Cassandra Kulukundis has won the first ever Oscar for casting for her work on Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. That film’s star, Chase Infiniti, paid tribute to her on stage before Kulukundis was awarded.

Kulukundis began her career as an intern on Anderson’s debut, Hard Eight, before casting almost all his films since 1999’s Magnolia, including There Will Be Blood and Inherent Vice. Other credits include Ghost World, A Late Quartet, Her and last year’s Oscar heavyweight The Brutalist.

She paid tribute to Anderson – who is yet to be awarded his own Oscar – on stage, saying: “I just thank you for 10 movies. We’ve done this for over 30 years. We grew up together, I guess, and this is freaking insane, and I have one before you, which is also crazy.

Kulukundis beat Jennifer Venditti (Marty Supreme), Nina Gold (Hamnet), Francine Maisler (Sinners), and Gabriel Domingues (The Secret Agent) to the inaugural prize.

The British Film Academy introduced a casting award in 2020.