Which film won Best Original Screenplay's rival category, Best Adapted Screenplay, in 2026?

One Battle After Another won the 2026 Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Paul Thomas Anderson accepted the award for writing the film.

The category honors a screenplay based on previously published or produced material, distinguishing it from Best Original Screenplay. Anderson’s film adapts Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, although it reworks the source into a contemporary, politically charged thriller-comedy rather than presenting a literal page-to-screen transcription.

The 98th Academy Awards were held on March 15, 2026. The film had a major night, also winning Best Picture, Best Director for Anderson, Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn, Best Film Editing and the inaugural Oscar for Best Casting. A common mix-up is to confuse the two screenplay categories: Sinners won Best Original Screenplay, while One Battle After Another won the adapted prize.

Anderson’s screenplay Oscar was especially notable because it was his first Academy Award win, despite earlier nominations for films including Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread.