Insiders have wildly claimed Justin Bieber had a ‘heated exchange’ with his former mentor Usher at Jay-Z and Beyonce’s Oscars afterparty on Sunday.

Sources close to Bieber indicated it was Usher who approached the pop act with ‘energy and anger’ during the soiree at LA hotspot Chateau Marmont – but they insisted the dispute never became physical.

However, other insiders claimed the encounter culminated in a fistfight – leaving the exact nature of the alleged dispute unclear.

One source accused Bieber of having always been impolite to Usher, amid claims the Baby singer wants to freeze out people from his past, via TMZ.

Usher and Scooter Braun shepherded Bieber’s rise to fame when he was 13 and 14, signing him to their label after winning a bidding war against Justin Timberlake.

Early in their respective careers, Bieber, 32, and Usher, 47, were also both the proteges of disgraced rap mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, 56.

Last May, Bieber firmly denied years of rumors that he was molested by Diddy as a child, with a spokesperson saying he was ‘not among Sean Combs’ victims.’

The Daily Mail has contacted Usher and Bieber’s representatives for comment and has yet to hear back.

Among the star-studded guest list at Beyonce and Jay-Z’s Oscars afterparty were Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce as well as Timothee Chalamet and Kylie Jenner.

Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan were in attendance, as were Jacob Elordi, Teyana Taylor, Vin Diesel, Sofia Vergara, Austin Butler, Emma Stone, Emma Watson, Jon Batiste, Chloe Bailey and Vanessa and Natalia Bryant.

Bieber’s wife Hailey, nee Baldwin, was also among the invitees, along with her longtime close friend and fellow supermodel Kendall Jenner.

None of the famous names who dropped by Beyonce and Jay-Z’s party has publicly discussed witnessing any spat unfold between Bieber and Usher. 

Bieber went viral for his singing videos on YouTube in 2007 at the age of 13, leading to his discovery by business partners Scooter Braun and Usher.

They signed him the following year and guided him along his rise to global fame, with Bieber at one point moving to Atlanta with his mother to work with Usher.

‘I definitely try to be as much of a big brother, mentor and protector as I can,’ Usher said on the French radio show Le 6/9 in 2010. 

Back in 2024, Usher revealed that he had asked Bieber to be a part of his Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show in Las Vegas – but the Peaches hitmaker turned down the offer.

‘I honor and recognize that my brother, you know, he – I think that it might’ve been the fact that he’s just wanting to tell a different story right now, and I understand that,’ Usher said during an interview on The Breakfast Club in 2024.

‘But we did have a brief conversation, and we’re gonna do something else in the future,’ the performer added. ‘No love lost or anything like that.’ 

The star then shared that he had reached out to other music artists as well. 

‘He’s gonna play the Super Bowl,’ Usher added of Bieber at the time. ‘I’ll go ahead and give you that – in the future. I profess that over his life. 

‘It’s time, because he has a career that deserves it. But it just didn’t happen, but that doesn’t mean it’s not going to.’

And during a past interview with People, Usher also shared that he signed Bieber after a ‘bidding war’ with Justin Timberlake. 

‘…And it was a bit of a bidding war between me and Justin Timberlake,’ the My Boo hitmaker recalled. 

‘I was like, “I’m not certain that I could understand each and every producer that this artist could benefit from, but what I can tell you is I’m going to give you my passion, and I’m going to give you every bit of what I have to offer.”‘ 

Bieber and Usher were seemingly last pictured together back in 2021 as they attended a Lakers game in Los Angeles. 

Braun meanwhile emerged as one of the top music managers in the business, with a client list including Bieber as well as Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato.

He announced his retirement from the profession in June 2024, one day after he and Bieber ended their business relationship.

Bieber and Braun’s bond disintegrated into an explosive financial feud that ended with a settlement last year, in which the pop act allegedly agreed to pay a $26 million in costs related to the cancellation of his Justice tour in 2022, sources told TMZ.

Under the terms of the deal, Bieber was also reportedly meant to pay half of the $11 million in unpaid commission Braun claimed to be owed.

Usher and Bieber’s history with Diddy fell under renewed scrutiny when the rap mogul faced a raft of sex crime allegations he strenuously denied.

After a highly publicized trial, Diddy was acquitted last July of the most serious charges against him, sex trafficking and racketeering, though he was found guilty on two lesser charges of transportation to engage in prostitution.

