“One Battle After Another” has won the biggest battle of awards season — with newly minted best director Paul Thomas Anderson also taking home the Oscar for best picture.

Anderson’s epic, adapted from the Thomas Pynchon novel, “Vineland,” won six of the 13 awards for which it was nominated at Sunday’s 98th Academy Awards.

The win, while predicted by many upon the film’s September 2025 release, was considered less of a certainty in recent weeks, with the increasing momentum for Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.” Plenty of pundits believed the Academy would split the love, affording Anderson best picture and Coogler best director, or vice versa, with both filmmakers essentially guaranteed to win best adapted screenplay and best original screenplay, respectively — which they did.

“I just want to say that in 1975, the Oscar nominees for best picture were ‘Dog Day Afternoon,’ ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ ‘Jaws,’ ‘Nashville,’ and ‘Barry Lyndon,'” said 55-year-old Anderson. “There is no best among them. There is just what that mood might be that day. But we’re happy to be part of this — a wonderful, wonderful journey, with our fellow nominees, our fellow filmmakers, our fellow filmmakers that even weren’t recognized by the Academy.”

The newly minted best director winner said he “really blew it when I forgot to thank my cast” while accepting that honor: “You guys, let’s have a martini, this is pretty amazing.”

Anderson shared the best picture award with the late Adam Somner, who died in November, and Sara Murphy.

Earlier in the evening, “One Battle After Another” star Sean Penn won best supporting actor — though it was accepted on behalf of 2025 winner, Kieran Culkin, in place of the absent actor — best casting and best film editing.

It was also nominated for best actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), best supporting actor (Benicio Del Toro), best supporting actress (Teyana Taylor), best cinematography, best music (original score), best production design and best sound.

Hollywood’s biggest night ended as it started, with Conan O’Brien being plugged into one of the best picture contenders — this time, he appeared in place of Penn at the end of “One Battle.”

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