By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES, March 15 (Reuters) – An absent Sean Penn and the hit movie “KPop Demon Hunters” were celebrated at the Academy Awards on Sunday as Hollywood toasted the year’s best performances in the movie business.
Penn was named best supporting actor for his role as an obsessed military officer in the darkly comic thriller “One Battle After Another,” one of the movies vying for the top prize of best picture. It was the third Oscar for Penn, who frequently skips movie industry awards shows and was not in the Dolby Theatre audience.
“Sean Penn couldn’t be here, or didn’t want to, so I’ll accept the award on his behalf,” said presenter Kieran Culkin, last year’s supporting actor winner.
The 75-year-old Amy Madigan was named best supporting actress for her role as the wacky Aunt Gladys in horror film “Weapons.” She earned her first Oscar 40 years after her first Oscar nomination.
In her remarks, Madigan thanked “Weapons” director Zach Cregger.
“He just wrote a dream part and he just let me grab it by the throat,” Madigan said.
“KPop Demon Hunters,” a Netflix movie that became a global phenomenon, was named best animated feature.
Paul Thomas Anderson, the writer and director of “One Battle” and a 14-time Academy Award nominee, earned his first Oscar midway through Sunday’s show for best adapted screenplay. He dedicated the honor to his family, “the people who know what it’s like to live with a writer.”
Host Conan O’Brien opened the show by joking that he was honored to be “the last human host” of the awards at a time when Hollywood is worried about artificial intelligence taking over jobs.
On a serious note, O’Brien said he hoped the show would offer a sense of optimism. He noted that nominees hailed from 31 countries on six continents.
“Let us celebrate not because we think all is well but because we work and hope for better,” O’Brien said.
SECURITY TIGHTENS AROUND DOLBY THEATRE
The glitzy celebration, Hollywood’s most over-the-top gala of the year, took place as the U.S. wages war on Iran.
Security was tight in and around the ceremony. Organizers said they were working closely with the FBI and Los Angeles police after a federal warning of a possible Iranian threat against California, though authorities have cited no specific or credible danger to the Academy Awards. Attendees had to cross through several traffic checkpoints and go through metal detectors to make their way into the event.
The ceremony featured an unusually unpredictable best picture race between vampire story “Sinners,” which went into the night with a record 16 nominations, and “One Battle After Another.” The show was televised live on Walt Disney’s ABC and streamed on Hulu.
The festivities masked the unease in the film business over where movies are being made as studios chase tax incentives and lower costs elsewhere in the U.S. and overseas, weakening Hollywood’s grip on production.
Warner Bros., the studio behind “One Battle” and “Sinners,” is in the process of being sold to Paramount Skydance in a deal that will narrow the ranks of major film distributors. A media watchdog group, Free Press, circulated a roving billboard around Hollywood over the weekend airing its opposition to the merger.
Workers in front of and behind the camera are worried artificial intelligence will limit job opportunities and stifle creativity and risk-taking.
AN UNPREDICTABLE RACE FOR BEST ACTOR
The race for best actor was an especially unpredictable one, pitting Timothée Chalamet against Leonardo DiCaprio and Michael B. Jordan.
Chalamet had been considered a frontrunner for his acclaimed performance as a ping-pong hustler in “Marty Supreme,” but his prospects seemed to dim over an awards-season campaign featuring a streetwear line and a giant blimp and remarks dismissing ballet and opera.
“One Battle After Another,” starring DiCaprio as a one-time political radical now parenting a teenager, was seen as the frontrunner for best picture after stacking up trophy after trophy at recent ceremonies.
But “Sinners,” a celebration of blues music and Black culture in the Segregation-era U.S. South starring Jordan, made a late surge with a win this month at the Actor Awards.
Winners of the gold Oscar statuettes are chosen by the roughly 10,000 actors, producers, directors and film craftspeople who make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The Academy took steps this year to try to ensure voters have actually watched the movies they are voting on. The online balloting system for the first time tracks whether a voter has streamed each movie. Voters, however, can check a box to say they watched the movie elsewhere outside the Academy website.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Howard Goller)
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