The 98th Academy Awards were held on March 15, 2026. One Battle After Another dominated with six wins, including Best Picture. The ceremony crowned Michael B. Jordan and Jessie Buckley as the year's best actors, and introduced a new Oscar category: Achievement in Casting.
Here's what Texas filmmakers should know — because this year's Oscars had real Texas in them.
The Big One: One Battle After Another Was Partially Shot in El Paso
The Best Picture winner — directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, and Benicio del Toro — filmed key sequences in downtown El Paso during the summer of 2024.
That's not a cameo location. It's not stock footage. A chunk of the year's most important film was shot on Texas streets, with Texas crew, using Texas infrastructure.
"I think for everyone that was part of this, it's an experience that we will never forget," Genaro Limon, who worked as a production assistant on the El Paso shoot, told KVIA. Limon has worked on films for seven years, but this was by far the biggest. "Just seeing how the camera department had everything coordinated as if they were dancing or just having a fun time filming this — I was mind blown."
Limon's assessment of what it means: "There's still a lot of work to do in that regard of making El Paso grow and making it a hub of film productions. But we're getting there."
He's right. And the fact that PTA chose El Paso's streetscape for his Best Picture winner — not a backlot in LA, not a set in Atlanta — is exactly the kind of validation that changes how producers think about Texas locations.
One Battle After Another Wins:
- Best Picture
- Best Director — Paul Thomas Anderson
- Best Adapted Screenplay — Paul Thomas Anderson
- Best Supporting Actor — Sean Penn
- Best Film Editing
- Achievement in Casting — Cassandra Kulukundis (the first winner in this brand-new category)
Sinners — Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan
Sinners earned Ryan Coogler the Best Original Screenplay Oscar and Michael B. Jordan the Best Actor win for his dual performance as twins Smoke and Stack in the vampire film. The film also won Best Cinematography and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Delroy Lindo), Best Original Score (Ludwig Göransson), Best Sound, Best Production Design, and Best Visual Effects.
The Texas connection: While Sinners was not shot in Texas, Jordan's win matters here. Jordan has been circling Texas-based projects and his profile in the state is growing. More importantly, Coogler's genre-bending, culturally specific storytelling is exactly the kind of work Texas filmmakers are making — and it just won the screenwriting Oscar.
The Full Winners List (Selected)
| Category | Winner | |----------|--------| | Best Picture | One Battle After Another | | Best Director | Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another | | Best Actor | Michael B. Jordan, Sinners | | Best Actress | Jessie Buckley, Hamnet | | Best Supporting Actor | Sean Penn, One Battle After Another | | Best Supporting Actress | Amy Madigan, Weapons | | Best Original Screenplay | Ryan Coogler, Sinners | | Best Adapted Screenplay | Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another | | Best Cinematography | Sinners | | Best Film Editing | One Battle After Another | | Achievement in Casting | Cassandra Kulukundis, One Battle After Another | | Best Animated Feature | KPop Demon Hunters | | Best International Feature | Sentimental Value (Norway) | | Best Documentary Feature | Mr. Nobody Against Putin | | Best Original Score | Ludwig Göransson, Sinners | | Best Visual Effects | Avatar: Fire and Ash | | Best Production Design | Frankenstein |
Other Texas-Adjacent Notes
Julian Schnabel — the Brownsville-raised, University of Houston-educated filmmaker — was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame at the AFS Texas Film Awards just 10 days before the Oscars (March 5). His Oscar nomination for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly remains one of the highest directing honors for a Texas-raised filmmaker. His latest, In the Hand of Dante, premiered at Venice and screened at AFS ahead of the awards.
Jeff Nichols — the Arkansas-born, Texas-connected director who made Mud and Midnight Special — made news this month directing a short film for Texas boot company Tecovas, starring Ryan Bingham, Michael Shannon (two-time Oscar nominee), and Hassie Harrison. It's a love letter to Texas filmmaking itself, and a reminder that major directors continue to do Texas-rooted work outside the studio system.
Sydney Chandler — the Austin-raised actress who received the Rising Star Award at the Texas Film Awards — earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for FX's Alien: Earth. She's on the trajectory that leads to Oscar consideration within the next few cycles.
What This Means for Texas
A Best Picture winner partially shot in El Paso. The Texas Film Awards honoring four inductees two weeks before the ceremony. A Texas Monthly feature on a major director shooting a Texas-themed short. SXSW wrapping the same week as the Oscars with its own slate of winners.
March 2026 was the most concentrated month of Texas film visibility in years. The infrastructure is growing (SGS Studios, new incentives), the festivals are strong (SXSW, DIFF, AFF), and the national spotlight keeps landing here.
The job now is to make sure Texas filmmakers — not just LA productions shooting on Texas locations — are the ones winning these awards in five years.
Sources: NPR, KVIA (El Paso), The Guardian, BBC, Mashable, Texas Monthly, Austin Chronicle, Austin Film Society