Are they going to kick me off?” she recalled wondering. Still, she managed to give a grounded, moving speech, and one she hopes will inspire future filmmakers.

“A lot of little girls who look like me will sleep really well tonight because they’ll want to become cinematographers,” she said. “I know that.”

She decided to ask all the women in the Dolby Theatre to stand up during her speech because “moments like this don’t happen without women kind of standing up for you and advocating for you,” she said.

The win “isn’t about me anymore,” she continued. “It’s about so much more and I wanted it for all of the ladies in the room, and I wanted it for all the girls at home.”

“God is good,” Jordan said. He shouted out his family, including his dad who flew from Ghana.

“I stand here because of the people that came before me,” he said, adding thanks for the support he’s received throughout his life.

“I feel it, I know you guys want to me to do well, and I want to do that because you guys bet on me.”

Jordan named Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Forest Whitaker, Jamie Foxx and Will Smith as among those who came before him.

Michael B. Jordan’s dad stood up and pumped his fist toward the stage. The actor said his father flew in from Ghana for the Oscars.

He was one of the many, many people who gave the “Sinners” star a rousing, standing ovation for his best actor win.

The loudest and rowdiest applause of the evening likely came from inside the press room when Michael B. Jordan was announced as the winner of the best actor prize. Reporters in the room burst into raucous cheers before presenter Adrien Brody could even finish reading out the “Sinners” star’s name.

Adrien Brody swallowed his gum and spit out something that got censored.

Brody’s built something of a reputation for his snogging. He won the Oscar in 2003 for “The Pianist,” memorably kissing Halle Berry at the podium. Then in 2025, he kissed his partner, Georgina Chapman, after winning the Oscar again for “The Brutalist.”

Brody was back on the stage to present the best actor award that he won last year but avoided laying one on winner Michael B. Jordan. He did was chewing gum, though. “I’ll eat it,” Brody said, before announcing the nominees for best actor.