Warner Bros. has emerged as the biggest winner at the Academy Awards on Sunday. The studio received 11 Oscars, with “One Battle After Another,” winning six awards, including the ones for best picture, director and supporting actor. “Sinners” received four awards, including for best actor.
Michael B. Jordan, who won the best actor Oscar for playing twin brothers in “Sinners” thanked Warner Bros. for “betting on original ideas and artistry.”
However, the Oscars come at a complicated moment for Warner Bros. since it is awaiting a $110 billion sale to Paramount Skydance.
READ: Paramount raises stakes in Warner Bros. deal, offers to pay Netflix exit fee (
Warner Bros. was the focus of a months-long bidding war between Netflix and Paramount Skydance. Last month, Netflix finally walked away from its bid to acquire Warner Bros., refusing to raise its offer and clearing the way for Paramount to move forward. The decision ended a months-long contest between some of Hollywood’s biggest media companies, highlighting the high stakes of content consolidation in the streaming era.
“It will be impossible to ignore that we will be celebrating the achievements of filmmaking with one less studio on the horizon,” said veteran Hollywood marketing executive Terry Press. “It’s gut-wrenching.”
Paramount CEO David Ellison has pledged to deliver a total of 30 films a year, evenly split between Paramount and Warner Bros, which delivered a number of movies last year that were at the top of the box office, including “Superman” and “A Minecraft Movie.”
READ: Paramount Skydance wins Warner Bros Discovery, Netflix walks away (
Netflix received a total of seven Academy Awards, led by Guillermo Del Toro’s “Frankenstein”. It got three Oscars: for hair and makeup, production and costume design. Netflix also won the Oscar for animated feature film for “KPop Demon Hunters,” and best song from that film.
NBCUniversal received 13 Oscar nominations, three films from Focus Features, and one nomination for Universal Pictures’ “Jurassic World Rebirth.” Its Focus Features unit received an Academy Award for lead actress for Jessie Buckley’s portrayal of Agnes in “Hamnet.”
Independent film powerhouse A24 got nine nominations for “Marty Supreme,” including for best picture, director and lead actor. It was eventually knocked out of competition.
Walt Disney’s 20th Century Studios received a single visual effects Oscar for “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” after receiving a total of five nominations. Tech giant Apple which got 15 Primetime Emmy Awards in the fall, received an Academy Award for best sound.