Oscars 2026 Winners: 7 Stars Who Won Their First Academy Awards This Year

Excitingly, the 2026 Oscars saw a number of performers and filmmakers picking up those iconic gold statuettes for the first time – some of whom are relatively early on in their careers, and others who’ve been waiting a long time to win an Academy Award.

While One Battle After Another and Sinners were the two biggest success stories of the night, there were plenty of other movies whose cast and crew picked up awards during Sunday night’s ceremony.

Here are just seven first-time winners from this year’s Oscars…

Jessie Buckley

After a clean sweep at awards season this year, Jessie Buckley rounded things off with a win in the Best Actress category for her performance in the heartbreaking drama Hamnet.

The Irish performer had one Oscar nomination to her name already this year, off the back of her work in the Maggie Gyllenhaal movie The Lost Daughter, in which she played the younger version of Olivia Colman’s character.

Michael B Jordan

The Best Actor category was one of the most open contests in the lead-up to the 2026 Oscars, but in the end, Sinners star Michael B Jordan beat stiff competition from Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothée Chalamet, Ethan Hawke and Wagner Moura to the prize.

Michael’s win was one of the night’s most emotional moments, following his performance as twins Smoke and Stack in the hugely popular musical vampire thriller.

Amy Madigan

Amy Madigan achieved something really rare at the 2026 Oscars, winning an Academy Award for playing a horror character, after stealing the show in last year’s Weapons thanks to her work as Aunt Gladys.

Before this year, Amy had earned one Oscar nomination previously, back in 1986, for the film Twice In A Lifetime.

Earlier this year, she broke the record for the longest gap between two nominations at the Academy Awards, joking on stage: “Everybody’s asking me in the press, ‘well, it’s been 40 years, what’s different about this time?’. What’s different is I got this little gold guy!”

Ryan Coogler

Back in January, Sinners made Oscars history when it received more nominations than any other film since the Academy Awards started.

While sadly, it didn’t end up becoming the night’s top winner when the ceremony came around, it did pick up a respectable four awards, including Best Original Screenplay for Ryan Coogler.

Ryan’s first nomination was in 2020 as a producer on the Best Picture nominee Judas And The Black Messiah, with another following two years later for his work on the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack.

Paul Thomas Anderson

“You make a guy work hard for one of these!” Paul Thomas Anderson joked during his first speech at Sunday night’s Oscars, quickly adding: “I really appreciate it.”

It’s been almost 30 years since Paul was first nominated for an Oscar as the director of Boogie Nights, consistently racking up more nods for movies like Inherent Vice, Phantom Thread and There Will Be Blood, none of which translated into a win until this year.

Of One Battle Another Another’s six wins, half of them were for Paul himself, who picked up three awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Autumn Durald Arkapaw

One of Sinners’ wins was in the Best Cinematography category.

Not only was this Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s first time winning an Oscar, it was the first time any female artist has triumphed in this category, which was not lost on the creator, who invited all of the women in the room to stand up with her to commemorate the moment.

Joachim Trier

What movie fans might not realise is that the Best International Feature Film prize doesn’t just go to filmmakers, but to actual countries.

So, this year’s triumph for Sentimental Value marks the first time a Norwegian film has won in this category – technically marking the first time Norway itself has received an Oscar, as well as its director, Joachim Trier.

Check out the full list of winners from the 2026 Oscars here.