As the scandal swirled around him, an old video resurfaced of him and a 15-year-old Bieber in which they discussed spending ’48 hours’ together.

‘He’s having 48 hours with Diddy, where we hanging out and what we’re doing we can’t really disclose. But it’s definitely a 15-year-old’s dream,’ said Diddy.

‘I have been given custody of him. He’s signed to Usher and I had legal guardianship of Usher when he did his first album. I don’t have legal guardianship of him but for the next 48 hours he’s with me and we’re gonna go full crazy.’ 

Bieber – who was standing next to Diddy in the video – offered only perfunctory contributions to the discussion like: ‘Yeah’ and: ‘Full crazy.’ 

Another unearthed video showed Diddy asking a then 16-year-old Bieber why he had not ‘been calling me and hanging out the way we used to hang out.’

An apparently anxious Bieber replied that Diddy had ‘tried to get in contact with me’ but ‘never got my number. I’m going to tell you my number.’ 

Fan concerns mounted for Bieber’s wellbeing in the wake of Diddy’s downfall, especially given the young singer’s hollow-eyed and disheveled appearance.

Speculation reached such a fever pitch that Bieber broke his silence through a spokesperson to deny that Diddy had ever sexually abused him.

‘Although Justin is not among Sean Combs’ victims, there are individuals who were genuinely harmed by him. Shifting focus away from this reality detracts from the justice these victims rightfully deserve,’ said the statement provided to TMZ.

Meanwhile, when Usher was 15, his manager LA Reid sent him to Los Angeles to spend a year living with Diddy in what has been described as ‘Puffy Flavor Camp.’

‘It was pretty wild. It was crazy. There were very curious things taking place and I didn’t necessarily understand it,’ Usher said on The Howard Stern Show in 2016.

When he was then asked whether he would ever send his own children to ‘Puffy Flavor Camp,’ Usher categorically responded: ‘Hell no!’ 

He came within a few hours of bumping into estranged dad David at the five-star Beverly Hills Hotel in LA on Monday – and now the Daily Mail can reveal Brooklyn Beckham has also spurned the chance to reunite with one of his brothers.

Romeo Beckham, 23, is currently on the west coast in sun-drenched Los Angeles, toiling on business projects of his own after joining dad David, 50, and a group of pals on a ski trip in British Columbia, Canada, over the weekend.

The younger Beckham is working on a collaboration with Malibu-born designer Justin Saul and was seen visiting the 33-year-old at his office in downtown LA on Tuesday.

But Brooklyn – who was last spotted at Elton John’s legendary Oscars watch party with wife Nicola Peltz on Sunday – has kept a low profile since his family’s arrival and has stayed close to his luxury $16 million villa in Beverly Hills’ ultra-exclusive Trousdale Estates.

On Tuesday, a source told the Daily Mail: ‘There is absolutely no contact between Brooklyn and his parents and there hasn’t been for some time, it is desperately sad but that is how Brooklyn has chosen to live his life with Nicola.

‘They didn’t see one another, if fate had intervened and they did come face to face it would have been very awkward.

‘Brooklyn has made it very clear he doesn’t want anything to do with David or Victoria, so it probably saved a whole lot of upset for David.’

Just days earlier, Brooklyn and David narrowly missed coming face to face twice at the Beverly Hills hotel, where he checked in late Sunday night. 

The soccer legend was in town to shoot a commercial for Lay’s chips – the sponsor of the forthcoming World Cup – in Santa Monica Monday morning. 

But in a twist of fate, Brooklyn arrived at the hotel that afternoon to have breakfast and what onlookers described as a ‘chill day’ by the pool after he partied into the early hours at Sir Elton John’s Oscars party.

His estranged father would later return for dinner at the world-famous Polo Lounge hotel restaurant at 6pm with two male friends, one being David Gardner, who also once had a very close relationship with Brooklyn. 

Brooklyn’s refusal to see his father and brother also comes after he ostentatiously ignored UK Mother’s Day, which takes place in March.

Instead, in what was widely regarded as a snub to his mother Victoria, Brooklyn chose to make a post on social media that celebrated his mother-in-law Claudia Peltz, whose March 15 birthday coincided with the British holiday.

While Brooklyn has kept out of sight during his dad and brother’s flying visit to Tinseltown, one person who had no such qualms was Nicola, 31, who was spotted heading to a meeting in Hollywood on Tuesday morning.

Seen in exclusive Daily Mail photos, the actress – whose dad is Florida billionaire Nelson Peltz – didn’t appear to have a care in the world.

