Hollywood had its grandest night of the year on Sunday, March 15, and by the time Conan O’Brien wrapped up his hosting duties at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, the film world had a new champion. Paul Thomas Anderson‘s One Battle After Another took home six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director The Hollywood Reporter — a sweep that cemented the Warner Bros. drama as the defining film of its year. But the night was far from a one-film show.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Long-Awaited Crown

For anyone who has followed awards season long enough, Sunday felt like a reckoning. Anderson took the statuette for Best Directing after winning earlier for Best Adapted Screenplay for One Battle After Another — his first Academy Awards after 11 previous nominations dating back to 1998. Deadline That’s nearly three decades of “almost.” He became just the ninth person in history to win Best Picture, Directing, and Screenplay Oscars on the same night. Deadline

The ceremony also marked the debut of a brand-new category — Best Achievement in Casting — with One Battle After Another taking home the inaugural award. ABC News Best Casting is the first new category at the Academy Awards in 25 years. CBS News Casting director Cassandra Kulukundis made history as the first-ever winner of that prize.

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One Battle After Another‘s Sean Penn won Best Supporting Actor, following up his win at the Actor Awards this month. It’s his third career Oscar, but his first in the Supporting Actor category. Deadline Penn, notably, was not present at the ceremony to accept the award in person.

Michael B. Jordan and the Sinners Wave

If One Battle After Another was the evening’s crown jewel, Ryan Coogler‘s Sinners was its most electric story. Sinners scooped up four Oscars, including Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan The Hollywood Reporter, who delivered a tour-de-force dual performance as twin brothers Smoke and Stack in the film’s vampire-infused Depression-era setting.

Ryan Coogler won his first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay NPR, a deeply personal project years in the making. Sinners also nabbed the award for Best Original Score for Ludwig Göransson and Best Cinematography for Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who became the first woman to ever win the award. The Hollywood Reporter That last win was historic, quietly revolutionary, and deserved every standing ovation it got.

Sinners had the most nominations of any movie ever with 16. CBS News Sixteen. It walked away with four. The math may sting, but those four wins were seismic.

Jessie Buckley, Amy Madigan, and the Women Who Won

Jessie Buckley received the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Hamnet, while Amy Madigan secured the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Weapons. ABC News Both wins came as genuine crowd pleasers. Buckley’s portrayal in the Shakespeare-inspired drama had been building buzz since its festival debut, and Madigan’s win — in a stacked supporting category — felt like a long-overdue recognition of one of American cinema’s most underappreciated talents.

Frankenstein’s Craft Sweep and Netflix’s Strong Night

Netflix‘s Frankenstein took three wins for craft awards, including Best Makeup & Hairstyling, Best Costume Design, and Production Design. Deadline The film, directed by Guillermo del Toro, had long been considered a strong contender in the technical categories, and it delivered precisely there. Amid the studio’s $110 billion acquisition by Paramount Skydance, Warner Bros. led all distributors with 11 statuettes. Netflix was next with seven, including three for Frankenstein. Deadline

K-Pop Makes Oscar History

In one of the night’s most unexpected moments, KPop Demon Hunters won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, while the film’s song “Golden” became the first K-pop song to ever win an Oscar, for Best Original Song. The Hollywood Reporter The win sent shockwaves across social media and beyond, marking a genuine cultural watershed moment for the Korean music industry and its global fanbase.

Moments Beyond the Movies

The 98th Oscars weren’t without their political undertones. Javier Bardem, while presenting the award for Best International Feature Film, said on stage, “No to war and free Palestine.” NPR David Borenstein, co-director of winning documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin, spoke about how a country is lost through “countless small, little acts of complicity.” NPR

The ceremony also featured a rare tie in the Live Action Short Film category. NPR The last Oscar tie was back in 2013.

In the In Memoriam segment, Billy Crystal began the tribute with a remembrance of his “best friend” Rob Reiner, and Barbra Streisand paid heartfelt tribute to her late The Way We Were co-star Robert Redford. Deadline

The Big Picture

The 98th Academy Awards were, by almost every measure, a great night for cinema. One Battle After Another rewarded a filmmaker who had waited a lifetime for recognition. Sinners shattered records and broke barriers. Hamnet gave us a best actress winner to remember. And K-pop got its first Oscar. Whatever you thought was going to happen walking into Sunday night — Hollywood found a way to surprise you anyway.

Nobody walking into the Dolby Theatre on Sunday night quite knew what version of Conan O’Brien they were going to get. The late-night legend had publicly downplayed the political edge of his planned monologue in pre-show interviews — and then proceeded to absolutely ignore that promise the moment the spotlight hit him.

In what many are already calling one of the most memorable Oscars openings in years, O’Brien delivered a rapid-fire, surprisingly barbed monologue at the 98th Academy Awards that bounced between absurdist comedy, Hollywood industry shots, and genuine political nerve. He dished out jokes ranging from mocking Timothée Chalamet‘s ballet and opera controversy, making cracks about Sean Penn and Ted Sarandos, and taking aim at the lack of arrests over the Jeffrey Epstein files. The Hollywood Reporter Not exactly light dinner-party conversation — but then again, this was never going to be that kind of night.

