‘Beautiful chaos’ – Jessie Buckley wins best actress Oscar for ‘Hamnet’

‘Beautiful chaos’ – Jessie Buckley wins best actress Oscar for ‘Hamnet’ Irishman Richard Baneham won his third Oscar for visual effects for ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’. Read the full list of winners below Irish actress Jessie Buckley paid tribute the the “beautiful chaos” of motherhood as she won the Academy Award for Best Actress at Sunday night’s ceremony in Los Angeles. The Kerry star had been hotly tipped after winning a string of awards for her portrayal of Agnes, the wife of William Shakespeare, in Hamnet. The film was directed by Chloe Zhao, with a screenplay adapted by novelist Maggie O’Farrell from her own book. Buckley (36) is the first Irish woman to win the Best Actress Oscar. Her win follows a string of recent Irish acting successes, including Cillian Murphy winning the Best Actor Oscar in 2024 for his lead role in Oppenheimer. The new mother hugged co-star and fellow Irish actor Paul Mescal as she stood up and approached the stage, next embracing last year’s winner, Mikey Madison (Anora), who presented Buckley with her statuette. Read more “Thank you so much; this is really something,” an emotional Buckley began. “Thank you to the incredible women that I stand beside,” she said, addressing fellow nominees Rose Byrne, Kate Hudson, Renate Reinsve and Emma Stone. “I am inspired by your art and your heart, and I want to work with every single one of you.” The actress also thanked “the producers who created this ship for us to stand in, and my shipmates for life”, including Hylda Queally, the Clare-born Hollywood superagent representing not just Buckley, but also Byrne and Reinsve. “None of this is possible without you,” Buckley said. Buckley’s parents, Tim and Marina, attended the awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday night. Mr Buckley said he is “so, so happy and so, so proud” of his daughter for her win. He said it was a moment where the nation held its breath and that it was “a historic day for the women of Ireland”. One Battle After Another was crowned best picture. Paul Thomas Anderson’s saga about political revolutionaries won six gongs at the ceremony, including Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and, for Sean Penn, Best Supporting Actor. Michael B Jordan was named Best Actor for his role as twins Smoke and Stack in Ryan Coogler’s vampire movie Sinners, which won four Oscars, including Best Original Screenplay and Best Score. Jordan paid tribute to past black Oscar winners as he collected his trophy. “I stand here because of the people that came before me,” he said, naming Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker and Will Smith. Earlier in the ceremony, Penn won the Best Supporting Actor gong for his turn as racist military man Colonel Lockjaw in One Battle After Another. This was his third Oscar, having previously won in the Best Actor category for Mystic River in 2004 and Milk in 2009. He defeated his co-star Benicio del Toro, Sinners star Delroy Lindo, Sentimental Value’s Stellan Skarsgard and Frankenstein’s Jacob Elordi. He was not present at the ceremony to collect his prize. Kieran Culkin, who won the category last year for A Real Pain, announced Penn’s victory and said: “Sean Penn couldn’t be here tonight, or didn’t want to, so I will take this for him.” Penn was also absent from the Baftas and the Actor Awards, where he also won, but did attend the Golden Globes, where he was defeated by Skarsgard. Amy Madigan won the first Oscar of the 2026 ceremony. The Field Of Dreams star collected the Best Supporting Actress statuette for her turn as Aunt Gladys in the horror film Weapons. She paid tribute to her husband of more than 40 years, Ed Harris, as she collected her gong: “The most important is my beloved Ed, who’s been with me forever, and that’s a long-ass time. And none of this would mean anything if he wasn’t by my side.” She added: “Thank you. I’m very overwhelmed.” There was a dramatic moment when there was a tie in the live action short film category, which was won by both Two People Exchanging Saliva and The Singers. After the winners left the stage, host Conan O’Brien congratulated them and said: “You just ruined 22 million Oscar pools.” It is the first time since 2013, when Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty shared the sound editing award, that there have been tied winners. O’Brien was hosting for the second year in a row. He opened the ceremony with an extended sketch dressed as Aunt Gladys, getting chased by children through scenes from the films nominated for best picture. Dressed in a red wig and with heavy white make-up, like the antagonist from Weapons, he could be seen playing table tennis with Timothee Chalamet in Marty Supreme, running across the stage of the Globe in Hamnet, in the car with Del Toro in One Battle After Another and trying to get into the juke joint in Sinners. O’Brien also spoke about these “chaotic, frightening times”, adding: “It’s at moments like these that I believe the Oscars are particularly resonant. Referring to the number of countries and continents represented, he said the nominated films are “the product of thousands of people speaking different languages working hard to produce something of beauty”. He added that they show “global artistry, collaboration, patience, resilience and that rarest of qualities – optimism.” Netflix smash hit KPop