Cassandra Kulukundis Wins the First Ever Best-Casting Oscar for ‘One Battle After Another’
Cassandra Kulukundis won the inaugural Academy Award for Best Casting for her work on One Battle After Another, dedicating the history-making prize to “the casting directors who never got a chance to get up here. ” The award recognized her discovery of Chase Infiniti and her decade-long collaboration with director Paul Thomas Anderson.
Cassandra Kulukundis Makes History With Academy’s New Casting Category
The Academy introduced Best Casting as the first new award in 25 years, and Kulukundis emerged the winner from a field that included Gabriel Domingues for The Secret Agent, Nina Gold for Hamnet, Francine Maisler for Sinners, and Jennifer Venditti for Marty Supreme. Presenters for the category adopted a high-profile lineup nicknamed the “Fab Five, ” which included Paul Mescal, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chase Infiniti, Wagner Moura, and Delroy Lindo.
Kulukundis dedicated her trophy to colleagues outside the spotlight, and she used her acceptance to celebrate a longstanding working relationship with Paul Thomas Anderson, noting she has collaborated with him on ten films after beginning as an intern on his first feature. She also teased Anderson on stage, saying she had managed to win a trophy before him.
The win highlighted Kulukundis’s role in finding Chase Infiniti for the part of Willa. Kulukundis has described the search for that role as “hell, ” and recalled taking Infiniti to a kickboxing class and directing a self-defense scene to prove she could be both elegant and fierce. Infiniti’s ferocious work on the bag convinced Kulukundis she had found the character.
One Battle After Another’s Awards Night: Casting, Supporting Actor and Writing
One Battle After Another collected multiple major awards on the same night. The film earned an overall 13 nominations and has so far won three Oscars, including the first Best Casting prize. Paul Thomas Anderson won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film, marking his first writing trophy for this long-gestating project.
Sean Penn took home the Academy Award for Supporting Actor for his role as Colonel Steven Lockjaw, a military officer whose encounter with militants becomes an obsessive pursuit that drives the film’s plot. The success of One Battle After Another contrasted with the evening’s other contenders; Sinners, which entered the night with a record 16 nominations, won Best Original Screenplay.
The introduction of a casting Oscar and Kulukundis’s victory mark a notable change in how the Academy recognizes behind-the-scenes creative work. Her win, the discovery of Chase Infiniti, and the film’s broader haul underscored the ceremony’s celebration of both proven artisans and breakout performers.
