{"id":2280,"date":"2026-03-16T06:55:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T06:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldwatchalert.com\/?p=2280"},"modified":"2026-03-16T06:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T06:55:14","slug":"kulukundis-wins-first-ever-oscar-for-casting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldwatchalert.com\/?p=2280","title":{"rendered":"Kulukundis Wins First-Ever Oscar for Casting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>LOS ANGELES: Casting director Cassandra Kulukundis made history by becoming the first-ever winner of the Academy Award for Best Casting, a category introduced at the 98th Academy Awards held on March 15.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kulukundis received the inaugural award for her work on the film <em>One Battle After Another<\/em>, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She beat four other first-time nominees: Francine Maisler for <em>Sinners<\/em>, Nina Gold for <em>Hamnet<\/em>, Jennifer Venditti for <em>Marty Supreme<\/em>, and Gabriel Domingues for <em>The Secret Agent<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The introduction of the casting category marks the first addition to the Oscars since Best Animated Feature was created in 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Star-studded presentation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The award was presented by actors representing the nominated films, including Paul Mescal, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chase Infiniti, Wagner Moura, and Delroy Lindo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After each actor paid tribute to their respective casting directors, Paltrow opened the envelope and announced Kulukundis as the winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kulukundis appeared visibly surprised as she made her way to the stage, celebrating briefly with Anderson before accepting the award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Emotional acceptance speech<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In her speech, Kulukundis dedicated the historic win to casting directors who had long advocated for recognition of their profession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI dedicate this to the casting directors who never had the chance to be nominated or even have their names recognised on films,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She also thanked Anderson, with whom she has collaborated on numerous films over the years, including <em>Magnolia<\/em>, <em>There Will Be Blood<\/em>, <em>The Master<\/em>, <em>Phantom Thread<\/em>, and <em>Licorice Pizza<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Later in the ceremony, Anderson won Best Adapted Screenplay for <em>One Battle After Another<\/em>, marking the filmmaker\u2019s first Oscar win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The creation of the casting award follows years of advocacy within the Academy, which established a dedicated casting directors branch in 2013. With the new category debuting this year, casting professionals have finally received formal recognition at the Oscars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES: Casting director Cassandra Kulukundis made history by becoming the first-ever winner of the Academy Award for Best Casting, a category introduced at the 98th Academy Awards held on&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1772,1774,1773,194,1029],"class_list":["post-2280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-showbiz","tag-academy-awards","tag-best-casting-oscar","tag-cassandra-kulukundis","tag-hollywood-awards","tag-paul-thomas-anderson"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kulukundis Wins First-Ever Oscar for Casting - 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