Dressed in black leggings, platform boots and an ultra-fashionable bomber jacket, Peltz gave no sign that she was even aware that members of the Beckham clan were in town.

Brooklyn and his family have been at odds since last year, with the bad blood breaking into the open when he and Nicola failed to attend any of David’s lavish 50th birthday celebrations last May.

In the summer, lawyers for the Peltz-Beckhams contacted the family to demand that contact only take place via their legal teams – and demanded the Beckhams stop referencing the couple on their social media accounts.

Then, in November, the pair were conspicuous by their absence when the Beckhams descended on Windsor Castle en masse to see David receive his longed-for knighthood from King Charles.

Shortly before Christmas, Brooklyn blocked his parents on social media and, in January, released a six-page letter via his Instagram account that laid out his reasons for the estrangement in brutal fashion.

According to the 27-year-old, his fashion designer mother danced ‘inappropriately’ with him at his 2022 wedding and tried to split him and Nicola up – all of which she has denied.

He also accused his parents of controlling him throughout his life and said he had no desire for any reconciliation with his family.

It appears Timothee Chalamet suffered quite the bruised ego at the 2026 Academy Awards.

Not only did he lose out on winning his first-ever Oscar, but he also went unnoticed by Steven Spielberg on the red carpet. 

The director, 79, had recently criticized controversial comments Chalamet, 30, made about ballet and opera, and if the actor hoped to smooth things over with the director at the Oscars, he certainly lost his opportunity. 

Video captured by the Canadian entertainment show ETalk shows the moment Chalamet seemingly approaches Spielberg, lingering for several seconds before his publicist escorts him away after the filmmaker fails to notice him. 

The duo were just inches away from one another, though Spielberg’s back was turned to Oscar nominee and it is unclear if he was even aware of Chalamet’s presence. 

Spielberg, who was attending the show with his granddaughter Eve Gavigan, seemed more concerned with greeting colleagues and making his way through the red carpet. 

The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Chalamet and Spielberg, but has not yet heard back.

Spielberg was one of many hitting back at recent comments Chalamet made about ‘no one’ caring about ballet and opera anymore.  

The Oscar-nominee made the unfiltered remark while talking to Matthew McConaughey about his hopes that movie theaters are able to survive.

He then added that ‘I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera or, you know, things where it’s like: “Hey, keep this thing alive,” even though no one cares about this anymore,’ in an interview for Variety’s Actors on Actors.

‘All respect to the ballet and opera people out there,’ added Chalamet, who is nominated for a best actor Oscar this Sunday for the ping-pong movie Marty Supreme. ‘I just lost 14 cents in viewership, I just took shots for no reason.’

His comments drew outrage from theatrical personalities ranging from ballerina Misty Copeland to legend of stage and screen Nathan Lane. 

Spielberg slyly inveighed against Chalamet while discussing his own hopes for movie theaters during an onstage interview at the South by Southwest film festival.

‘But for me, the real experience comes when we can influence a community to congregate in a strange, dark space where all of us are strangers,’ he said.

‘At the end of a really good movie experience, we are all united with a whole bunch of feelings that we walk into the daylight with, or into the nighttime with. And there’s nothing like that. It happens in movies and in concerts. And it happens in ballet and opera, by the way,’ he added, according to Variety.

The audience cheered and laughed at the obvious Chalamet dig, and Spielberg noted with a smile: ‘And we want that to be sustained. We want that to go on forever.’

Chalamet’s dig at opera and ballet came when he and McConaughey were discussing the Hollywood figures who make public statements in support of movie theaters.

‘I admire people, and I’ve done it myself, doing a talk show about how we’ve got to keep movie theatres alive, you know, we’ve got to keep this genre alive,’ he said.

‘And another part of me feels like, if people want to see it, like Barbie, like Oppenheimer, they’re going to go see it and go out of their way to be loud and proud about it,’ he added, noting opera and ballet do not have that mainstream audience.

When he then apologized for the ‘shot’ he had taken at the art form, McConaughey said: ‘That’s not a shot, I hear what you’re saying.’

Teyana Taylor has revealed what really happened when she was allegedly shoved by a security guard at the 2026 Oscars in what was a particularly dramatic night for the star. 

A viral video showed the 35-year-old accusing a man of getting physical with her as she tried to move through the crowd at the Academy Awards. 

