The 98th Academy Awards are unfolding at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on March 15, 2026, with Conan O’Brien hosting the live telecast. Sinners leads the season with a record 16 nominations and One Battle After Another follows with 13; winners have been announced across multiple categories as the ceremony progresses. Early winners include Sinners and One Battle After Another in top writing categories, technical recognition for Frankenstein and animated prizes for KPop Demon Hunters and The Girl Who Cried Pearls. This post summarizes who has won so far, places the results in context and notes what remains undecided as the night continues.
Key takeaways
- Sinners received a record 16 Academy Award nominations for the 98th Oscars, the most of any film this year.
- One Battle After Another earned 13 nominations and has already taken multiple early wins, including adapted screenplay and a supporting-actor prize for Sean Penn.
- Winners announced so far include Sinners (Original Screenplay) and One Battle After Another (Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Achievement in Casting).
- Frankenstein captured key technical awards so far, winning Achievement in Makeup & Hairstyling and Achievement in Costume Design.
- Animation honors announced so far: KPop Demon Hunters won Best Animated Feature and The Girl Who Cried Pearls won Best Animated Short.
- Best Live Action Short appears to show two winners listed in live updates, an unusual outcome that will require confirmation from the Academy.
- The ceremony is live and remaining top categories, including Best Picture and lead acting awards, have not been finalized at the time of this update.
Background
The Academy Awards, now in their 98th edition, continue to serve as the annual industry showcase for achievement in cinema, with nominations and wins often reshaping awards-season momentum and box-office attention. This year’s race was front-loaded by films like Sinners, which led with 16 nominations, and One Battle After Another with 13, reflecting both critical acclaim and awards-season campaigning. Genres represented across nominations range from prestige literary adaptations to genre filmmaking, and technical disciplines—casting, makeup, costume, visual effects—are receiving notable attention.
Nominations reflect voting across Academy branches, each specialized in categories such as actors, directors, writers and craftspeople. Historically, early wins in screenplay and technical categories can signal industry consensus and influence later votes, but Best Picture and lead acting categories remain pivotal. The Dolby Theatre in Hollywood remains the ceremony’s long-standing venue, and this year’s broadcast is being steered by Conan O’Brien, whose role as host frames the evening’s pacing and presentation.
Main event
The live ceremony in Hollywood has unfolded with multiple category announcements. In writing, Sinners was declared the winner for Original Screenplay, while One Battle After Another took Adapted Screenplay. Those results mark significant recognition for both films’ screenwriters and are among the night’s headline outcomes so far. Presentation order at the Oscars can influence perceived momentum; tonight’s placement gave early visibility to writing and technical categories before the big-picture and lead-acting reveals later in the broadcast.
In acting and casting, Sean Penn won Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for his work in One Battle After Another, while Cassandra Kulukundis accepted the Oscar for Achievement in Casting for the same film—an indicator of the film’s strength across both performance and talent selection. In the supporting-actress race, Amy Madigan won for Weapons, adding a high-profile acting trophy to the evening’s tally. These acting wins help shape the awards narrative around One Battle After Another and recognize veteran and peer-evaluated performances.
Technical awards have also featured prominently: Frankenstein secured Achievement in Makeup & Hairstyling (Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel and Cliona Furey) and Achievement in Costume Design, signaling Academy support for the film’s craft and design teams. Animated categories honored KPop Demon Hunters as Best Animated Feature and The Girl Who Cried Pearls as Best Animated Short, reflecting global and stylistic diversity in animation this season. Live updates list multiple winners in Best Live Action Short, an atypical situation that has prompted further scrutiny.
Analysis & implications
Early wins for writing and technical categories often do not guarantee Best Picture, but they indicate where Academy branches have coalesced. Sinners’ Original Screenplay win cements its status as a critical favorite; with 16 nominations, it is the film to watch for multiple awards across branches. One Battle After Another’s successes in Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor and Casting suggest broad peer recognition that could translate into additional late-night wins.
Frankenstein’s haul in makeup and costume underscores a recurring Oscar pattern: genre and effects-driven films can secure major technical awards even when competing with prestige dramas for top prizes. Such technical wins often extend a film’s awards-season shelf life by highlighting craft achievements that resonate with industry voters. For studios and distributors, these awards contribute to marketing leverage and postceremony box-office or streaming interest.
The animated wins point to the Academy’s continuing embrace of international and pop-culture-infused animation—KPop Demon Hunters’ victory highlights the cross-cultural reach of nontraditional animated franchises. If the live-action-short category indeed produced multiple winners, that would be a rare outcome and could prompt closer examination of the voting tabulation for short-form categories.
Comparison & data
| Film | Nominations | Wins announced so far |
|---|---|---|
| Sinners | 16 | Original Screenplay (1) |
| One Battle After Another | 13 | Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor (Sean Penn), Achievement in Casting (Cassandra Kulukundis) (3) |
| Frankenstein | — | Makeup & Hairstyling; Costume Design (2) |
| KPop Demon Hunters | — | Best Animated Feature (1) |
The table above tracks nominations where confirmed and counts wins announced during the live broadcast. Nominations are listed where the original nominations tally was provided; several films that have won technical awards tonight did not have nomination totals included in the live-update excerpt. The evening remains in progress, so totals will evolve as remaining categories are called.
Reactions & quotes
Announcements and live coverage have produced immediate responses across social and press channels; short official-style statements captured in live updates include the following.
“WINNER: Sinners”
NPR live winners list
“WINNER: One Battle After Another”
NPR live winners list
“WINNER: Sean Penn, One Battle After Another”
NPR live winners list
Unconfirmed
- Final Best Picture winner has not been announced and remains unconfirmed at the time of this update.
- Reports of two winners in Best Live Action Short appear in live updates and require official clarification from the Academy to confirm whether a tie or reporting error occurred.
- Total final win counts by film for the evening are incomplete until the ceremony concludes and the Academy posts the official winners list.
Bottom line
As the 98th Academy Awards progress at the Dolby Theatre, a clear narrative is emerging: Sinners leads with a record 16 nominations and an Original Screenplay win, while One Battle After Another has secured multiple important wins that keep it competitive across branches. Frankenstein’s technical victories and the animated-category results underscore the breadth of films being honored tonight, from craft-driven projects to international and pop-culture animation.
With top categories still to come—including Best Picture and lead acting awards—the final distribution of trophies may still reshape the evening’s story. This update will be revised as the Academy confirms remaining winners and posts the official results.
Sources
- NPR — U.S. news media (live winners list and ceremony coverage)