As Sunday's Oscars ceremony approached, it seemed to be shaping up to be a showdown between the vampires and the revolutionaries, between Sinners and One Battle After Another. In the end, One Battle After Another won both best picture and best director, but it was a very good night for Sinners, too, including an original screenplay award for writer and director Ryan Coogler.
There were some surprises over the course of the evening, including a rare tie in the live action short category, a remembrance of Robert Redford that included Barbra Streisand singing a bit of "The Way We Were," and Jimmy Kimmel stepping in just long enough to make some pointed comments about media censorship.
Let's go over some of the major takeaways
A celebrated director gets his Oscar. Paul Thomas Anderson won best director for One Battle After Another after three previous nominations for There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread and Licorice Pizza. Anderson had already won several major Oscar precursor awards this year, so he was the odds-on favorite.
Paul Thomas Anderson holds his Oscars. Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Michael B. Jordan won a rare acting award for a genre movie. Sinners is a drama, but it's also very much a genre film. It's horror. It's vampires. But Jordan, with his first nomination, won over performers from much more traditionally awards-friendly films. It's a great win for an actor who has been beloved at least since The Wire almost 25 years ago, who's been doing rich and varied work ever since. His victory is also a win for his lengthy and fruitful collaboration with Ryan Coogler.
Amy Madigan, the award-winning straight-up monster. (We don't mean Amy Madigan the person, of course.) Madigan won best supporting actress for her deeply unsettling and entirely singular performance as Aunt Gladys in Weapons, which is even more fully a horror movie than Sinners.
The casting Oscar makes its debut. This was the first year that there was an Oscar for casting, which is very much overdue — there have been casting Emmys for ages. Cassandra Kulukundis won for her work on One Battle After Another. It was easy to argue for any of the nominated casting directors. The biggest problem in the category was that everybody couldn't win.
A first in the cinematography category. Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who won best cinematography for her work on Sinners, was only the fourth woman, and the first woman of color, to be nominated in the category. She becomes the first woman to win.
Jessie Buckley took home best actress for Hamnet. Sean Penn was recognized as best supporting actor. KPop Demon Hunters received best animated feature film. Sentimental Value won best international feature film. Ryan Coogler won his first Oscar. Find the full list of winners here.
Ryan Coogler accepts the Oscar for best original screenplay for Sinners. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Catch up on the red carpet
See what the stars were wearing as they arrived at The Dolby Theatre last night.
Jessie Buckley arrives at the Oscars. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
What to watch next?
We asked our NPR audience: What movie would you recommend to someone who loved One Battle After Another? You wrote back suggesting V for Vendetta, The Battle of Algiers and more. See all the recommendations here.
Leonardo DiCaprio in One Battle After Another.Warner Bros. Pictures
So much to talk about
Look out for a Pop Culture Happy Hour episode recapping the ceremony here and in your podcast feeds this morning.
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