Political thriller One Battle After Another dominated this year's Academy Awards, claiming six wins including Best Picture. According to Antigua News Room, the night also saw Michael B Jordan take home the Best Actor award, beating Timothée Chalamet for his role in Sinners.
The sweep marked the first Best Picture and Best Director wins for Paul Thomas Anderson, one of Hollywood's most celebrated yet previously Oscar-less filmmakers. "You make a guy work hard for one of these, I really appreciate it," Anderson joked in his acceptance speech, adding that making the film had been a "wonderful, wonderful journey".
Irish actress Jessie Buckley also claimed her first Oscar, recognised for her performance in Hamnet, in which she plays William Shakespeare's wife navigating 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".
In the best actor category, Jordan 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 previous Black winners in the lead actor and actress categories, saying 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."
One Battle After Another's six awards also included Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn — the third Oscar of Penn's career. Penn was not present to accept the award, having not attended any major ceremonies this awards season since the Golden Globes in January. He 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."
The film's Cassandra Kulukundis also won Best Casting, a category making its debut at the Oscars this year. 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".
