Kieran Culkin Pokes Fun at Sean Penn’s Absence After Winning Best Supporting Actor at 2026 Oscars

Kieran Culkin poked fun at Sean Penn‘s absence after he won the award in the Best Actor in a Supporting Role category at the 2026 Oscars.

“Sean couldn’t be here this evening — or didn’t want to be — so I’ll be accepting the award on his behalf,” Culkin, 43, quipped after Penn, 65, won for One Battle After Another during the Sunday, March 15, awards show at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Other contenders in the Best Supporting Actor category included Benicio del Toro for One Battle After Another, Jacob Elordi for Frankenstein, Delroy Lindo for Sinners and Stellan Skarsgård for Sentimental Value.

Prior to the 98th Academy Awards, del Toro, 59, and Penn were the only nominees in the Best Supporting Actor race who were already Oscar winners.

Del Toro previously took home the award for Best Supporting Actor in 2001 for his role in Traffic. He also received an additional nod in the category in 2004 for 21 Grams.

As for Penn, he is a two-time Oscar winner for Best Actor, earning the accolade for Mystic River in 2004 and Milk in 2009. Before winning the honor for the first time, he was nominated in the same category for Dead Man Walking in 1996, Sweet and Lowdown in 2000 and I Am Sam in 2002.

For their part, Elordi, 28, Lindo, 73, and Skarsgård, 74, all became first-time Academy Award nominees this year.

Throughout the 2026 awards season, voters spread the love in the supporting actor category across the key ceremonies. Penn notably won both an Actor Award and a BAFTA Award for One Battle After Another, though he skipped both ceremonies. At the Actor Awards earlier this month, Penn overcame del Toro, Elordi, Sinners’ Miles Caton and Hamnet’s Paul Mescal, while he defeated del Toro, Elordi, Mescal, Skarsgård and I Swear’s Peter Mullan at the BAFTA Awards in February.

Skarsgård received his own recognition at the Golden Globes in January, taking home the supporting actor award in a race against del Toro, Elordi, Mescal, Penn and Jay Kelly’s Adam Sandler.

In his Golden Globes acceptance speech, Skarsgård joked that his eight children were “very educational” in his preparation for Sentimental Value.

“I’m playing a father who is a bad father there,” he said at the time. “And my children have really told me what a bad father is.”

At the Critics Choice Awards in January, Elordi bested del Toro, Mescal, Penn, Sandler and Skarsgård in the supporting actor category. While he revealed that he “didn’t plan” a speech, Elordi thanked his parents and his Frankenstein collaborators, especially director Guillermo del Toro, who has inspired him since his childhood.

“I love you. We all love you. You made my dreams when I was 11,” he raved while addressing the filmmaker. “I’m so happy to be here.”