Sean Penn has won the Oscar for best supporting actor for his role in One Battle After Another at the 98th Academy Awards. The win marks his third acting Oscar, placing him in an elite group of male actors who have achieved this feat, alongside Daniel Day-Lewis, Jack Nicholson and Walter Brennan.
Penn previously won best actor Oscars for Mystic River in 2004 and Milk in 2009. He defeated a strong field of nominees including Benicio del Toro (also for One Battle After Another), Delroy Lindo for Sinners and Stellan Skarsgård for Sentimental Value.
In One Battle After Another, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a former revolutionary, Penn plays Colonel Steven J Lockjaw, a military officer who is sexually humiliated by and then obsessed with Teyana Taylor’s character Perfidia.
Despite his well-known disdain for the Oscars, Penn has featured strongly on this year’s award circuit, winning best supporting actor at the Baftas and Actor awards, and picking up nominations at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice awards. The actor did not attend the ceremony to accept his award, which was accepted on his behalf by presenter Kieran Culkin.
