The first award for Best Casting comes amid the Academy’s initiatives to diversify its voting ranks and competitive brackets.

Oscars’ first new category winner in over 25 years playfully jabs Paul Thomas Anderson: ‘I have one before you’

The first award for Best Casting comes amid the Academy's initiatives to diversify its voting ranks and competitive brackets.

Joey Nolfi

Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at *. *Since 2016, his work at EW includes RuPaul’s Drag Race video interviews, Oscars predictions, and more.

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March 15, 2026 8:36 p.m. ET

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Oscars first Best Casting winner Cassandra Kulukundis; Paul Thomas Anderson. Credit:

Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty; Darren Gerrish/WireImage

- The 2026 Oscars have announced the Academy's first-ever winner in a new competitive category.

- Achievement in Casting recognizes excellence in casting major motion pictures.

- Prior to Sunday's ceremony, the last new category added to the Oscars came in 2001.

For the first time in more than two decades, the Oscars have a new competitive category — and Sunday night's ceremony revealed the bracket's debut winner at the biggest event in Hollywood, who in her acceptance speech playfully shaded director Paul Thomas Anderson's lack of Academy Awards.

To present the first-ever Academy Award for Achievement in Casting, the Oscars welcomed stars from the nominated films to the stage, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Mescal, Chase Infiniti, Wagner Moura, and Delroy Lindo.

Up for victory in the category were casting directors who placed many of the evening's Oscar-nominated performers in their respective roles: Nina Gold (*Hamnet*), Jennifer Venditti (*Marty Supreme*), Cassandra Kulukundis (*One Battle After Another*), Gabriel Domingues (*The Secret Agent*), and Francine Maisler (*Sinners*).

Cassandra Kulukundis wins Oscars' first Best Casting statuette.

Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty

Kulukundis ultimately won the award, with *Marty Supreme* star Paltrow reading her name aloud on stage. The casting director playfully jabbed Anderson in her acceptance speech, referencing the filmmaker's 14 career Oscar nominations without a victory.

"I have one before you, which is also crazy. I hope you get one today!" Kulukundis said, as the camera cut to Anderson and wife Maya Rudolph laughing at the quip.

Earlier in her speech, Kulukundis thanked the Academy "for even adding this category and for the casting directors who fought tirelessly to make it happen despite everything in their way."

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All this year's nominated casting professionals worked on projects that were also nominated for Best Picture and in the acting categories, with stars like Timothée Chalamet (*Marty Supreme*), Moura (*The Secret Agent*), and Jessie Buckley (*Hamnet*) all scoring solo nods. Ensemble *Sinners* stars Michael B. Jordan, Wunmi Mosaku, and Lindo and* One Battle After Another*'s Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Sean Penn, and Benicio Del Toro also scored acting nods from the Academy at the 98th annual ceremony.

Prior to the Academy implementing the Best Casting Oscar this year, the last completely new category added to the Oscars lineup was Best Animated Feature, which debuted in 2001.

Teyana Taylor and Leonardo DiCaprio in 'One Battle After Another'.

Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

Ahead of the 2026 Academy Awards ceremony, casting directors appeared in prominent positions on the Oscars campaign trail, with Maisler even joining the *Sinners* cast on stage as they accepted the ensemble prize at SAG's Actor Awards show on March 1.

Lindo thanked Maisler by name at the show, telling the audience he loved everyone in front of an "behind the camera" — before pointing directly toward Maisler as the crowd (and *Sinners* cast) applauded her work.

See the full list of 2026 Oscar winners*.*

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Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Academy”