Oscars 2026 Live Updates: One Battle After Another At Two Awards, Frankenstein, Sinners At Three

A fabulous performance by Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami of KPop Demon Hunters fame, as they perform 'Golden'.

KPop Demon Hunters won the honour for Best Animated Film at tonight's Academy Awards. 

Autumn Durald Arkapaw wins Sinners another honour for the night, with the Best Cinematography.

She is the first woman of colour to be nominated, and to win an award in this category.

Cinematographer Durald Arkapaw receives honours tonight for her striking visual work on a film that uses wide‑format IMAX to resurrect the textures and tensions of 1930s Mississippi.

Through sweeping, sun‑bleached shots of cotton fields and tight, airless interiors, Durald Arkapaw’s lens captures the suffocating weight of the Jim Crow South — a world where beauty and brutality sit side by side, and where the film’s fatal story slowly coils into place. 

Spoke too soon with the earlier post, I think.

That's because Andy Jurgensen has just won One Battle After Another another award for Best Editing. 

The film swings effortlessly across generations, landscapes, and even genres, blending adrenaline‑charged tension with moments of sharp, surprising humor. At its core, One Battle After Another tells the story of Bob — a former revolutionary who has traded protest lines for quiet small‑town life, raising his daughter Willa far from the chaos of his past. But the ghosts of his former activism refuse to stay buried, pulling him back into a conflict he thought he’d long escaped.
 

As the ceremony continues, a few heavy hitters are pulling ahead — and the leaderboard is starting to take shape. Here’s how tonight’s top contenders stack up so far:

One Battle After Another

• Best Supporting Actor
• Best Adapted Screenplay
• Best Casting

Sinners

• Best Original Screenplay
• Best Original Score

Frankenstein

• Best Hair and Makeup
• Best Costume Design
• Best Production Design

Gareth John, Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A. Rizzo, and Juan Peralta take the stage as F1 wins the Academy award for Best Sound.

The film plunges viewers into the high‑octane world of Formula One, whisking its characters from the roaring grandstands of Mexico City to the glittering night races of Abu Dhabi. Each circuit carries its own rhythm — a unique pulse shaped by the engine roar, the track surface, and the atmosphere surrounding it.

To capture the visceral sound of real F1 racing, the production teamed up with Formula One’s own audio specialists, who mounted microphones directly onto actual racecars. The result: an adrenaline‑charged soundscape that feels as immediate and thunderous as standing trackside.

Ludwig Göransson wins award for Best Score for Sinners. 

He has previously won two Academy Awards for Best Original Score: Black Panther (2019) and Oppenheimer (2024). 

Göransson has been collaborating with director Ryan Coogler since their film‑school days, and Sinners marks the seventh project they’ve created together.
 

Made in secrecy, shaped by danger, and now honoured on Hollywood’s biggest stage — Mr Nobody Against Putin has won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

Among those accepting the award is co‑director Pavel Talankin, who is not only behind the camera but also at the centre of the story. Until recently, Talankin lived a quiet life as a primary‑school teacher in the small Russian town of Karabash. But after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he grew increasingly alarmed by what he witnessed inside his classroom.

Teachers across Russia were instructed to conduct mandatory “patriotic” lessons — state‑approved narratives reinforcing support for the war — and were required to film themselves delivering these lessons to prove compliance. The pressure, surveillance, and moral conflict that followed would eventually drive Talankin to risk everything by documenting how ordinary Russians navigated the growing machinery of propaganda.

All The Empty Rooms has won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short, with director Joshua Seftel and co‑producer Conall Jones taking the stage to accept the award.

The documentary follows broadcast journalist Steve Hartman, who sets out to rethink how the media covers these tragedies. Instead of focusing on the perpetrators, Hartman asks a simple but radical question: What if we centered the children whose lives were stolen?

That question propels him on a deeply emotional journey across the United States, visiting the preserved bedrooms of victims — intimate spaces still filled with their dreams, ambitions, and the small details that reveal who they were. Through these rooms, the film builds a powerful portrait of loss, love, and the futures that never came to be.

Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, and Daniel Barrett wins the honour for Best Visual Effects for Avatar Fire And Ash.

