The 2025 film awards season has officially come to an end, with the annual Academy Awards, more popularly known as the Oscars, occurring last Sunday, March 15. This year’s awards were filled with lots of firsts and rare occasions in many different ways.
This year officially marked the 98th year for the awards, with second time host Conan O’Brien. This breakdown will be in chronological order, starting with the wins at the beginning of the night, leading up to the final wins.
To kick off the night, Amy Madigan won Best Supporting Actress for her role in “Weapons”, as antagonist, Aunt Gladys. This was the film’s only win and Amy Madigan’s first Oscar win, with only one other nomination 40 years ago. This category was stacked with nominees including Elle Fanning, for her performance in “Sentimental Value”, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, also for her performance in “Sentimental Value”, Wunmi Mosaku, for her performance in “Sinners”, and Teyana Taylor, for her performance in “One Battle After Another”.
The following category, Best Animated Feature Film, had nominees such as “Arco”, “Elio”, “Kpop Demon Hunters”, “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain”, and “Zootopia 2”. In a close race this year, “Kpop Demon Hunters”, walked away with the win.
Up next are the nominees for Best Animated Short Film, including “Butterfly”, “Forevergreen”, “The Girl Who Cried Pearls”, “Retirement Plan”, and “The Three Sisters”. The winner of this category was “The Girl Who Cried Pearls”, a stop motion film that took directors Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski 20 years to bring to life.
“Frankenstein”, from renowned director Guillermo Del Toro, came in and took the win for the next two categories in a row, with Kate Hawley taking home the Oscar for Best Costume design – up against Deborah L. Scott for “Avatar: Fire and Ash”, Malgosia Turzanka for “Hamnet”, Miyako Bellizi for “Marty Supreme”, and Ruth E. Carter for “Sinners” – and Best Makeup and Hairstyling, up against “Kokuho”, “Sinners”, “The Smashing Machine”, and “The Ugly Stepsister”.
The next award brought a new type of situation to the front, with the addition of a new category for the first time in 25 years, with the award for Best Casting making its debut with a win for Cassandra Kulukundis for her casting in “One Battle After Another”. Other nominees in this category included Nina Gold for “Hamnet”, Jennifer Venditti for “Marty Supreme”, Gabriel Domingues for “The Secret Agent”, and Francine Maisler for “Sinners”. This was just the first of many wins that night for the team behind “One Battle After Another”.
For the proceeding category, in an exciting turn of events for this year’s awards, there was a tie for Best Live Action Short Film. This is only the seventh tie in Academy Awards history, with the last taking place in 2013 between “Skyfall” and “Zero Dark Thirty” for Best Sound Editing. The films to tie this year were “The Singers” and “Two People Exchanging Saliva”. The other nominees in this category included “Butcher’s Stain”, “Jane Austen’s Period Drama”, and “A Friend of Dorothy”.
The next category, Best Supporting Actor, housed a close race with well known names in the film industry. Nominees included Benicio Del Toro for “One Battle After Another”, Jacob Elordi for “Frankenstein”, Delroy Lindo for “Sinners”, Sean Penn for “One Battle After Another”, and Stellan Skarsgård for “Sentimental Value”. In the end, the win went to Penn for his memorable performance as Colonel Lockjaw. Presenter and Best Supporting Actor Winner from the previous year, Keiran Culkin, accepted the award on Penn’s behalf due to Penn’s absence at the ceremony.
The Best Adapted Screenplay category is up next, with a stacked list of nominees. Will Tracy was nominated for “Bugonia”, Guillermo Del Toro was nominated for “Frankenstein”, Maggie O’Farrell and Chloé Zhao were nominated together for their writing for “Hamnet”, Paul Thomas Anderson was nominated for “One Battle After Another”, and Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar were nominated together for “Train Dreams”. In the end, the win went to Paul Thomas Anderson, marking his first Oscar win after 14 nominations, with the first being back in 1998 for “Boogie Nights”.
Ryan Coogler ended up walking away with the win for Best Original Screenplay, marking the first Oscar win for “Sinners”, the most nominated film in Academy Award history, with 16 nominations. This is Coogler’s first win after nominations for his work on “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” back in 2022 and “Judas and the Black Messiah” back in 2020. He was up against Robert Kaplow, for “Blue Moon”, Jafar Panahi for “It was Just an Accident”, Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie for “Marty Supreme”, and Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt for their joined work on “Sentimental Value”.
“Frankenstein” came back to take another win for its stunning visuals in the category of Best Production Design. “Hamnet”, “Marty Supreme”, “One Battle After Another”, and “Sinners” were also nominated. This ended up being the last win for the “Frankenstein” team for the night, walking away with three total wins for the film.
The category of Best Visual Effects, focused on imagery that does not generally exist in real life, only through art and creativity. This Oscar was awarded to the team behind “Avatar: Fire and Ash”. “F1”, “Jurassic World Rebirth”, “The Lost Bus”, and “Sinners” were nominated alongside the winner.