“The Last Human Host” Opens With a Warning

O’Brien opened by declaring, “I’m Conan O’Brien and I’m honored to be the last human host of the Academy Awards. Next year it’s going to be a Waymo in a tux.” The Hollywood Reporter It was a sharp, self-aware jab at the AI conversation consuming Hollywood, and it set the tone perfectly — this was a host who had done his homework, knew exactly where the landmines were, and was going to step on every single one of them.

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He also noted that “Last year, when I hosted, Los Angeles was on fire. But this year, everything’s going great!” The Hollywood Reporter — delivered with the kind of deadpan that only someone who has survived decades in late-night television truly masters.

The Chalamet Ballet Bomb

If there was one joke the internet had been waiting for all week, it was this one. Referencing Best Actor nominee Timothée Chalamet’s recent controversial comments about ballet and opera, O’Brien joked that organisers had been warned about potential outrage from arts communities. “I’m told there’s concern about attacks from both the opera and ballet communities,” he said. “They’re just mad you left out jazz.” The Nightly

The cameras quickly cut to a smiling, white-suited Chalamet in the audience. Deadline He took it graciously, which honestly may have been the most impressive performance of his entire awards season.

Nominated for Best Actor for his lead performance in ping-pong pic Marty Supreme, Chalamet has been Topic #1 on chat boards, late night comedy shows, and daytime talkers since his podcast comment that nobody cared anymore about ballet and opera. Deadline O’Brien, naturally, was never going to let that one go.

Ted Sarandos Gets the Theater Treatment

Noting that Netflix boss Ted Sarandos was in the audience, O’Brien said: “Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos is here. And this is exciting: It’s his first time in a theater!” The Nightly He then slipped into character, imagining Sarandos’s internal monologue: “Why are they all together enjoying themselves? They should be home alone, where I can monetize it.” Variety

Sarandos, laughing in the audience, seemed to take the ribbing well. Deadline Which is either a sign of a good sport — or a man who knows that Netflix just won seven Oscars and can afford to laugh.

Sean Penn, Film Jokes, and Going After Everything

O’Brien didn’t stop at the soft targets. He took clear aim at the films themselves with the kind of jokes that walk a very fine line. On Sinners director Ryan Coogler, who declined to become a voting member of the Academy, O’Brien said: “But the rest of you pricks seem to love it.” Boston.com The room’s reaction was half-shocked, half-delighted — which is pretty much the sweet spot for any good Oscars joke.

He also riffed that “Between Hamnet and Bugonia it’s been a big year for movies that sound like off-brand lunch meat.” Boston.com On Jessie Buckley‘s Hamnet, where Shakespeare‘s wife gives birth alone in the woods: “Or as we call that here in America, affordable healthcare.”

He also wasn’t going to let the political elephant in the room go unacknowledged. On the possibility of things getting too political: “I should warn you: Tonight could get political. Okay? And if that makes you uncomfortable, there’s an alternate Oscars being hosted by Kid Rock. It’s at the Dave & Buster’s down the street.” Variety

The Sketch That Started It All

Before a single joke was spoken at the podium, O’Brien had already set the tone with a pre-recorded opening sketch. He opened the show by cosplaying as Aunt Gladys, the viral witch from Weapons played by nominee Amy Madigan, during a pretaped sketch. While being chased by children, he ran through the sets of many of this year’s Oscar-nominated films. Gold Derby It was chaotic, funny, and exactly the kind of commitment to a bit that has always made O’Brien stand apart from the average awards show host.

A Serious Note to Close

For all the laughs — and there were plenty — O’Brien also knew when to put the jokes down. Towards the end of his monologue, O’Brien said: “Tonight’s Oscars are being watched by more than a billion people around the world. Tonight is an international event. If I can be serious for just a moment, everyone watching right now around the world is all too aware that these are very chaotic, frightening times. It’s at moments like these that I believe that the Oscars are particularly resonant.”

He went on to note that 31 countries across six continents were represented at the awards show, saying, “Every film we salute is the product of thousands of people speaking different languages, working hard to make something of beauty.”

It was a genuine moment — the kind that reminded you why a good host is irreplaceable. Whatever a Waymo in a tux may do next year, it’s going to have a very hard time following this.

Before a single Oscar was handed out inside the Dolby Theatre on Sunday, Hollywood had already given the world something to talk about. The red carpet for the 98th Annual Academy Awards was, by any measure, one of the most visually stunning in recent memory — a sprawling parade of couture, diamonds, feathers, and a few deliberate fashion Easter eggs that only true cinema lovers would catch.

Here is a walk through the night’s most memorable arrivals, one stunning look at a time.

