Sean Penn’s wild reason for skipping the 2026 Oscars, despite winning, has been revealed. Penn won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the villainous Colonel Lockjaw in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. However, he did not attend the ceremony, and last year’s winner, Kieran Culkin, presented the award, saying, “Sean Penn couldn’t be here this evening, or didn’t want to, so I’ll be accepting the award on his behalf.” Now, according to Variety, Sean Penn skipped the Oscars to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who posted a photo of them together on X, writing, “Sean, thanks to you, we know what a true friend of Ukraine is. You have stood with Ukraine since the first day of the full-scale war. This is still true today. And we know that you will continue to stand with our country and our people.”
Sean Penn meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
One Battle After Another marks Sean Penn’s third Oscar win, previously winning Best Actor for Mystic River (2003) and Milk (2008), ceremonies that he both attended, joining Daniel Day-Lewis, Jack Nicholson, and Walter Brennan as the only male actors to win three Oscars. Penn has also received Oscar nominations for his performances in Dead Man Walking (1995), Sweet and Lowdown (1999), and I Am Sam (2001), all three ceremonies which he also skipped. A long vocal supporter of Ukraine, Penn previously criticized the Oscars after they did not have President Zelenskyy attend the ceremony in 2022, soon after Russia invaded Ukraine and the war began. Penn later said he was considering melting down his Oscar statuettes to make bullets to support Ukraine’s war effort.
Sean Penn as Lockjaw in One Battle After Another
“I’ll give them to Ukraine. They can be melted down to bullets they can shoot at the Russians,” Penn said. However, he later clarified that while he didn’t melt down the awards, he did give the Oscar that he won for Mystic River to Zelenskyy, “I told him to keep it and bring it to Malibu after all this is over and his country is safe.”
Sean Penn made the 2023 documentary Superpower, which chronicles his seven visits to Ukraine before and after Russia’s invasion. He also received Ukraine’s Order of Merit, third class, for his “sincere support and significant contribution to the popularization of Ukraine in the world.” In addition to Sean Penn for Best Supporting Actor, One Battle After Another won a total of six Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Paul Thomas Anderson, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and the newly created category for Best Casting.
Dates
March 15, 2026
Location
Los Angeles, CA
Production & Release Details
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