Demon Hunters won Best Animated Film and, for Golden, Best Original Song. Frankenstein won the Oscars for Best Costume Design, Production Design, and Makeup and Hair Styling. The Irish patrons at LA’s Auld Fella pub on Wilshire Boulevard – from lawyers to musicians – erupted in cheers and whoops on Sunday evening as Buckley accepted her award. The crowd cheered even harder when the Oscar winner thanked “my family; my Irish family”. “They’re all here,” she said. “Ireland got them flights. Mom, Dad, thank you for teaching us to dream and to never be defined by expectation, but to carve from your own passion.” Acknowledging her husband, Freddie Sorensen, with whom she welcomed a daughter eight months ago, Buckley said: “I love you … You’re an incredible dad, you’re my best friend, and I want to have 20,000 more babies with you.” To her daughter, Isla, who “has no idea what’s going on and is probably dreaming of milk,” she said: “This is kind of a big deal, and I love you, and I love being your mom, and I can’t wait to discover life beside you.” Buckley also thanked director Chloe Zhao and writer Maggie O’Farrell, who were nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Hamnet, but lost out earlier in the night to Paul Thomas Anderson for One Battle After Another. “To get to know this incandescent woman and to understand the capacity of a mother’s love is the greatest collision of my life,” Buckley said of her role as grief-stricken Agnes. Acknowledging that it was Mother’s Day back home, she said: “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 all odds. Don’t go to bed. Keep partying. That’s what I’m going to do “Thank you for recognsing me in this role. This is the greatest honor. I can’t even believe it. “Go raibh míle maith agat. Slán.” Later, asked what her message was to people watching at home, she told RTÉ: “Don’t go to bed. Keep partying. That’s what I’m going to do. “I’m so grateful for the support and I feel the love, man. I feel it. I feel it from young people and old people, from women and men, and from my family. “And to be here tonight with all my family, who’ve literally flown in from New Zealand and Australia and Kerry and Dublin, that makes it real. "They’re the people who built me, and to share this moment with them and know that back home are either drunk or staying up, I’m delighted for us all.” Buckley’s historic win followed another Irish coup: Tallaght native Richie Baneham won his third Oscar for visual effects for his work on Avatar: Fire and Ash. Accepting the award alongside his team, a beaming Baneham held his statuette and was the first to address the clapping crowd, expressing thanks for the love and support of their wives, partners and families. “There’s 2,200 artists,” said Baneham, who lives in California with his wife, a fellow Dubliner, and their three sons. “This is a massive, massive collaboration on the VFX side. We also overlap with everybody on the movie.” Baneham also acknowledged the painstaking work of Avatar director James Cameron, detailing how the Hollywood legend “literally informs every frame of the movie and has a big part of the effects, too”. The Irish were well represented across categories on Sunday evening, with Element Pictures’ Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe nominated in four categories with Bugonia: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score and, for Emma Stone, Best Actress in a Leading Role. Irish filmmaker John Kelly was nominated in Best Animated Short for Retirement Plan, which features the voice of Domhnall Gleeson, but the award ultimately went to The Girl Who Cried Pearls. Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, produced with Dublin-based Wild Atlantic Pictures and filmed in Ireland, was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor, though nominee Ethan Hawke lost out to Jordan. The sustained success of Irish film – both at awards ceremonies and in the global consciousness – was being celebrated on Sunday at The Auld Fella, where LA-based band The Lads, with three members from Dublin, cheered the wins before launching into a set including Dirty Old Town and I’ll Tell Me Ma. “We’re all very proud,” publican Kevin Kearns told the Irish Independent. “The Irish diaspora, we’re as Irish as the Irish that are living at home, if not even more so … I’m very proud of the industry, very proud of the artists. I think it’s fantastic.” Ballymun native John Breen, a member of The Lads who’s lived in LA for “40-something years”, confirmed the pride felt by the “close-knit” Irish community on the city’s west side. Not only that, he said, but there’s increasing recognition of Irish film success among their US neighbours: “Americans would hear the accent and would go, ‘Well, hey, there’s a lot of Irish winners’ … They notice it.” Buckley’s win was “well deserved”, Drogheda native and LA transplant Nathan Byrne told the Irish Independent. He’d decided to head to the Auld Fella on Sunday afternoon to “enjoy a couple of Guinnesses, hopefully see Jessie Buckley win and hope for the best.” Noting the success of actors like Buckley, Mescal and Cillian Murphy, Byrne said that “this year, especially, has been pretty phenomenal for Irish everything. Ireland is living up to their reputation as a small country but a huge contributor to the arts and culture.” Mr Byrne, who’s lived in the city for five years, said the buzz about Irish film among the LA expat community is “bigger than you think”. “You’d be surprised, the amount of people who are actually from Ireland that have moved over here,” he said. It wasn’t Buckley’s first time at the Academy Awards. She’d been nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 2022, a category Ireland claimed in 1990 when My Left Foot’s Brenda Fricker became the first Irish actress to win an Oscar. Irish talent has been nominated for Best Actress before. Saoirse Ronan is a three-time contender in the category, after her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 2008 at age 13. Ruth Negga was nominated for Best Actress in 2017, but lost out to Emma Stone for La La Land. Buckley took home the Oscar after already winning a Bafta, Ifta, Critics’ Choice award, Golden Globe and Actor Award for her Hamnet performance. She was lauded at the Oscars ceremony not just for her acting, but also her style, with her two-toned gown earning acclaim within minutes of her appearance on the red carpet. It featured a striking red off-the-shoulder silken swathe covering a flowing pink waist and skirt with a long train. She accessorised with Chanel jewellery, including a No5 Drop White Gold necklace, a “Jeanne” ring and Bouton de Camelia earrings, Town and Country reported. The look widely praised, even labelled “truly so stunning” by Cosmopolitan. According to E! News correspondents, the dress was inspired by Grace Kelly’s 1956 gown at the awards. As Los Angeles celebrated Buckley on Sunday, Willy O’Sullivan, the owner of Santa Monica pub O’Brien’s reflected on the larger significance her success has, not just for the city’s Irish but also for Ireland’s global reputation and ongoing arts legacy. “People want to soak in the Irish culture,” the Cork native said. “It’s great for young Irish actors, because when one person gets noticed, it’s a great opportunity [for others].” Ireland’s entertainment dominance in recent years, Mr O’Sullivan said with satisfaction, has “been a long time coming”. The Academy took steps this year to try to ensure voters have actually watched the movies they are voting on. The online balloting system tracked for the first time whether a voter has streamed each movie. Voters, however, could still check a box to say they watched the movie outside the Academy website. President Catherine Connolly congratulated Buckley for her success. “As President of Ireland, may I offer my warmest congratulations to Jessie Buckley and Richard Baneham following their fantastic success in being awarded an Oscar at last night’s Academy Awards ceremony,” she said. “Jessie Buckley’s award is an historic moment, with Jessie becoming the first Irish woman to receive an Oscar in the Best Actress category. This achievement is a thoroughly deserved testament not only to Jessie’s outstanding performance in Hamnet, but to her performances both in film and on stage across her career to date. “I know that her proud community in Kerry and beyond will be sharing with her in this wonderful achievement. A nomination for an Oscar is, in itself, a reward for truly outstanding work “The award of a third Oscar to Richard Baneham for Visual Effects is a truly remarkable achievement, following his previous Oscars in 2009 and 2023, and reflects his standing as one of the outstanding technicians in his field. “May I also add my congratulations to all those Irish people, including Maggie O’Farrell, John Kelly, Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe, and all at Element Pictures and Wild Atlantic Pictures, who received a nomination for this year’s awards. A nomination for an Oscar is, in itself, a reward for truly outstanding work and recognition of those at the very top of their craft. “We are very lucky to have so many talented people contributing at every level to the Irish film industry at this time. “May I congratulate Screen Ireland and all those working in the Irish film and acting communities, and all those supporting them, for their continued success, and for the wonderful pieces of art which they continue to bring to audiences across the world. Read more “May I wish all of them my congratulations and wish them a happy St Patrick’s Day as they celebrate this thoroughly deserved success.” Culture Minister Patrick O’Donovan also congratulated the Irish contingent. Full list of winners Best Picture One Battle After Another Actor in a leading role Michael B Jordan – Sinners Actor in a supporting role Sean Penn – One Battle After Another Actress in a leading role Jessie Buckley – Hamnet Actress in a supporting role Amy Madigan – Weapons Cinematography Autumn Durald Arkapaw – Sinners Writing (Adapted Screenplay) Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another Writing (Original Screenplay) Ryan Coogler – Sinners Animated Feature Film KPop Demon Hunters Animated Short Film The Girl Who Cried Pearls Casting One Battle After Another Costume Design Kate Hawley – Frankenstein Directing Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another Documentary Feature Film Mr Nobody Against Putin Documentary Short Film All the Empty Rooms Film Editing Andy Jurgensen – One Battle after Another International Feature Film Norway – Sentimental Value Live Action Short Film The Singers Two People Exchanging Saliva Makeup and Hairstyling Frankenstein Music (Original Score) Ludwig Goransson – Sinners Music (Original Song) Golden (KPop Demon Hunters) Production Design Frankenstein Sound F1 Visual Effects Avatar: Fire And Ash