After decades of being the Academy's favorite bridesmaid, Paul Thomas Anderson finally got to carry the bouquet. One Battle After Another swept the 98th Academy Awards with six wins, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn, Best Casting, and Best Film Editing.
For those keeping score at home: PTA has been nominated for Best Director five times previously without winning. There Will Be Blood lost to No Country for Old Men. The Master lost to Life of Pi. Phantom Thread lost to The Shape of Water. Every time, voters chose something else - something safer, something more palatable, something less challenging.
Not this time.
One Battle After Another, PTA's adaptation of a literary novel about conflict and consequence, represents the filmmaker at his most assured. It's the kind of film that rewards patience and attention, that trusts its audience to keep up without holding hands. In other words, vintage PTA - but with an emotional accessibility that may have finally cracked the Academy's resistance.
Leonardo DiCaprio delivers one of his finest performances in the lead role (though he lost Best Actor to Michael B. Jordan for Sinners), and Sean Penn won Best Supporting Actor for what critics are calling a career-defining performance. Benicio Del Toro was also nominated in the same category, giving PTA two of the five nominees - a testament to his direction of actors.
The film's six wins tie it with Sinners as the night's biggest victor, though Sinners took home four awards across different categories. It's a split decision that feels appropriate - Sinners represents bold, visceral filmmaking from Ryan Coogler, while One Battle After Another is the work of a master craftsman operating at peak powers.
What's remarkable is how decisively the Academy embraced PTA's vision. This wasn't a narrow Best Picture win or a consolation prize for a director who's been passed over too many times. This was a statement: this is what great cinema looks like, and we recognize it.
