Oscar 2026: Paul Thomas Anderson and horror dominate the ceremony

The ceremony consecrated Anderson

At last Paul Thomas Anderson manages to take home his haul, actually, his hauls. After 14 nominations throughout his prestigious career - marked by magnificent works including Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), There Will Be Blood (2007) and Phantom Thread (2017) - Anderson, considered one of the most influential and greatest directors of contemporary auteur cinema, takes home the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 98th ceremony held, as usual, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

A life dedicated to a powerful, overwhelming and moving cinema that has given - and still gives - body and voice to imperfect, desperate and alienated characters, immersed in turbulent and dysfunctional situations. One Battle After Another thus manages to consecrate a cinematic genius. In addition to the three major awards, the film also took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn (who with this victory reaches a total of 3 Oscars), though he was not present at the ceremony due to activism in Ukraine, as well as the Oscar for Best Casting and Best Film Editing.

The Oscars defeated fear by rewarding it

Sinners by Ryan Coogler, director of Black Panther and Creed, is the second major winner of the night, with 4 awards: Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Original Score. And here we are faced with the second great historic novelty of the Academy: for too long demonized, for too many years set aside, horror cinema has finally managed to receive its deserved attention in the eyes of the golden statuette. In 2026, even the Oscar “dances with the devil,” and this time it was not afraid to face him.

Even the latest adaptation of Frankenstein, directed by the great dark fabulist Guillermo del Toro, had its moments of glory, managing to take home the three “craft” Oscars: Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling.

A long career finally recognized

Still within the horror sphere - mixed with police and thriller tones - Weapons by Zach Cregger, already the author of the dark Barbarian (2022), also managed to claim a small place, where actress Amy Madigan took home the statuette for Best Supporting Actress for playing a bizarre and unsettling old witch, heavily made up and with shocking red hair. Madigan’s Oscar comes forty years after her first nomination, in 1985 for Twice in a Lifetime, and represents the confirmation of a great artist who has worked across film, television and theatre (she has had roles in Grey’s Anatomy, E.R., Fringe and Law & Order).

Andrea Pelucchi