The “One Battle After Another” star previously won Oscars for “Mystic River” and “Milk.”

Sean Penn is a no-show at Oscars as he wins third Academy Award, Kieran Culkin makes playful jab

The "One Battle After Another" star previously won Oscars for "Mystic River" and "Milk."

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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March 15, 2026 8:48 p.m. ET

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Sean Penn in Lyon, France, on Oct. 11, 2025. Credit:

Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty

Sean Penn just won his third Oscar — but he wasn't there to accept it.

The *Tree of Life* star won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his turn in Paul Thomas Anderson's *One Battle After Another*, but was the only nominee in the category who didn't attend the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Kieran Culkin, who won the same award in 2025 for his work in *A Real Pain*, announced Penn's victory.

"Sean Penn couldn't be here this evening, or didn't want to, so I'll be accepting the award on his behalf," Culkin said before leaving the stage.

Penn beat out Jacob Elordi for *Frankenstein*, Stellan Skarsgård for *Sentimental Value*, Delroy Lindo for *Sinners*, and his costar Benicio del Toro for *One Battle After Another*.

Sean Penn in 'One Battle After Another'.

Penn has sat out most of the 2026 awards season. He did not attend SAG's Actor Awards earlier this month, where he won Best Supporting Actor, nor did he travel to London for the BAFTA Awards in February, where he *also *won Best Supporting Actor. He did attend the Golden Globes in Los Angeles in January, where he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor but lost to Skarsgård for *Sentimental Value*.

Penn previously won the Oscar for Best Actor in 2004 for his turn in Clint Eastwood's crime drama *Mystic River*. He won the same award five years later for Gus Van Sant's biopic *Milk*, in which he portrayed gay rights activist and San Francisco politician Harvey Milk. During his 2009 acceptance speech, Penn used his platform to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and gay marriage.

Sean Penn at the 2009 Oscars in Los Angeles, Calif., on Feb. 22, 2009.

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

"I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren's eyes if they continue that way of support," Penn said at the 2009 ceremony. "We've got to have equal rights for everyone."

In that same speech, Penn praised U.S. voters for electing Barack Obama to the presidency. "I'm very, very proud to live in a country that is willing to elect an elegant man president," he said.

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Penn previously criticized the Oscars in a 2024 speech at the Marrakech Film Festival. "The Academy have exercised really extraordinary cowardice when it comes to being part of the bigger world of expression, and in fact, have largely been part of limiting the imagination and very limiting of different cultural expressions," he said at the time, per *Variety*. "I don't get very excited about what we'll call the Academy Awards [except for] when a film like *The Florida Project*, or *I'm Still Here*, or, you know, *Emilia Pérez*, of the things that are likely to happen this year."

Sean Penn at the 2004 Oscars in Los Angeles on Feb. 29, 2004.

Los Angeles Times via Getty

Penn was also previously nominated for Best Actor for 1995's *Dead Man Walking*, 1999's *Sweet and Lowdown*, and 2001's *I Am Sam*.

The actor recently reflected on his political outspokenness in an interview with *Vanity Fair*.

"We are always told that that's the aspiration, to speak out. And God knows I've not been shy," he said. "But I sometimes think that we should apply a little kung fu to situations. And when we see something that is destructive, ready to destroy itself, we should let it — and not try to distract the forces of negative self-destruction from achieving a goal. So I just try to pay attention and listen to whatever my inner thought is. You want to be constructive in a way that's not a trend, but part of things that need to be changing."

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