Jessie Buckley Just Did Something No Irish Actress Had Ever Done at the Oscars

Her Hamnet win was already one of the biggest moments of the night. Then came the bit of Oscar history that made it even more interesting.

TOPSHOT – Irish actress Jessie Buckley accepts the award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for “Hamnet” onstage during the 98th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on March 15, 2026. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images)

With the win, Jessie Buckley became the first Irish actress ever to take home Best Actress at the Academy Awards. Buckley had already built serious momentum this awards season for her performance as Agnes Shakespeare in Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, but that history-making first gave the moment even more significance.

And she was not the only winner who made a little history on Sunday.

Other record-breaking wins that stood out

Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman ever to win the Oscar for Best Cinematography for her work on Sinners. She also became the first Black person to win in the category, which made it one of the night’s most meaningful milestones, not just one of its most surprising ones.

Amy Madigan’s win for Weapons also came with a stat that is hard not to love. Her first Oscar nomination was in 1986, and her win this year came 40 years later, marking a record-long gap between a first nomination and a first win for an actress. That one feels less like trivia and more like a reminder that some careers take the scenic route.

Sean Penn, meanwhile, won Best Supporting Actor for One Battle After Another. The Academy Award was his third acting Oscar, putting him in a very small club. Even at the Oscars, where people love a repeat winner, that is still rare air.

Michael B. Jordan added another unusual first with his Best Actor win for Sinners, where he played twin brothers Smoke and Stack. What made the performance stand out was that he was not just carrying one lead role, but two distinct characters in the same film, something you do not see very often in a Best Actor winner.

It was a big night for milestone wins, and Buckley’s was right at the center of it. Her Hamnet victory was already a career-defining moment. The fact that it also gave Ireland its first Best Actress winner made it even bigger.

And of course, the red carpet had its own standout moments. I broke down the Oscars’ hair trends that actually felt worth paying attention to.