Hollywood has chosen: Paul Thomas Anderson's “A Battle After Another” was crowned by the 10,000-plus members of the Academy as the best film of 2025 at the end of a ceremony that saw a duel to the finish with Ryan Coogler's “Sinners.”
The dramatic comedy about former revolutionaries grappling with the consequences of their past won a total of six statuettes , including for best director: the first Oscar for the director of “Magnolia”, “Licorice Pizza” and “Phantom Thread” after 11 nominations , for best supporting actor ( Sean Penn, who skipped the ceremony, having directed, it is said, in Ukraine ), best adapted screenplay (inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s “Vineland”), best editing and, for the first time in the history of the Oscars, best casting.
After having won almost all the main awards of the season - including Golden Globe, Bafta, directors and producers - Anderson was the favourite on the eve even if, on the nominations front (13) he had been beaten by the 16 of "Sinners" , the saga about vampires and racism in the segregated South written and directed by Coogler who won for the original screenplay, the best leading actor (Michael B. Jordan surprised Timothee Chalamet in the last minute) , the soundtrack by the Swedish Ludwig Gorannson and the photography by Autumn Durald Arkapaw, the first woman, and the first woman of colour, to win the Oscar in a historically male sector.
The Best Actress award was no surprise: it went to Irish actress Jessie Buckley for "Hamnet," while Amy Madigan won Best Supporting Actress for the horror film "Weapons." The Oscar for Best Original Song, "Golden" by K-Pop Demon Hunters, was also a given. In an industry undergoing profound transformation, both "The Battle After the Battle" ($209 million at the worldwide box office) and "Sinners" ($370 million) were blockbusters released by Warner Bros. Studios at the center of Paramount Skydance's $111 billion takeover : they brought audiences to theaters by capturing the climate of the time, amid political polarization, radicalism, and new culture wars over identity.
