By John Corrado

The 98th Academy Awards have now wrapped up, with Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another triumphing in Best Picture. This looked like it was shaping up to be a much tighter race between PTA’s film and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners in recent weeks, but season sweeper One Battle prevailed in the end. I was predicting it to happen and I’m very happy that it did.

Anderson’s film basically swept the night with a total of six awards, including wins for Sean Penn in Supporting Actor (who wasn’t even there to accept what is his third Oscar) and Original Screenplay, which became PTA’s first ever Oscar win. PTA’s second win would come later in Best Director. In an early show of strength, the film also won the inaugural award for Casting, which many (myself included) were predicting would go to Sinners.

But Sinners didn’t go home empty-handed. Far from it. Coogler’s film won four awards, including Adapted Screenplay for Coogler and Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan. Jordan surged in the last few weeks, beating early frontrunner Timothée Chalamet for Marty Supreme. Autumn Durald Arkapaw also became the first woman ever to win the Oscar for Cinematography, with Sinners composer Ludwig Göransson – who previously won for Black Panther and Oppenheimer – winning his third Oscar for Original Score.

The other acting awards went to Amy Madigan and Jessie Buckley. Madigan’s win in Supporting Actress for playing the iconic Aunt Gladys in Weapons was the first award given out, and set the tone for the night. It was awesome to see a horror performance being rewarded. Buckley’s Best Actress win for Hamnet was the second-last award of the night, and it provided a very satisfying end to the season to see her finally win for her astonishing performance. Buckley’s speech – an ode to motherhood and her eight-month-old daughter – was also one of my favourites of the night.

The show itself was one of the best ceremonies in recent memory. Conan O’Brien did a great job of hosting again, including a lot of solid jokes in his opening monologue (including a dig at Netflix boss Ted Sarandos). The show opened with a fun extended bit that had him running through the different nominated movies in full Aunt Gladys wig and makeup. O’Brien struck the right tone between playful and sardonic but also sincere and celebratory. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets invited back next year.

The ceremony was not without some somber moments as well, including a surprisingly lovely extended “In Memoriam” segment that opened with Billy Crystal presenting a special tribute to his When Harry Met Sally director Rob Reiner, tragically killed late last year alongside his wife Michelle Singer Reiner. Rachel McAdams also paid tribute to Diane Keaton, and Barbra Streissand honoured her The Way We Were co-star Robert Redford.

We got dazzling live performances of the nominated songs “I Lied to You” from Sinners – an impressive recreation of the iconic juke joint sequence – and “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters. The smash hit “Golden” won the Original Song award, with Netflix’s KPop also taking home the trophy for Animated Feature early in the night.

The Animated Short award went to stop-motion gem The Girl Who Cried Pearls, with Montreal directors Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski offering a great shoutout to Canada in their speech. And, in one of the night’s most surprising moments, there was a tie in the Live Action Short category between The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva, with presenter Kumail Nanjiani assuring the audience this was really happening.

The other big winner of the night was Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein, which pulled off a hat trick of winning three awards for Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, and Production Design. It was another homegrown triumph, with the film having been shot in Toronto.

All in all, I’m very happy with the winners tonight. Even if I was rooting for Chalamet to win his first Oscar, Jordan still gave a good performance and a good speech, with the thunderous approval of the audience. Last but not least, I’m delighted that Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value won International Feature, and that he brought his whole cast on stage with him to accept the award.

The full list of winners in all 24 categories is below, in the order they were announced.

Best Supporting Actress
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value
Amy Madigan – Weapons
Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners
Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another
Elle Fanning – Sentimental Value

Best Animated Feature
Arco
Elio
KPop Demon Hunters
Little Amélie or The Character of Rain
Zootopia 2

Best Animated Short Film
Butterfly
Forevergreen
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Retirement Plan
The Three Sisters

Best Costume Design
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
Sinners

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Frankenstein
Kokuho
Sinners
The Smashing Machine
The Ugly Stepsister

Best Casting
Gabriel Domingues – The Secret Agent
Nina Gold – Hamnet
Cassandra Kulukundis – One Battle After Another
Francine Maisler – Sinners
Jennifer Venditti – Marty Supreme

Best Live Action Short Film
Butcher’s Stain
A Friend of Dorothy
Jane Austen’s Period Drama
The Singers (TIE)
Two People Exchanging Saliva (TIE)

Best Supporting Actor
Benicio Del Toro – One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein
Delroy Lindo – Sinners
Sean Penn – One Battle After Another
Stellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value

Best Adapted Screenplay
Bugonia – Will Tracy
Frankenstein – Guillermo Del Toro
Hamnet – Maggie O’Farrell & Chloe Zhao
One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson
Train Dreams – Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar

Best Original Screenplay
Blue Moon – Robert Kaplow
It Was Just an Accident – Jafar Panahi, Nader Saeivar, Shadmehr Rastin & Mehdi Mahmoudian
Marty Supreme – Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie
Sentimental Value – Joachim Trier & Eskil Vogt
Sinners – Ryan Coogler

Best Production Design
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners

Best Visual Effects
Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
Jurassic World: Rebirth
The Lost Bus
Sinners

Best Documentary Short Film
All the Empty Rooms
Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud
Children No More: ‘Were and are Gone’
The Devil is Busy
Perfectly a Strangeness

Best Documentary Feature
The Alabama Solution
Come See Me in the Good Light
Cutting Through Rocks
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
The Perfect Neighbor

Best Original Score
Bugonia – Jerskin Fendrix
Frankenstein – Alexandre Desplat
Hamnet – Max Richter
One Battle After Another – Jonny Greenwood
Sinners – Ludwig Goransson

Best Sound
F1
Frankenstein
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sirāt

Best Film Editing
F1
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners

Best Cinematography
Frankenstein
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Train Dreams

Best International Feature Film
It Was Just an Accident – France
The Secret Agent – Brazil
Sentimental Value – Norway
Sirāt – Spain
The Voice of Hind Rajab – Tunisia

Best Original Song
“Dear Me” – Diane Warren: Relentless
“Golden” – KPop Demon Hunters
“I Lied to You” – Sinners
“Sweet Dreams of Joy” – Viva Verdi!
“Train Dreams” – Train Dreams

Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
Ryan Coogler – Sinners
Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme
Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value
Chloé Zhao – Hamnet

Best Actor
Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme
Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another
Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon
Michael B. Jordan – Sinners
Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent

Best Actress
Jessie Buckley – Hamnet
Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Kate Hudson – Song Sung Blue
Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value
Emma Stone – Bugonia

Best Picture
Bugonia
F1
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Train Dreams