‘One Battle After Another’ dominates Oscars and takes best picture

By Lisa Richwine

LOS ANGELES, March 15 (Reuters) – The darkly comic thriller “One Battle After Another” won best picture at the Academy Awards, leading a haul of six trophies on a Sunday night when Hollywood’s top honors went to unconventional fare.

The offbeat tale of political resistance traded wins with the vampire story “Sinners,” setting up a fight to the end at the Dolby Theatre.

“Let’s have a martini! This is pretty amazing,” director Paul Thomas Anderson said on stage after his “One Battle” was announced the recipient of the top award.

The Warner Bros movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a one-time revolutionary who grows up to become the weed-smoking single father of a teenager. 

Before this year Anderson had 11 career Oscar nominations and no wins. In addition to best picture, Anderson won best director and best adapted screenplay on Sunday. 

SEAN PENN A WINNER BUT A NO-SHOW”One Battle” star Sean Penn was named best supporting actor for his role as an obsessed military officer. It was the third Oscar for Penn, who frequently skips movie industry awards shows and was not in the Dolby Theatre audience.

“Sean Penn couldn’t be here, or didn’t want to, so I’ll accept the award on his behalf,” said presenter Kieran Culkin, last year’s supporting actor winner.

“Sinners” finished with four awards including a best actor trophy for Michael B. Jordan, who played the dual roles of twin brothers Smoke and Stack. Set in the Segregation-era U.S. South, the movie was a celebration of blues and Black culture told with a supernatural twist.

“I stand here because of the people that came before me,” Jordan said before naming previous Black Oscar winners including Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington and Halle Berry. “I’m going to keep stepping up and I’m going to keep being the best version of myself.”

Irish actor Jessie Buckley landed the best actress accolade for playing William Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes Hathaway, in “Hamnet.” The movie explores how the couple navigates the death of their 11-year-old son “Hamnet.” 

“I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart,” Buckley said. “We all come from a lineage of women who continue to create against all odds.”

The 75-year-old Amy Madigan was named best supporting actress for her role as the wacky Aunt Gladys in horror film “Weapons.” She earned her first Oscar 40 years after her first Oscar nomination.

‘KPOP DEMON HUNTERS’ TAKES BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

“KPop Demon Hunters,” a Netflix movie that became a global phenomenon, was named best animated feature. Its catchy song, “Golden,” won the award for best original song.

Amid the celebration, the show took on a serious tone to honor two major losses in the film world – the deaths of directors Robert Redford and Rob Reiner. 

Billy Crystal, star of “When Harry Met Sally,” said Reiner’s films including “A Few Good Men” and “This Is Spinal Tap” would “last for lifetimes.” He was joined on stage by Demi Moore, Meg Ryan and other cast members from Reiner classics.

Barbra Streisand, who played opposite Redford in “The Way We Were,” called Redford a “brilliant, subtle actor” and an “intellectual cowboy.” She finished her remarks by singing a few lines from the movie’s well-known title song.

Host Conan O’Brien opened the festivities by joking that he was honored to be “the last human host” of the awards at a time when Hollywood is worried about artificial intelligence taking over jobs. 

The glitzy celebration, Hollywood’s most over-the-top gala of the year, took place as the U.S. wages war on Iran.

Security was tight in and around the ceremony after a federal warning of a possible Iranian threat against California, though authorities have cited no specific or credible danger to the Academy Awards. Attendees had to cross through several traffic checkpoints and go through metal detectors to make their way into the event.

The festivities masked the unease in the film business over where movies are being made as studios chase tax incentives and lower costs elsewhere in the U.S. and overseas, weakening Hollywood’s grip on production.

Warner Bros., the studio behind “One Battle” and “Sinners,” is in the process of being sold to Paramount Skydance in a deal that will narrow the ranks of major film distributors. A media watchdog group, Free Press, circulated a roving billboard around Hollywood over the weekend airing its opposition to the merger.

Winners of the gold Oscar statuettes are chosen by the roughly 10,000 actors, producers, directors and ‍film craftspeople who make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Howard Goller)