The explosive confrontation came after Taylor was accused of having an over-the-top reaction to losing the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, which prompted her to compare the ‘sore losers’ dubious of her celebratory response to ‘demons.’ 

Taylor was asked by TMZ about the alleged shoving after the Oscars and claimed that a bad apple among the security guards was responsible for the move.  

‘It’s all good,’ she told TMZ. ‘Everybody’s having a good time, security was just doing a lot.

‘There’s always that one,’ she added. 

‘At the end of the day, I just don’t tolerate disrespect, especially when it’s unwarranted and it’s unprovoked.’

A witness told E! the moment occurred after Teyana was approached by security as she tried to get onto the Dolby Theatre stage with Warner Bros co-head Pamela Abdy to take a group photo. 

Video of the aftermath showed Taylor erupting backstage after she was allegedly ‘shoved’ by an unknown man. 

Pointing angrily at someone off camera, the visibly upset star raised her voice and said: ‘You’re a man putting his hands on a female.’

She continued, repeating: ‘You’re very rude. You’re very rude. You’re very rude.’

Turning to a concerned attendee who approached the tense scene, Taylor explained the situation, saying: ‘Cause he put his hands on a female.’

The singer-turned-actress then claimed the man had pushed her, adding: ‘He literally shoved me. He was damn near shoving her,’ while referencing an unidentified woman nearby.

The clip ended with Taylor making it clear why she was furious, telling those around her: ‘Do not touch me, do not shove me, do not push me.’ 

In a statement to Variety, the security firm, Security Industry Specialists, Inc. acknowledged that ‘there was a brief interaction involving Ms Taylor and a member of our security team during the show last evening.’

‘Our security personnel were working to manage a crowded area and ensure the safety of all guests,’ the security firm explained. ‘During that interaction, there was incidental contact and we regret that the situation escalated.

‘This is not the standard of professionalism we expect from our team, and we have addressed the manner internally to help ensure situations like this do not happen again.’ 

The Academy also apologized for the incident in a separate statement.

‘We were extremely upset to learn about the experience endured by Teyana Taylor at the end of the Oscars ceremony last night,’ it said. ‘We have worked with Teyana over the last several months during awards season, and she has been nothing short of remarkable, supportive kind and all about community.

‘Though the incident was with our outside security firm SIS, the experience of every single guest is our responsibility. We have made it clear to them that this behavior is not acceptable,’ the Academy continued.

‘We want to thank Teyana for showing remarkable grace and we are taking the appropriate measures to ensure this does not happen again.’

The tense moment came after Taylor had already sparked a social media frenzy earlier in the evening over her dramatic reaction to losing the Best Supporting Actress prize, with one body language expert even branding it an ‘overkill performance.’

Cameras didn’t miss a beat as a split-screen captured Taylor’s antics alongside fellow nominees Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners), Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Sentimental Value) and Elle Fanning (Sentimental Value).

When Madigan’s name was announced, Taylor leapt from her seat, throwing her arms above her head and clapping wildly – a display many viewers said looked more like a victory celebration than a loss.

‘Teyana Taylor faking the happiness, girl sit down and relax,’ one viewer wrote on X, while another posted: ‘Lmao that Teyana Taylor reaction, the fakest sh** ever.’

One fan added: ‘Why is Teyana acting like she isn’t crying inside?’

The criticism touched a nerve with Taylor, who issued a scathing tweet slamming the ‘sore losers’ behind the criticism. 

‘The world holds so much misery that miserable hearts forget the face of happiness. They grow comfortable being sore losers, so when they see real sportsmanship, it unsettles them! like holy water touching a demon. 

‘Because clapping for someone else’s victory requires something many people never learned… how to win with grace & pure joy, and how to lose with grace, chin up & dignity.’ 

Body language expert Judi James weighed in on Taylor’s reaction to the loss, telling the Daily Mail: ‘The split-screen responses from Elle Fanning and Teyana Taylor as they didn’t get Best Supporting Actress were overkill performances of counter-intuitive emotions that should have won an award in a category of their own.’

Both Taylor and fellow nominee Fanning threw themselves into what Judi James described as ‘wild rituals’ normally reserved for winners, suggesting that they were cheering for another actress while hiding their own disappointment.

‘Both hid their actual disappointment by masking their authentic facial expressions,’ James explained.

‘Teyana dived forward from her seat as though she’d received an electric shock, her head lowering, meaning she barely needed to compose a masked facial expression.

