Every Oscar Category One Battle After Another Can Win, Ranked

Paul Thomas Anderson and Leonardo DiCaprio’s One Battle After Another is an Oscar frontrunner with stellar acting, music, and technical brilliance.

Image Credit: Warner Bros.

The 2026 Oscars, like every year, will bring a crop of movies that will urge everyone to debate if the winners truly deserved Hollywood’s highest honor.

One Battle After Another has already positioned itself as a major contender and frontrunner across multiple categories.

The movie features Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob, an ex-revolutionary on a mission to rescue his daughter and flee from the militant group after them.

But the action thriller isn’t the only brilliant film this year, so let’s rank all the categories where One Battle After Another can potentially secure a win, and the competition it’ll face.

1 Best Picture

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One Battle After Another already boasts a marvelous rating.

Despite its box office setbacks, the movie has garnered widespread acclaim from critics and audiences because its themes are timely and thought-provoking, swinging between personal legacy and modern social issues.

Though the movie is long, it’s paced well, with several funny, astonishing, and beautiful moments.

Hamnet might give tough competition to One Battle After Another, as it has already won many notable awards.

Plus, the story’s themes of grief and loss are universally resonant, contrary to Anderson’s movie, which revolves around American politics.

2 Best Director

Paul Thomas Anderson | Credits: American Film Institute / IG @afi.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s direction is one of a kind, and for years, he’s contributed to making cinema epic, but he hasn’t won an Oscar.

However, this time around, he’s a leading contender, and One Battle After Another is the film where everything comes together, where you can see how incredibly skilled Anderson is at handling multifaceted stories.

If not Anderson, Kathryn Bigelow will be the next in line for A House of Dynamite.

3 Best Music

Leonardo DiCaprio in One Battle After Another | Ghoulardi Film Company / Warner Bros.

The background score of One Battle After Another is composed by Jonny Greenwood.

He’s crafted such innovative and tension-filled music that it has become a character in itself.

You get a glimpse of it in the trailer, where you hear a simple piano tune that keeps building tension and mirrors the suspense and unease of all the moments.

It almost plays like a metronome in some parts, but it’s so effective and elegant that you can’t help but appreciate the genius of Greenwood.

On the other hand, Arco, an animated film, might come out victorious in the Best Music category against One Battle After Another because it has already secured a major award at the Cannes Film Festival for its score.

4 Best Sound

Leonardo DiCaprio in One Battle After Another | Ghoulardi Film Company / Warner Bros.

The Academy Award for Best Sound recognizes how a film’s overall auditory experience feels, including sound editing, mixing, and design.

Steven A.Morrow and Peter Grace elevated the intense action scenes in One Battle After Another, who’ve also contributed to films like La La Land and Hacksaw Ridge.

So, Anderson’s movie is likely to win in this category because its sound design made several moments feel more alive and chaotic.

However, A House of Dynamite has Paul N.J.

Ottoson, who’s already been awarded for his work in notable projects.

5 Best Cinematography 

Chase Infiniti in One Battle After Another | Ghoulardi Film Company / Warner Bros.

Cinematographer Michael Bauman has taken a bold visual approach in One Battle After Another.

He takes advantage of overexposed daylight and shaky camera movements to create a sense of urgency.

The movie’s highlight is the car chase scene on an arid terrain that unfolds at the end.

Here, you’d feel like you’re in the car, driving with the characters, and this sequence alone deserves the Academy’s recognition.

But Sinners was undeniably a visual treat and poses a threat to One Battle After Another in the Best Cinematography category.

6 Best Adapted Screenplay

Leonardo DiCaprio in One Battle After Another | Ghoulardi Film Company / Warner Bros.

One Battle After Another is loosely inspired by Vineland, Thomas Pynchon’s postmodern fictional novel.

Previously, Paul Thomas Anderson has also adapted Inherent Vice and There Will Be Blood from other books, and it’s evident that he knows how to turn a written piece of art into a full-blown movie.

In One Battle After Another, he doesn’t lose the essence of Pynchon’s work and keeps the themes intact while effectively reinterpreting the source material.

He’s been previously nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category, and the latest action thriller might just be his golden ticket to victory, unless Maggie O’Farrell and Chloé Zhao’s work on Hamnet impresses the jury more.

7 Best Actor

Leonardo DiCaprio in One Battle After Another | Ghoulardi Film Company / Warner Bros.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s first Academy Award came with The Revenant, which broke his so-called Oscar curse.

His previous performances were overlooked and ignored by the jury.

Still, DiCaprio’s image in Hollywood has changed since his win, and he’s no longer the underrated actor who was ignored by pundits.

Everyone has recognized his talent, and it only shines bright in One Battle After Another.

DiCaprio is in the stage of his career where he’s comfortable exploring weird, eccentric, and unconventional roles.

It’s possible that he does not care about the trophy, but excellence only finds the artists who create or perform for the sake of their art.

So counterintuitively, this might work in the actor’s favor, who nailed his role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s action thriller.

Though Wagner Moura, who portrayed Marcelo in The Secret Agent, might snatch the win from DiCaprio.

8 Best Supporting Actor

Sean Penn in One Battle After Another | Ghoulardi Film Company / Warner Bros.

Sean Penn has previously won two Oscars in the Best Actor category, one for Mystic River, directed by Clint Eastwood, and another for Milk.

In One Battle After Another, he plays a militant leader who is also a white supremacist, and Penn’s performance is already being lauded as one of his best in years.

He’s the central antagonist, who’s both disturbing and funny!

Penn pulls off this balance with such ease that his portrayal could very well earn him a third Academy Award, and then he could join the slate of legends with several Oscars to their name.

And while Penn is impressive in One Battle After Another, he’s got strong competition from Stellan Skarsgård for Sentimental Value.

9 Best Supporting Actress

Regina Hall in One Battle After Another | Ghoulardi Film Company / Warner Bros.

Regina Hall is a grounding force in One Battle After Another, and assists Leonardo DiCaprio and Chase Infiniti’s characters in times of distress.

She comes off as protective and fierce but also vulnerable and deeply human at times.

Though she’s most known for comedies, Hall held her own in a star-studded cast and showed off her dramatic chops, without making it feel like she was out of place.

Another excellent actress who might win in the Best Supporting Actress category is Kate Hudson for Song Sung Blue.

Here’s an overview of One Battle After Another:

Title
One Battle After Another

Genre
Action, Thriller

Director
Paul Thomas Anderson

IMDb Rating
8.4/10

Rotten Tomatoes
(critic score | audience score)
96% | 85%

Budget
(via Variety)
$130 million

One Battle After Another isn’t just another entry in Paul Thomas Anderson’s filmography but a work of art in which several creatives have come together to birth something beautiful.

While the Oscars are known to be unpredictable, Anderson’s work is bound to leave a mark on viewers and cinema at large.

So, which one of these categories are you counting on?

One Battle After Another is currently playing in theaters (USA).