Paul Thomas Anderson’s counter-culture caper One Battle After Another has won the Oscars war, taking home six awards after a hotly contested season.
The big-budget comedy thriller, inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, was named best picture and also won director, supporting actor for Sean Penn, adapted screenplay, editing, and the first-ever Oscar for casting, a category long-petitioned for within the industry.
Anderson says he wrote wrote this movie for his kids to say sorry for the housekeeping mess they left in this world they are handing off to them.
He also said he hoped a younger generation would help bring back “common sense and decency” to society.
Penn beat out his co-star Benicio del Toro for his third Oscar win but wasn’t in attendance to accept his award. “Sean Penn couldn’t be here tonight or didn’t want to,” presenter Kieran Culkin joked.
The season had became a two-horse race between One Battle After Another and Sinners, which entered the night as the most-nominated film ever with a record 16 nominations.
The period vampire blockbuster won four awards: actor for Michael B Jordan, original screenplay, original score and cinematography, which makes Autumn Durald Arkapaw the first ever female winner and first Black winner of the award.
Jordan won his first Oscar for his lead performance in the film, beating Timothée Chalamet and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Coogler is only the second Black winner of the original screenplay Oscar, following in the footsteps of Jordan Peele, who won for Get Out.

Jessie Buckley became the first-ever Irish winner of the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Chloé Zhao’s Shakespeare drama Hamnet. The 36-year-old was previously nominated for her role in The Lost Daughter.
Amy Madigan was named best supporting actress for her villainous role in the hit horror Weapons, beating Teyana Taylor and Wunmi Mosaku.
KPop Demon Hunters, Netflix’s most-watched film ever, won two Oscars for animated feature and original song.
Smash hit Golden made history as the first K-pop song to win an Oscar.
Guillermo del Toro’s Netflix take on Frankenstein also won three awards for production design, costume design and makeup and hairstyling. The Oscar for visual effects went to Avatar: Fire and Ash while F1 took home the award for sound.
There was also an unusual tie in the category for live action short, only the seventh time in Oscars history this has happened. The last time was in 2012 for sound editing.
It marks a major night for Warner Bros, with the studio taking home 11 awards and the first best picture win since Argo in 2013. The epic night for the studio arrives as Paramount prepares to merge after a heated battle for ownership.
Source: theguardian.com