‘One Battle After Another’ wins top Oscar

What happened

Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” won six Oscars at Sunday’s Academy Awards, including best picture. Anderson also won best director and best adapted screenplay, while Sean Penn was awarded best supporting actor. Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” the other contender for the top prize, won four Oscars, including best actor for Michael B. Jordan and best original screenplay for Coogler. Jessie Buckley won best actress for “Hamnet,” completing her awards season sweep, and Amy Madigan won best supporting actress for the horror thriller “Weapons.”

Who said what

The 98th Academy Awards, hosted by Conan O’Brien, also featured a rare tie (for best live action short film) and some jokes about Timothée Chalamet but not a lot of overt politics. Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman and first Black person to win best cinematographer, for “Sinners.”

The Southern vampire drama and “One Battle After Another” were “two tour-de-force works written for the screen by directors exploring the complexities of America’s past and present,” The Wall Street Journal said. Neither writer-director had won an Oscar until Sunday. It was a “long-in-coming coronation for Anderson,” one of “America’s most lionized filmmakers for decades,” The Associated Press said, and a well-earned honor in the “unblemished career” of the “widely loved” Coogler.

What next?

The success of both films was also an “oddly poignant note of triumph” for their studio, Warner Bros., which “scored a record-tying 11 wins” weeks after it agreed to be absorbed into Paramount, the AP said. Billy Crystal led a tribute to late filmmaker Rob Reiner, his friend and director in “When Harry Met Sally” and “The Princess Bride.” “All we can say is, buddy, what fun we had storming the castle,” Crystal said.