“One Battle After Another” won best picture at the Oscars on Sunday night, completing a dominant awards-season run for the comedy-drama about an ex-revolutionary searching for his teenage daughter.
The movie also won Oscars for best director for Paul Thomas Anderson (who picked up his first Oscars after 11 nominations), supporting actor (Sean Penn), adapted screenplay, editing and casting.
Accepting the Oscar a few moments after winning best director, Anderson noted that in 1975 the best picture nominees were “Dog Day Afternoon,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Jaws,” “Nashville” and “Barry Lyndon,” then added: “There is no best among them, there is just what that mood might be that day, but we’re happy to be part of this, a wonderful, wonderful journey with our fellow nominees.”
Anderson went on to thank his cast, especially Chase Infiniti, who made her feature debut as one of the leads of the film.
After winning the top prizes at almost every major awards show this season — including the Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and the directors and producers guild ceremonies — “One Battle After Another” was considered the front-runner going into Oscar night. Still, the movie faced formidable competition from “Sinners,” the hit vampire drama from writer-director Ryan Coogler.
In January, “Sinners” broke the record for most Oscar nominations earned by a single film, and that momentum carried it to a big victory at the Actor Awards, where it won the cast prize and a best-actor trophy for lead Michael B. Jordan. Though it ultimately could not topple “One Battle After Another” at the Oscars, “Sinners” still won best actor (for Jordan), original screenplay, cinematography and score.
Unlike last year’s big winner “Anora,” one of the lowest-grossing films to ever take best picture, “One Battle After Another” grossed a hefty $209 million worldwide. That’s significantly more than Anderson’s past efforts like “There Will Be Blood” and “Phantom Thread,” but because of its reported $130 million budget and huge marketing costs, the film did not make its money back at the box office.
Still, its best-picture victory caps a significant year for Warner Bros., the storied Hollywood studio that produced “One Battle After Another,” “Sinners” and “Weapons” (which saw Amy Madigan win best supporting actress).
Although it’s not unusual for a studio to have more than one contender, it’s rare that it was responsible for both front-runners and that the studio itself is undergoing a major transition. The studio’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, was the subject of a bidding war between Netflix and Paramount that seemed to be resolved in the streamer’s favor until last month, when Paramount raised its offer to the winning bid of $111 billion.
Kyle Buchanan is a pop culture reporter and also serves as The Projectionist, the awards season columnist for The Times.
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