Jessie Buckley: The Grace Kelly Tribute Nobody Expected

Jessie Buckley, up for Best Actress for her star turn in Hamnet, continued her Chanel streak in a custom pink bustier chiffon dress with a red satin leather stole that was inspired by a look Grace Kelly wore to the Oscars in the 1950s. W Magazine It was the kind of fashion reference that rewards the people paying attention — and Buckley, who went on to win Best Actress that night, looked every inch the legend she was paying homage to.

Chase Infiniti: A Debut That Felt Like a Coronation

It’s easy to forget that Chase Infiniti isn’t just making her Oscars red-carpet debut this year — One Battle After Another is her first movie, period. Marie Claire She made her Oscars debut early in a custom lavender Louis Vuitton floor-length ruffle dress and a diamond De Beers London choker. Dazed For a first-ever red carpet appearance, it was impossibly composed — the kind of arrival that veterans spend years trying to master.

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Rose Byrne: Pure Elegance in Dior

Nominee Rose Byrne donned a black Dior dress that dipped halfway down her back, echoing themes from designer Jonathan Anderson‘s sophomore collection shown earlier this month, with beaded flowers that evoked a stroll through the Tuileries. W Magazine Byrne had told press ahead of the season that the one feeling she’s always chasing on the red carpet is “elegance.” Consider it delivered.

Teyana Taylor: Chanel Reimagined

Teyana Taylor has levelled up her red carpet style with every stop on the One Battle After Another awards circuit. In her first red carpet dress by Chanel creative director Matthieu Blazy, Taylor proved that the codes of even the most traditional fashion houses can be remixed in the name of Hollywood’s biggest night. A Tiffany & Co. necklace featuring more than 18 carats of diamonds added almost more sparkle than the step-and-repeat could handle. Marie Claire Pre-show, she had told Variety, “Oh, my God, it’s going to be good.” She was not wrong.

Elle Fanning: A Real-Life Disney Princess Moment

Elle Fanning was the picture of a princess in a Givenchy by Sarah Burton gown, fitted with a strapless bodice, tulle ball skirt, and hand-stitched lavender-tinted wisteria petals. Marie Claire Fanning revealed on the carpet that Burton is a “dear friend” and that her team personally sewed every single petal onto the gown. First-ever Oscar nomination, first unforgettable red carpet moment — not a bad night for the Sentimental Value star.

Anne Hathaway’s Devil Wears Prada Wink

This one was for the fans. Anne Hathaway cleverly nodded to her Devil Wears Prada character Andy Sachs in an all-over floral gown by Valentino Marie Claire — a reference to one of that film’s most iconic lines. Anna Wintour declined to comment on Hathaway’s dress when they presented the Best Costume Design award side by side. CNN The irony was absolutely not lost on anyone in the room.

Timothée Chalamet Keeps It Classic

Timothée Chalamet arrived in a white shirt, white silk tie, and off-white tuxedo jacket, all by Givenchy. CNN Understated, clean, and quietly effective — the perfect outfit for a man who knew he was already the most-talked-about person at the ceremony before he’d even stepped out of the car. His partner Kylie Jenner, who has been dating the Marty Supreme star for three years, arrived in a show-stopping Schiaparelli gown that became one of the night’s most-photographed looks.

Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson: The Arrival Everyone Needed

Mother-daughter duo Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn arrived arm-in-arm at the Oscars. Marie Claire Hudson wore Giorgio Armani and the two shared a laugh before the cameras. CNN In a night full of carefully constructed solo moments, this one felt genuinely warm and unscripted — and the internet responded accordingly.

Zendaya: The Most Fashionably Late Arrival of the Night

Most years, Kylie Jenner is the only celebrity sneaking into the Oscars late. But for the 98th Annual Academy Awards, the title of most fashionably late arrival went to Zendaya. After stylist Law Roach teased her arrival, Zendaya joined The Drama co-star Robert Pattinson to present the award for Best Director in a custom Louis Vuitton gown — a chocolate brown minimalist dress featuring a slanted single shoulder and draping along the hips. Marie Claire Late and still the best dressed in the room. Some people just have that gift.

Michael B. Jordan, Demi Moore, and More

Michael B. Jordan adjusted his Louis Vuitton suit on the carpet before heading inside to win Best Actor. CNN Demi Moore arrived in what can only be described as peacock realness — a custom Gucci feathered number. Dazed Priyanka Chopra Jonas also made her presence felt CNN among the night’s star-studded arrivals, turning the step-and-repeat into what felt less like a photo call and more like a declaration.

The Bigger Picture

With plenty of gothic feathers and Glinda-style dresses, the looks this year were polarised between princess-core and avian-chic. Dazed It was a carpet that somehow managed to feel both timeless and completely of this moment — fashion that said something, worn by people who knew exactly what they were saying. The awards inside the Dolby Theatre were remarkable. But out here, under the lights and flashbulbs on a Sunday evening in Hollywood? The real show had already begun.