The Avatar franchise has extended its reign over the Oscars’ visual effects category, with its third chapter keeping the streak blazing.

The team behind Avatar: Fire and Ash took the stage to accept the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, cementing the series’ legacy as the genre’s undisputed champion. Known for pushing the boundaries of digital artistry, the crew’s work once again set a new bar in world‑building, performance capture, and immersive spectacle.

Tamara Deverall and Shane Vieau win the award for Best Production Design for Frankenstein.

Gothic towers rising over storm‑lashed seas. Solitary chalets tucked deep into misty forests. A creaking wooden ship locked in Arctic ice. These haunting, meticulously crafted landscapes define Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein — and tonight, they’ve earned the film the Oscar for Best Production Design.

Conan O'Brien, in a mid-show segment, takes a jab at the rather unique vocabulary used by Gen Z and Gen Alpha on social media with a segment on 'hostmaxxing'.

Every year, the Academy pauses the glitter and celebration for a moment of collective remembrance — a tribute to the artists, icons, and behind‑the‑scenes visionaries who shaped the world of film and have left us in the past year.

This year’s In Memoriam segment honoured several cinematic giants. Among them was Robert Duvall, the legendary actor whose unforgettable performances in The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and dozens of other films made him one of Hollywood’s most respected talents. Also remembered was the incomparable Diane Keaton, whose long, trailblazing career included her Oscar‑winning turn in Annie Hall, and Catherine O'Hara, for her roles in Schitt's Creek, The Studio, and more.

But the night’s most emotional moment came with the tribute to Rob Reiner. Known for heart‑warming, enduring classics such as The Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally, Reiner was celebrated not just for his storytelling brilliance but for his humanity. His shocking murder, along with his wife Michele’s, sent waves of grief through Hollywood in December. Those who knew him have continued to praise his warmth, generosity, and unwavering commitment to social justice — from LGBTQ marriage equality to expanding representation in film.

The Academy also paid tribute to Robert Redford, the beloved actor‑director whose decades‑long career spanned classics like All the President’s Men, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Three Days of the Condor. His influence — both on screen and through his championing of independent film — remains immeasurable.

Writer‑director Ryan Coogler is on a remarkable awards‑season streak. Fresh from his BAFTA win last month, he’s now added the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay to his growing list of honors for his genre‑bending blockbuster Sinners.

Tonight’s win marks Coogler’s third major screenplay award in as many months. Alongside the Oscar and BAFTA, he also captured the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Original Screenplay in January — a rare trifecta that cements Sinners as one of the defining creative achievements of the season.

Coogler, who hails from Oakland, California, has often spoken about drawing creative inspiration from his family’s history — particularly their roots in segregated Mississippi.

That lineage runs deep through Sinners, which unfolds over a single day in 1932 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the storied birthplace of the American blues. The film follows twin brothers determined to open a juke joint for the local Black community — a dream that quickly draws the hostility of white supremacists.

Writer‑director Paul Thomas Anderson has clinched the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for tonight’s heavyweight contender One Battle After Another.

Loosely inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, the film traces the story of a former revolutionary who retreats into suburban anonymity with his daughter — only to be thrust back into danger when a relentless military colonel reignites the chase. 

The win marks a milestone decades in the making. Anderson has been shaping and reshaping this screenplay for years, with early drafts famously ballooning to hundreds of pages. Tonight, that long‑running creative pursuit pays off as he takes home his first Oscar for screenwriting.

Sean Penn named Best Actor In A Supporting Role for One Battle After Another!

American actor Penn has claimed the third Academy Award of his career, this time for his chilling yet darkly comedic performance in the political thriller One Battle After Another.

Penn stars as Colonel Steven Lockjaw, a hardened military officer whose fleeting run‑in with a band of militant activists spirals into a lifelong obsession — a role he plays with unnerving precision and razor‑sharp wit. 

Succession's darling Roman Roy, better known as Kieran Culkin, who won Best Supporting Actor at the 97th Oscars (2025) for his role as Benji Kaplan in A Real Pain, presented the Oscar this year.

Best Live Action Short Film Award sees a tie!

