It’s actually Sean’s third Oscar. In 2023, he said of his prior awards, “I thought, well, fuck, you know? I’ll give them to Ukraine. They can be melted down to bullets they can shoot at the Russians.”
Now, Sean has had a number of controversies and legal troubles over the years. That didn’t stop him from winning this year’s BAFTA and Actor Awards for his role in One Battle After Another. He attended neither ceremony.
Kieran Culkin, last year’s Best Supporting Actor winner, presented this year’s award — which was largely considered to be between Penn and Sinners actor Delroy Lindo.
When Kieran announced that the award went to Sean, who was once again not in attendance, Delroy notably did not clap while the reaction shots were filmed:
Kieran then said, “Sean Penn couldn’t be here this evening, or didn’t want to, so I’ll be accepting the award on his behalf.”
According to the New York Times, Penn is “headed to Europe, where his plan as of late last week was to visit Ukraine.”
Check out the rest of our Oscars coverage here.

