BBC- Political thriller One Battle After Another has dominated this year’s Oscars, scoring six wins including best picture
It marks the first best picture and best director win for Paul Thomas Anderson, who had never previously won an Oscar despite being one of Hollywood’s most respected film-makers.
“You make a guy work hard for one of these, I really appreciate it,” he joked in his acceptance speech, adding that making the film had been a “wonderful, wonderful journey”.
Other winners included Sinners star Michael B Jordan, who beat Timothée Chalamet to the best actor award; and Irish actress Jessie Buckley, who was recognised for her role in Hamnet.
Buckley’s ‘beautiful chaos’ rewarded
Buckley won the first Oscar of her career for her performance as William Shakespeare’s wife, who is overwhelmed with grief after the death of their 11-year-old son.
“This is really something,” Buckley said. “It’s Mother’s Day in the UK today. So I’d like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart.
“We all come from a lineage of women who continue to create against all odds. Thank you for recognising me in this role.”
She paid an emotional tribute to her eight-month-old daughter, and thanked her parents “for teaching us to dream, and to never be defined by expectation, but to carve from your own passion”.
Michael B Jordan in the footsteps of ‘giants’
A tight best actor race, meanwhile, culminated in a win for Sinners star Jordan, who played twins whose plans to open a music venue in 1930s Mississippi are derailed by an evil force.
Thanking Sinners director Ryan Coogler, Jordan said: “I’m so honoured to call you a collaborator and a friend, you gave me the opportunity and the space to be seen.”
Jordan paid tribute by name to all six of the previous black winners of the lead actor and actress category, and said he was honoured “to be amongst those giants”.
“I stand here because of the people who came before me – Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, Will Smith,” he said.
“Thank you everybody in this room and everybody at home, for supporting me over my career. I feel it, I know you guys want me to do well, and I want to do that, because you guys bet on me.”
The big winner of the night was One Battle After Another, whose six awards also included best adapted screenplay, and supporting actor for Sean Penn.
It was the third Oscar of Penn’s career, but he was not present to accept his trophy. The US actor has not attended any of the major ceremonies this awards season since the Golden Globes in January, where he lost.
Penn plays a white supremacist immigration commander who comes back to haunt an anti-government activist played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and his teenage daughter.
Accepting the screenplay prize, Anderson said: “I wrote this movie for my kids, to say sorry for the housekeeping mess we left in this world we’re handing off to them.
“But also with the encouragement that they will be the generation that hopefully brings us some common sense and decency.”
One Battle After Another’s Cassandra Kulukundis also won best casting in the category’s first year at the ceremony.
She thanked the Academy “for even adding this category – and for the casting directors who fought tirelessly to make it happen despite everything in their way”.
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