‘When she came up, she was in full celebratory mode, clapping with her hands above her head.’

Fanning’s performance followed a similar pattern. ‘She immediately went into a winner’s pose, shrugging her shoulders in delight, throwing her mouth wide open with brows raised in surprise and eyes squinting almost shut,’ James continued.

‘This was a mask of peak pleasure, which she then followed by falling back into her seat laughing with some excited seal-like clapping.’

According to James, over-the-top behaviors like these tend to reveal a burst of strong underlying emotion – in this case, natural disappointment – that can only be concealed by an equally strong display of the opposite feeling.

‘Overkill behaviors like this tend to suggest a burst of strong emotion as the authentic response, in this case probably natural disappointment, that can only be concealed by an equally strong mask of the opposite emotion,’ she explained.

Meanwhile, it has been a strong awards season for the 35-year-old.

While she failed to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, she received a trophy at the Golden Globes for her role in One Battle After Another.

She also received nominations from the Critics’ Choice Awards, BAFTAs and the NAACP Image Awards.

This Oscar nod is her first Academy Award nomination.

Beyond acting, Taylor earned a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album for Escape Room, highlighting her career as a singer, dancer, and choreographer as well as an actress.

One Battle After Another ended the 2026 awards season by winning Best Picture on a night where Michael B Jordan and Jessie Buckley earned top acting prizes.

Jordan, 39, shocked the world at the 98th Academy Awards as he upset Timothee Chalamet to win Best Actor for Sinners, as Buckley, 36, took home Best Actress for her work in Hamnet at the event held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Paul Thomas Anderson accepted the top prize of the night alongside Teyana Taylor and the rest of the cast and crew as the film earned the most wins of the night with six.

The American black comedy action-thriller film triumphed over a massive, competitive field, including Bugonia, F1, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, Sinners and Train Dreams.

The Leonardo DiCaprio-led film One Battle After Another is centered around a group of ex-revolutionaries who reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own as their enemy resurfaces after 16 years

Oscar award-winning actor Javier Bardem is facing backlash over comments he made during the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday when he presented the Best International Feature award.

“No to war and Free Palestine,” Bardem said before announcing the winner while wearing a “No a la Guerra” (No to War) pin — a symbol he previously wore to oppose the U.S.’s “illegal war” against Iraq.

Critics quickly slammed the actor for what they described as anti-Israel stances.

“It’s no secret that Javier Bardem has spent years vilifying Israel on the world stage,” one user wrote on X.

Some even questioned why he was on stage.

“Did he have a new film that earned him a spot on the Academy Award stage tonight? No. The Oscars chose him anyway, during an era that can only be described as open hunting season on Jews worldwide,” Samantha Ettus noted.

While Bardem was not directly nominated for an Oscar, his movie — the Formula One racing drama F1, directed by Joseph Kosinski — was up for awards. The film, an Apple Original starring Brad Pitt, received four nominations at the 98th Academy Awards, winning Best Sound. It was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Editing, and Best Visual Effects, marking a major showing for the racing film.

“You know who didn’t deserve a spot at the awards today and didn’t get it? You,” another user wrote.

Some viewers were also frustrated that the ceremony had become political, with many attendees wearing “Artists for Ceasefire” and “ICE Out” pins.

“I can no longer bear to watch the Academy Awards, which used to be an event of interest; now I know it will be an anti-Israel fest,” one frustrated fan on X wrote. “Who would dare to buck the trend of supporting Palestine, Hezbollah, Hamas & the Iranian regime, among the lustrous celebs at the Dolby Theatre?”

This is not Bardem’s first display of political advocacy at awards shows.

Bardem said the pin was the same “No a la Guerra” badge he wore in 2003, linking his past anti-war activism to current events. In September 2025, he also used the Primetime Emmy Awards to spotlight the situation in Gaza, CNN reported. In February 2026, he joined more than 80 others in signing an open letter urging the Berlin International Film Festival to condemn Israel’s actions.

Critics said Bardem was not the only one to blame, but also the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences itself.

“Bardem’s record is ugly, but the most reprehensible actor here is @TheAcademy itself, which decided that this is the moment to hand him a microphone and a global platform,” Ettus said.

“@TheAcademy handed him the platform, knowing full well he would use it to amplify his message of Jew hatred,” another user said.

Jessie Buckley shared the name of her daughter for the first time while accepting the award for Best Actress at the Oscars on Sunday evening in Los Angeles.

