Warner Bros. Discovery emerged as the biggest studio winner at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday, taking home a total of 11 Oscars even as the company’s looming USD 110-billion sale to Paramount Skydance continues to reshape Hollywood’s studio landscape.
The studio’s trophy haul was led by Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, which swept the awards with six wins, including best picture, best director and best supporting actor.
Sinners, another Warner Bros title, set in the Jim Crow-era South America, clinched four Oscars, including best actor for Michael B. Jordan. Accepting the award, Jordan thanked the studio for supporting original filmmaking. “I want to thank Warner Bros for betting on original ideas and artistry,” he said.
Warner Bros. Discovery has been at the centre of a months-long bidding war between Netflix and Paramount Skydance for acquisition of the studio’s parent company. The contest was ultimately won by Paramount’s CEO David Ellison.
The deal will combine two of Hollywood’s greatest studios at a time when the industry is already struggling with consolidation, rising production costs and competition from streaming platforms.
“It will be impossible to ignore that we will be celebrating the achievements of filmmaking with one less studio on the horizon,” said veteran Hollywood marketing executive Terry Press, according to a Reuters report. “It’s gut-wrenching.”
Paramount has said that it aims to release around 30 films each year as a combined company, which will be split between the two banners. This consolidation comes in the midst of an uncertain period for the film industry following multiple strikes and rising concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence on creative jobs.
Other studios too secured major wins on Hollywood’s biggest night. Netflix picked up seven Oscars, including three for Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which won awards for hair and makeup, production design and costume design.
The streaming giant also won best animated feature and best original song for its global sensation KPop Demon Hunters.
NBC Universal’s label Focus Features bagged best actress for Jessie Buckley’s performance in Hamnet. Meanwhile, independent studio A24’s Marty Supreme, starring Timothee Chalamet, which had received nine nominations including best picture, went home empty-handed.
The Walt Disney Company’s 20th Century Studios won best visual effects for Avatar: Fire and Ash, while tech giant Apple secured the Oscar for best sound for Brad Pitt-starrer F1.