LOS ANGELES - Sean Penn opted out of attending the Oscars and was in Ukraine when his name was called as the winner of Best Supporting Actor for his performance in One Battle After Another - his third Oscar win, joining Mystic River and Milk.
Last year's winner Kieran Culkin took the stage to present the award, and when Penn's name was announced, he told the crowd with a dry smile: "Sean Penn couldn't be here this evening - or didn't want to - so I'll be accepting the award on his behalf." The room laughed. But the story behind the empty chair was anything but a punchline.
Penn was in war-torn Ukraine, visiting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A senior Ukrainian official confirmed: "He's in Ukraine, but it's his personal visit - that's how he sees it, that he needs to be in Ukraine. He just wants to support Ukraine."
Days later, Ukrainian Railways CEO Oleksandr Pertsovskyi shared a video on social media of Penn receiving what he called an "IronOscar" - a flat, metallic trophy in the unmistakable silhouette of the Academy Award, forged from the metal of a Ukrainian railcar that had survived a Russian missile strike. The inscription read: "This steel once carried millions of people away from war. Then a Russian missile came. We did not melt it into a weapon. We forged it into gratitude - for you. For your talent. For your courage to stand with Ukraine."
Zelenskyy posted a photo of the two men together, writing: "Sean, thanks to you, we know what a true friend of Ukraine is. You have stood with Ukraine since the first day of the full-scale war."
The 98th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, will be remembered not only for its winners but for the quiet - and sometimes loud - political courage that ran through it like a current. Host Conan O'Brien set the tone early, acknowledging "very chaotic, frightening times" and reminding a global audience that the Oscars are "particularly resonant" at moments like these. But he warmed up the room with sharper material too. Noting that for the first time since 2012 no British actors had been nominated in the lead acting categories, O'Brien quipped that "a British spokesperson said, yeah, well, at least we arrest our pedophiles" - a pointed reference to the arrest of Prince Andrew following the release of Epstein-related files. The joke landed with a particular bite given the context. Trump's name appears more than 1,000 times in the three million Jeffrey Epstein documents released in January 2026. After former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton gave testimony finding no wrongdoing, America continues to wait for testimony by the current President and First Lady as their names are deeply embedded in the Epstein files. Trump's longtime biographer Michael Wolff - author of the bestselling Fire and Fury and currently working on his forthcoming book The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump (Redux) - claimed after years of research and approximately 100 hours of recorded interviews with Epstein that Melania was "very involved" in Epstein's social circle, and alleged that Epstein was the link in Melania's introduction to Donald Trump. Melania Trump has denied the claims and threatened a $1 billion lawsuit against Wolff, who responded by suing her, saying he would "like nothing better than to get Donald Trump and Melania Trump under oath" to reveal the full picture of their relationship with Epstein. Meanwhile, the scandal's Florida dimension adds another layer. As Florida's attorney general from 2011 to 2019, current US Attorney General Pam Bondi was the state's top prosecutor as lawsuits from Epstein's victims piled up challenging the secret plea deal that state and federal officials negotiated in 2008 - yet she took no action. Now in charge at the national level, she is facing a congressional subpoena over the DOJ's handling of the Epstein files. House Democrats walked out of a closed-door briefing with Bondi after she refused on multiple occasions to commit to following the subpoena to give sworn testimony. The committee's top Democrat, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, called the session a "fake hearing," saying Bondi wasn't under oath, gave no opening statement, and called it "outrageous" and "infuriating," adding that it "continues this White House coverup of the Epstein files."
While the Oscars are considered to honor the best films of the year, the current documentary film about Melania Trump was considered to be one of the worst, letting her read formal narrations, written by others, with a strong accent, and showing nearly nothing personal from her real life, for example her upbringing in Slovenia, her career and her beliefs.
Jimmy Kimmel compared the bravery of documentary filmmakers to “a certain Amazon documentary about Melania Trump”, quipping that in it, one simply "walks around the White House and tries on shoes."
Jimmy Kimmel: The Joke That Wasn't Just a Joke
Presenting the Best Documentary awards, former four-time Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel told the room: "We hear a lot about courage at shows like this, but telling a story that could get you killed for telling it is real courage." Then came the twist of the knife: "As you know, there are some countries whose leaders don't support free speech. I'm not at liberty to say which. Let's just leave it to North Korea and CBS."
