HOLLYWOOD — The 98th Academy Awards on Sunday saw "One Battle After Another" win big with six awards, including best picture, director, supporting actor and casting.
"Sinners" followed with four awards, including best actor for leading man Michael B. Jordan, and "Frankenstein" won three.
Jessie Buckley took home best actress for "Hamnet."
Comedian Conan O'Brien returned for a second year to host the ceremony, held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
When best actor winner Michael B. Jordan came backstage, he had to wait about a full minute for many in the crowd of reporters to stop cheering and sit down before he could answer any questions.
The "Sinners" star who played twin brothers in the genre-bending vampire epic said his win feels "timely."
"I'm here because of the people who came before me," he said.
"I've been extremely blessed in my life," he continued. "There's a lot of people who've seen me grow up in this industry, grow up in this town, and they looked out for me — and they didn't have to."
Ryan Coogler praises teachers
Backstage, Ryan Coogler was greeted with cheers and many a raised placard for questions by members of the press. He credited an English professor when he was 17 who read an assignment and suggested he go to Hollywood and write screenplays.
The best original screenplay Oscar winner for "Sinners" was once a star wide receiver at Sacramento State, where he had 112 catches over his college career.
Coogler was also a two-time All-Academic selection in the Big Sky Conference.
He joins a rather exclusive club of sports figures who won Oscars, one that includes NBA greats Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry, Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin Durant and Mike Conley Jr.
Best original song winners had many more thanks to give backstage
The winners for "Golden" in "KPop Demon Hunters" thanked additional colleagues and family members after they were cut off during their acceptance speech.
Singer songwriter EJAE said she wanted to shoutout her fellow performers Rei Ami and Audrey Nuna, who voiced the singing parts along her in the film.
The cast also delivered thanks to their fans watching in Korea.
"I was very nervous but it was such an honor to be performing, it's such an incredible stage," EJAE said. "It was not on my bucket list because I did not think it was possible."
The Korean American said it was an "incredible experience" to honor their ancestors by beginning their performance with Korean traditional music.
Conan keeps things (pretty much) on schedule
The runtime of the show clocked in at 3 hours and 40 minutes, which is pretty typical for the show and somewhat modest considering 24 awards were handed out Sunday evening. The longest ceremony lasted over four hours in 2002.
A bizarre, pre-taped epilogue to the Oscars showed O'Brien being named the Oscars' "Host for Life" after his performance tonight.
That's before he's locked into an office where a green gas fills the room. An unconscious O'Brien is carried out to show his name plaque replaced by ... Mr. Beast?
Jessie Buckley, 'Hamnet,' wins best actress
Four people in Jessie Buckley's Irish family stood up and waved toward the stage from the mezzanine, far out of sight of the stage.
"My family, my Irish family, they're all here, Ireland bought them flights," Buckley said. "Mom, dad, thank you for teaching me to dream and to never be defined by expectation but to carve your own passion."
"We all come from a lineage of women who continue to create against all odds. Thank you for recognizing me in this role," she said.
The win "isn't about me anymore," she continued. "It's about so much more and I wanted it for all of the ladies in the room, and I wanted it for all the girls at home."
Paul Thomas Anderson, 'One Battle After Another,' wins best director
Anderson dedicated his win to Adam Somner.
"He's in a really big bar up in the sky right now," Anderson said of his late collaborator. "He's having a gin and tonic, and he is so happy."
Anderson said of the trophy for best director: "There will always be some doubt in your heart that you deserve it. But there is no question the pleasure of having it for myself."
'Mr. Nobody Against Putin' wins best documentary feature
"'Mr Nobody Against Putin' is about how you lose your country. And what we saw when working with this footage is that you lose it through countless small, little acts of complicity," filmmaker David Borenstein said.
"We all face a moral choice, but luckily, even a nobody is more powerful than you think," he said.
'An intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail'
Barbra Streisand's tribute to Robert Redford highlighted the late actor-director's history of defending press freedoms, protecting the environment and encouraging new voices in film.
"Bob had real backbone on and off the screen," she said.
Babs, as Redford used to call her, sang "The Way We Were" at the end of her tribute.
"I miss him now more than ever, even though he loved teasing me," she said, explaining how she got the nickname.
Rachel McAdams paid tribute to women — and Diane Keaton, in particular
"Believe me when I say there is an actress of my generation who was not inspired by and enthralled with her absolute singularity," she said.
McAdams told the audience a Girl Scout song Keaton used to sing set on film sets:
"Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other is gold. A circle is round, it has no end. That's how long, I will be your friend."
Reiner's actors join Billy Crystal onstage in tribute
Billy Crystal opened the in memoriam segment honoring his best friend, Rob Reiner.
He ticked off a list of Reiner's films, including "When Harry Met Sally," starring Crystal and Meg Ryan, "Stand By Me," "Say Anything" and "This is Spinal Tap," among many others.
A photo of Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, appeared behind Crystal.
The Reiners were found dead in their Los Angeles home in December. Their son, Nick Reiner, has been charged in the deaths of his parents and has pleaded not guilty.
Having a slew of actors with longstanding ties to Reiner — Meg Ryan, Kiefer Sutherland, Fred Savage, Demi Moore, John Cusack, Ione Skye and many others — come on stage for the tribute was reminiscent of how the Academy did the same for director John Hughes at the Oscars 16 years ago.
Sean Penn, best supporting actor winner, has skipped the Oscars, again
He won as supporting actor for "One Battle After Another."
"Sean Penn couldn't be here this evening," presenter Kieran Culkin said. "Or didn't want to, so I'll be accepting the award on his behalf."
Penn did little campaigning this awards season, and also stayed away from the Actor Awards and BAFTA Awards, where he won trophies.
It's not the first time Penn has no-showed at the Oscars.
The 65-year-old actor has never appeared too attached to Hollywood hardware, whether he wins or loses. He previously gave one of his Oscars to Ukraine resident Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
An Oscars tie is rare, but not a first
The live action short category resulted in a tie ("Two People Exchanging Saliva" and "The Singers" each got statuettes) this year. But this is not the first time this has happened at the Oscars.
The most recent tie came during the 2013 Oscars honoring films from 2012, when "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Skyfall" tied for the sound editing category. There have been five other ties in Oscars history, making Sunday's tie the seventh.