The next category took a more serious, deep turn, bringing attention back to reality and where society is today, with the award for Best Documentary Short Film. The nominated films included “All the Empty Rooms”, “Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud”, “Children No More: ‘ Were and Are Gone’”, “The Devil is Busy”, and “Perfectly a Strangeness”. The win went to “All the Empty Rooms”, with director Joshua Seftel accepting the award with producer Conall Jones, CBS News Correspondent Steve Hartman, who, along with photographer Lou Bopp, documented the rooms of four young children who never got to return home after school shootings. Gloria Cazares also came to stand with the team to speak of her 9-year-old daughter Jackie, who was killed in the 2022 Uvalde School shooting. The air felt still as she spoke, with every single person, not just in that room, but also at home, pausing to listen to her powerful words.
Continuing with the heavy themes, the following category was Best Documentary Feature Film. “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” won the category, with the star of the film and co-director, teacher Pavel Talenkin, using the moment to speak about the reason for the film and its significance.
In a lighter turn of events, the Documentary Categories were followed with the category for Best Original Score. The category included Jerskin Fendrix for “Bugonia”, Alexandr Desplat for “Frankenstein”, Max Richter for “Hamnet”, Jonny Greenwood for “One Battle After Another”, and Ludwig Göransson for “Sinners”. Göransson ended up walking away with the win, marking his third Oscar win.
“F1” received its first and only win that night, with the award for Best Sound, up against “Frankenstein”, “One Battle After Another”, “Sinners”, and “Sirât”.
“One Battle After Another” editor Andy Jurgenson secured the fourth overall win for the film, with the award for Best Film Editing. This category included names such as Stephen Mirrione for his editing for “F1”, Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie for their collective editing work for “Marty Supreme”, Oliver Bugge Coutté for “Sentimental Value”, and Michael P. Shawver for “Sinners”.
The following category brought a new first to the awards show, with Autumn Durald Arkapaw becoming the first woman of color to win for Best Cinematography for her brilliant work behind the scenes of “Sinners”. Other nominated films included “Frankenstein”, “Marty Supreme”, “One Battle After Another”, and “Train Dreams”.
Best International Feature Film is up next, with Norwegian film, “Sentimental Value” taking home the win. This category was filled with a unique variety of films, with Brazilian film “The Secret Agent”, French film, “It was Just an Accident”, Spanish film “Sirât”, and Tunisian film “The Voice of Hind Rajab” occupying the other slots as nominees.
The focus shifted back to music with the category of Best Original Song up next. “Dear Me” from “Dianne Warren: Relentless”, “Golden” from “Kpop Demon Hunters”, “I Lied to You” from “Sinners”, “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from “Viva Verdi!”, and “Train Dreams” from “Train Dreams” filled up the slots for nominations. The win ended up going to “Golden”, marking a historical moment for the team, making several co-writers of the song the first South-Koreans to win in the category.
In the home-stretch of the awards, the nominees for Best Director were announced. Nominees included Chloé Zhao for “Hamnet”, Josh Safdie for “Marty Supreme”, Paul Thomas Anderson for “One Battle After Another”, Joachim Trier for “Sentimental Value”, and Ryan Coogler for “Sinners”. In a close race, Paul Thomas Anderson received his second personal win of the night and the fifth academy win for the movie.
With the most widely known category, the battle for the win was hard to guess in many ways, with every nominee’s performance being widely praised. Nominees for Best Actor included Timothée Chalamet as Marty Supreme (“Marty Supreme”), Leonardo Dicaprio as Bob (“One Battle After Another”), Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart (“Blue Moon”), Michael B. Jordan as both Smoke and Stack (“Sinners”), and Wagner Moura as Marcelo Alves, Armando Solimões, and Fernando Solimões (“The Secret Agent”). In an announcement that received a standing ovation, Michael B. Jordan received his first Oscar.
Following this emotional win, the nominees for Best Actress were announced, with Jessie Buckley as Agnes (“Hamnet”), Rose Byrne as Linda (“If I had Legs I’d Kick you”), Kate Hudson as Claire Sardina (“Song Sung Blue”), Renate Reinsv as Nora Borg (“Sentimental Value”), and Emma Stone as Michelle Fuller (“Bugonia”). Jessie Buckley went home with the award, making her the first Irish actress to win in the category. She dedicated the award to “the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart” in honor of the fact that it was Mother’s Day in the United Kingdom.
The final award of the night was the announcement of Best Picture. This is one of the highest honors a film team can receive, making it one of the most high stakes categories, featuring a total of ten nominees instead of the usual five for each category. The nominees for 2025 Best Picture were “Bugonia”, “F1”, “Frankenstein”, “Hamnet”, “Marty Supreme”, “One Battle After Another”, “The Secret Agent”, “Sentimental Value”, “Sinners”, and “Train Dreams”. The room went quiet while Nicole Kidman and Ewan Mcgregor opened the envelope containing the winning film, before erupting in applause. The winner for Best Picture at the 98th Academy Awards was “One Battle After Another” securing Paul Thomas Anderson with his third, and final win of the night, and officially bringing the sixth win to the films team, bringing more wins than any other film this year. “Sinners” followed close behind “One Battle After Another” with a total of four wins and “Frankenstein” behind that with three wins.
2026 is set to be another big year with dozens of large projects underway, with big names such as Denis Villeneuve and Christopher Nolan back in the directors seat of new, massive projects, as well as “Project Hail Mary” already being a hit among fans and critics alike. It’s only a matter of time before the awards season kicks back up and new stars begin making headlines.
Updated 24 March, 2026
