After a very long awards season, One Battle After Another took home the Oscar for Best Picture at the 98th Academy Awards, ending Paul Thomas Anderson’s decades-long drought at the awards ceremony. Prior to Sunday evening, Anderson had been nominated 11 times but never won. But the filmmaker picked up three Oscars personally for One Battle After Another in a victory lap that capped off an unpredictable awards season. Ten movies into his career, the Academy finally anointed Anderson one of the best filmmakers of his generation.

The Leonardo DiCaprio-led thriller, which centers on modern revolutionaries—particularly an aging anarchist and his rebellious daughter—reckons with issues like climate change, immigration, racism, and governmental corruption that speak to this particular moment in time. “I wrote this movie for my kids, to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world we’re handing off to them,” Anderson said during his acceptance speech for Best Adapted Screenplay. “But also with the encouragement that they will be the generation that hopefully brings us some common sense and decency.”

One Battle After Another’s Best Picture win this year was far from guaranteed. Anderson’s epic found itself in an increasingly tight race against Ryan Coogler’s blockbuster vampire film, Sinners, in the weeks leading up to the awards show. Sinners, which delivers incisive social commentary within the framework of its genre packaging, had a late surge after winning Best Ensemble at the Actor Awards (formerly known as the SAG Awards). And on Oscar night, surprise wins for Michael B. Jordan for Best Actor and Autumn Durald Arkapaw for Best Cinematographer suggested that Sinners might capitalize on its momentum to snag the night’s most coveted prize after all.

Ultimately, One Battle maintained its leading edge and took home six Oscars total, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Anderson, as well as Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn, who was not present to accept his award. Sinners, which broke the all-time record for nominations with 16, left with four statues, the second biggest haul of the night.

Anderson acknowledged that One Battle faced stiff competition this year. "In 1975 the Oscar nominees were Dog Day Afternoon, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Jaws, Nashville, and Barry Lyndon,” he said during his acceptance speech for Best Picture. “There is no best among them. There is just what the mood might be that day. But we're just happy to be part of this wonderful, wonderful journey with our fellow filmmakers."

Despite the uncertainty leading into Sunday night, it seems it was simply Anderson’s time. Prior to the 2026 Oscars, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, Inherent Vice, Phantom Thread, and Licorice Pizza were all nominated for some combination of Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Director. Anderson’s awards season campaign hinged on the notion that he ought to have been rewarded long ago—and that One Battle was so critically acclaimed that it deserved the top spot. The film won the Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy, the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Picture, and a slew of critics’ prizes prior to Sunday evening. It also won top awards from the Directors Guild, Writers Guild, Producers Guild, and Society of Cinematographers.

When accepting the statue for Best Director, Anderson put it succinctly. “You make a guy work hard for one of these, I really appreciate it,” he said. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”