'Two People Exchanging Saliva' and 'Singers' now become the seventh instance of a tie on the Oscars stage.

Cassandra Kulukundis wins the iconic Best Casting award for One Battle After Another. 

One Battle After Another features a commanding ensemble, with standout performances from rising talents like Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti, alongside sharp, comedic turns from Oscar winners Sean Penn and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Cassandra Kulukundis, who began her career as an intern for director Paul Thomas Anderson, is now being recognized for her casting work on his latest film — a sweeping, multigenerational story that weaves together activism, politics, and family.

“I dedicate this to you and to the casting directors who never got a chance to get up here, who didn’t even get a chance to get their name on the movie," she says.

Sinners thrilled audiences with a vibrant sequence celebrating the musical and cultural contributions of different communities throughout U.S. history.

Onstage, a brief live performance recreated the film’s atmospheric setting — an old factory reimagined as a juke joint, the kind of lively, improvised venue once central to music, dance, food, and social life in African American communities across the American South.

Frankenstein's Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel, and Cliona Furey win the award for the Best Makeup and Hairstyling.

Creating Frankenstein’s monster for Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation required extraordinary precision — with makeup artists spending up to 10 hours a day transforming Jacob Elordi into the iconic creature.
 

Frankenstein's Kate Hawley wins the Academy award for Best Costume Design. 

She appreciates and honours her peers, her director, the Netflix family, and the fans in her 'thank you' speech.

Kate Hawley has also officially become the first winner of the night to get bleeped on stage, after letting slip a swear word during her acceptance speech.

“To my family, who have put up with a lot of sh**.”

Anne Hathaway and Anna Wintour make their way to the stage as presenters for the next awards for Best Costume Design, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling.

Presenters for the Animation awards, actors Will Arnett and Channing Tatum, also fired shots at using AI for filmamking.

"Tonight we are celebrating people, not AI, because animation, it’s more than a prompt.”

There have also been strong, heartfelt calls within the creative community urging the industry to continue prioritizing human artistry over AI‑generated work.

“People think it takes patience to take five years to make a puppet film,” the filmmakers behind The Girl Who Cried Pearls said. “Actually it takes patience to live with someone who takes five years to make a puppet film.”

The Girl Who Cried Pearls is named the Best Animated Short Film. 

Award‑winning filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczęsny embarked on a five‑year creative journey to bring this vision to life.

For their latest National Film Board project, they pushed the limits of their craft, meeting the painstaking frame‑by‑frame demands of stop‑motion animation — the medium that has long defined their work. Their handcrafted puppets had to move, emote, and exist within a meticulously recreated version of early‑20th‑century Montreal, a city they brought to life with intricate detail and imaginative flair across the film’s dazzling 16-minute runtime.

K-Pop Demon Hunters wins the award for Best Animated Feature Film. 

Maggie Kang gets emotional during her speech, and dedicates the award to Korea.

Amy Madigan wins the award for 'Best Actress In A Supporting Role' for her role in Weapons.

It's been 40 years since her last Oscar nomination in 1986.

Indian-American filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir is emerging as one of the standout contenders at this year’s Oscars. She has earned nominations in two major categories—Best Documentary Feature for The Perfect Neighbor and Best Documentary Short Film for The Devil is Busy.

Her double nod has generated significant excitement among Indian audiences, many of whom are hoping she will create history at the 2026 Academy Awards.

Conan O'Brien's opening skit makes for a compelling start! 

In a pre‑recorded comedy sketch, Conan appeared dressed as a character from Weapons, jokingly referring to himself as “Bette Davis with lupus.” The montage showed him racing through scenes inspired by some of the year’s biggest films — being chased by children, sprinting across an F1 track, playing ping pong, slipping back into Elizabethan England, and even transforming into an animated character for KPop Demon Hunters. He also shared a brief moment speaking Norwegian with actor Stellan Skarsgård before suddenly appearing in Sinners.

A humourous take on drama, and a dig at AI, saying he's probably the last human host of the Oscars. 

He follows it up with a comment on the security tightening at the Oscars, with a joke at the expense of Timothee Chalamet, and his ballet remarks.

And it's about to start in a few moments!