The Hamnet star, 36, who became the first Irish woman to win the gong on the night, dedicated her history-making award to the ‘beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart’.

Jessie confirmed in December she had welcomed her first child ‘earlier that year’, after becoming pregnant a week after filming wrapped on Hamnet.

The actress had so far kept her little girl’s name under wraps, but sharing her moniker during her acceptance speech, Jessie revealed her child is called Isla.

Speaking on stage at the Dolby Theatre, she said: ‘Chloe and Maggie, you too get to know this incandescent woman, and journey to understand the capacity of a mother’s love is the greatest collision of my life.

‘It’s Mother’s Day in the UK today, but I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart.

‘We all come from a lineage of women who continue to create against the odds, thank you for recognising me in this role, this is the greatest honour, I can’t believe it.’

Jessie paid a touching tribute to her family, including her husband Freddie Sorensen and their daughter Isla, eight months.

She said: ‘My family, my Irish family, they’re all here tonight. Ireland bought them flights — where are you? Mom, dad, thank you for teaching us to dream and to never be defined by expectation, but to carve from your own passion.

‘You, Fred, I love you. You’re the most incredible dad, you’re my best friend and I want to have 20,000 more babies with you.

‘Isla, who is eight months and has no idea what is going on and is probably dreaming of milk. But this is a big deal and I love you, I love being your mum and I can’t wait to discover life with you.’

Jessie took the time to recognise the work of her fellow nominees, Emma Stone (Bugonia), Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value) and Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue).

She gushed: ‘Thank you to the incredible women that I stand beside. I am inspired by your art and your heart, and I want to work with every single one of you.’

Anora star Mikey Madison, last year’s winner in the same category, presented the award to Jessie.

Jessie has so far racked up a slew of wins at earlier ceremonies across awards season and was the favourite to take home the Oscar.

Jessie played Agnes, the wife of Shakespeare and the mother of the titular Hamnet, in the Chloe Zhao-directed film.

The film was nominated in the following categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Casting, Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. 

Earlier during the awards season, she received her flowers at the Actor Awards (formerly known as SAG), the BAFTAs, the Critics’ Choice Awards and the Golden Globes for her performance in the raw and emotional drama piece. 

She was previously nominated in the category of Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The Lost Daughter back in 2022.

Last year, Chloe opened up about casting Jessie and lauded her performance as Agnes.

‘I knew her work,’ the Oscar-winning filmmaker told IndieWire in November 2025. ‘I had a feeling that she wouldn’t be afraid. There was no vanity in her, which is what Fran McDormand had.’ 

Chloe continued: ‘I’m neurodivergent, and when there’s dissonance, I can’t function. I can’t look at the person. So I need that authenticity, and vanity is the number-one enemy of authenticity. 

‘Actors, their greatest blessing they can give to the world is their authenticity and their humanness.’

One Battle After Another ended the 2026 awards season by winning Best Picture on a night where Michael B Jordan and Jessie earned top acting prizes.

Michael, 39, shocked the world at the 98th Academy Awards as he upset Timothee Chalamet to win Best Actor for Sinners.

Paul Thomas Anderson accepted the top prize of the night alongside Teyana Taylor and the rest of the cast and crew as the film earned the most wins of the night with six. 

The American black comedy action-thriller film triumphed over a massive, competitive, field  including: Bugonia, F1, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, Sinners, and Train Dreams.

The Leonardo DiCaprio-led film One Battle After Another is centred around a group of ex-revolutionaries who reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own as their enemy resurfaces after 16 years. 

The most talked about moment of the night will surely be that Michael earned the top honor Best Actor for his leading role in Ryan Coogler’s film Sinners. 

He upset favourite throughout award season 30-year-old Timothee, who starred in Marty Supreme, as the field included: Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another, Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon, and Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent.

Jordan was in disbelief as he walked up to the stage and was greeted by last year’s winner Adrien Brody.

Sinners is about two brothers who return to their hometown to start again only to discover that an even greater evil – in the form of vampires – is waiting to welcome them back. 

Michael portrayed both brothers in the film: older and more serious twin Elijah ‘Smoke’ Moore in addition to younger and more cheerful sibling Elias ‘Stack’ Moore.

One Battle After Another was the biggest winner of the evening as Paul Thomas Anderson earned both Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Jessie Buckley

Michael B Jordan

Amy Madigan

Ryan Coogler

Paul Thomas Anderson

Autumn Durald Arkapaw

Joachim Trier