Mr. Nobody Against Putin: The Upset That Changed the Room
In what many called the biggest upset of the night, Mr. Nobody Against Putin won Best Documentary Feature - the story of Pavel "Pasha" Talankin, a mild-mannered Russian school teacher and videographer who secretly documented the Kremlin's wartime propaganda machine in his own primary school, before smuggling his footage out of Russia to collaborate with American director David Borenstein.
Cinema for Peace had honoured Mr. Nobody Against Putin last year with the Most Valuable Documentary award - recognising Pasha Talankin's extraordinary courage. At this year's Cinema for Peace Gala, the award went to other Oscar nominees such as The Voice of Hind Rajab, the devastating docudrama about the six-year-old Palestinian girl killed in Gaza - a film that was nominated alongside Cutting Through Rocks. That Mr. Nobody ultimately beat them all at the Academy Awards is a testament to how far this story of one brave teacher has travelled. From the stage, Talankin - speaking in Russian through a translator - delivered one of the night's most searing lines: "In the name of our future, in the name of all of our children, stop all of these wars now." Borenstein's speech drew a line from Putin's Russia to the present moment everywhere: "Mr. Nobody Against Putin is about how you lose your country. You lose it through countless small little acts of complicity." The Dolby Theatre audience interrupted him with applause in regards to the parallels in the USA, where Trump has been dismantling liberal democracy faster than Putin in Russia according to the annual reports last week by the likes of Freedom House. Back in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters he could not comment on the film - because he hadn't seen it. Most Russian state broadcasters ignored the ceremony entirely.
And the Red Carpet Spoke Too
Javier Bardem stepped to the microphone before presenting Best International Feature and said simply: "No to war and free Palestine." He wore a badge reading No a la Guerra - the same anti-war slogan he had worn to protest the Iraq War more than two decades ago. Others arrived in "ICE OUT" pins protesting US immigration enforcement, ceasefire badges, and symbols of Palestinian solidarity - politics visible at the margins throughout the night.
This was not the loudest Oscars in recent memory. But it may have been one of the most meaningful. In a year of wars, silenced presses, and children being taught to march - cinema showed up. Sometimes with a joke. Sometimes with a trophy made of shrapnel. Always with the truth.
Cinema for Peace salutes the filmmakers, the artists, and the nobodies who dare to say something.
BEST PICTURE - WINNER
One Battle After Another - Paul Thomas Anderson's sweeping black comedy about ex-revolutionaries, power, and the cost of loyalty. Won 6 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Sean Penn).
BEST PICTURE NOMINEES:
Sinners - Ryan Coogler's landmark vampire epic set in 1932 Mississippi, about race, music, and what America has always asked Black people to sacrifice. Won 4 Oscars including Best Actor (Michael B. Jordan).
Hamnet - Chloé Zhao's adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's novel about Shakespeare's son. Won Best Actress (Jessie Buckley).
Sentimental Value - Joachim Trier's quiet Norwegian family drama, winner of Best International Feature Film.
Frankenstein - Won Costume Design, Makeup & Hairstyling, and Production Design.
Marty Supreme - Josh Safdie's portrait of table tennis legend Marty Reisman, with Timothée Chalamet.
The Secret Agent - Kleber Mendonça Filho's neo-noir political thriller set in 1977 Brazil.
Bugonia - Yorgos Lanthimos's dark comedy with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons.
Train Dreams - Clint Bentley's period drama.
F1 - Brad Pitt's Formula One drama.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE - WINNER
Mr. Nobody Against Putin - Cinema for Peace Most Valuable Documentary 2025. A Russian school teacher risks everything to expose Putin's propaganda machine from the inside. Winner of Oscars best documentary features.
BEST DOCUMENTARY NOMINEES:
The Voice of Hind Rajab - Cinema for Peace Award Winner 2026. Kaouther Ben Hania's harrowing docudrama about the last hours of six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, using her real final recordings.
Cutting Through Rocks - The Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner for World Cinema Documentary.
The Perfect Neighbor - Geeta Gandbhir's Netflix documentary about the fatal shooting of Ajike "A.J." Owens in Florida.
The Alabama Solution - Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman's six-year investigation into prison deaths across Alabama.
Come See Me in the Good Light - Ryan White's moving portrait of poet Andrea Gibson and their wife facing terminal cancer.