“What a night.”
So said Paul Thomas Anderson while accepting the Oscar for best picture for his film, One Battle After Another, to close out the 98th Academy Awards at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre on Sunday night.
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And what a night it was for Anderson and the team from his Warner Bros. film, which picked up a total of six Oscars during the ceremony including wins for best adapted screenplay (Anderson), best director (Anderson), best supporting actor (an absent Sean Penn), inaugural best casting (Cassandra Kulukundis) and best film editing (Andy Jurgensen). With three Oscars in his hand following a long drought of never having received one, no wonder Anderson was ready to raise a glass.
“You guys, let’s have a martini,” Anderson said in closing his speech. “This is pretty amazing. Cheers. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.”
As he delivered the closing remarks, Anderson was backed by a stage full of collaborators on the film including actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti, whom he shouted out because he forgot to thank them during an earlier acceptance speech. “I really blew it when I won a best director award and I forgot to thank my cast. Leo, Benicio, Teyana, Sean, Regina,” he said in making up for it. “And especially Chase, my American girl, Chase. You are the heart of this movie.”
But before he made good on the omission, Anderson paid tribute to the best picture Oscar nominees from the 1975 ceremony, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws and Nashville. “There is no best among them,” he said. “There is just what the mood might be that day. But we’re happy to be part of this, a wonderful, wonderful journey.”
His producer, Sara Murphy, who produced with Anderson and Adam Somner, also delivered remarks. “Getting to make this film with this cast and this crew and Paul has already been the greatest filmmaking experience I can fathom. So, receiving this award is just beyond. My heart is exploding.”
One Battle triumphed from a roster that included Bugonia, F1, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, Sinners and Train Dreams. From that field of 10, it had seemingly come down to a race between One Battle and Sinners as those two films went into Sunday night’s Oscars with the most nominations. Making the sprint to the Oscar stage all that more interesting was the fact that both films came from Warner Bros. under the leadership of Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca.
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, of course, made history by snagging a record-breaking 16 nominations to One Battle’s 13. Coogler’s film picked up four trophies including best original screenplay (Coogler), best actor (Michael B. Jordan), best original score (Ludwig Goransson) and best cinematography (Autumn Durald Arkapaw).
Anderson’s film was inspired by the 1990 novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. It follows the story of an ex-revolutionary who is forced back into his old ways upon getting pursued by a corrupt military officer, sending his daughter on a frantic journey to save herself while he tries to save her. Sunday’s show capped a long Oscar history for Anderson who had previously lost 11 Oscar nominations for his work on such films as Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, Inherent Vice, Phantom Thread and Licorice Pizza.
He was finally feeling the love. “You make a guy work hard for one of these, I really appreciate it,” Anderson said in his best director speech. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
See more from tonight’s show including the star-studded Oscars red carpet 2026 arrivals, and the full list of winners.
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