Sean Penn has won the Oscar for best supporting actor for One Battle After Another, at the 98th Academy Awards.
With this win, Penn has joined an elite company of male actors to win three acting Oscars, joining Daniel Day-Lewis, Jack Nicholson and Walter Brennan. Penn previously won best actor Oscars for Mystic River in 2004 and Milk in 2009.
Penn defeated a strong field of nominees to take the prize, 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 Perfidia.
Penn, whose disdain for the Oscars is well known, 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 for him by presenter Kieran Culkin.
