Oscars 2026: Winners from the UK and Ireland, Including Irish Star Jessie Buckley

Irish actress Jessie Buckley made history at the 2026 Oscars, but her journey to the stage was anything but smooth. Here's everything you need to know.

One night. Six awards. And a speech that left the entire Dolby Theatre in tears. The 2026 Academy Awards belonged, in no small part, to the UK and Ireland — but it was one Irish actress's win that had the internet completely losing its mind.

A Big Night for British and Irish Talent

It was a landmark evening for homegrown talent on both sides of the Irish Sea. The night's biggest winner was "One Battle After Another", which swept six Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director for writer-director-producer Paul Thomas Anderson.

The film was co-produced by the late London-born British-American filmmaker Adam Somner, who passed away in November 2024.

In his acceptance speech for the directing Oscar, Anderson paid moving tribute to his collaborator, saying Somner was "up in a really big bar up in the sky right now, and he's having a gin and tonic, and he's so happy for me and our crew."

Ireland's Richard Baneham was among the team that won the Visual Effects Oscar for "Avatar: Fire and Ash", while UK production sound mixer Gareth John earned the Best Sound Oscar for "F1" — a film that made use of iconic UK locations including the Silverstone car racing circuit.

UK-born Mike Hill, meanwhile, took home the Makeup and Hairstyling Oscar for "Frankenstein", which shot partly on locations in Scotland and England and at Elstree Studios.

But none of these wins generated quite the same electricity as what happened when the Best Actress envelope was opened.

Jessie Buckley Makes History

As widely predicted, Ireland's Jessie Buckley won the Lead Actress Oscar for "Hamnet" — becoming the first-ever Irish winner in the category.

The film, produced out of the UK by Liza Marshall's Hera Pictures and Pippa Harris and Sam Mendes' Neal Street Productions, was shot in Wales and Herefordshire.

Beating out Rose Byrne ("If I Had Legs I'd Kick You"), Kate Hudson ("Song Sung Blue") and Renate Reinsve ("Sentimental Value"), it is Buckley's first Oscar win.

She plays Agnes Shakespeare, wife of playwright William (portrayed by Paul Mescal), in Chloé Zhao's adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's beloved novel.

On stage, she was visibly moved, saluting her fellow nominees, saying she was humbled by their artistry and moved by their humanity.

She gave a tearful nod to her father, her partner and her eight-month-old daughter — who she joked was "probably dreaming of milk" — and said that inhabiting Agnes had shown her that understanding "the capacity of a mother's love is the greatest collision" of her life.

On the red carpet, Buckley turned heads in a dramatic two-tone gown: a flowing, floor-length baby pink skirt with a sweeping train, topped with a bold structured red off-the-shoulder wrap.

Her blonde hair was swept back into a sleek updo, and she finished the look with a delicate silver necklace and a swipe of red lip. It was a striking, confident choice — and, predictably, the internet had thoughts.

"Well deserved! She was phenomenal in Hamnet 👏" one viewer exclaimed. "That's a winner's outfit!!!" another declared. "The best look so far! 😍😍 A wonderful dress! 😍😍," gushed a third.

Not everyone was convinced, however. "I wish the pink was a lighter shade but otherwise stunning," wrote one netizen, while another was more blunt, saying, "This dress is hideous." A third added, "Uhmmm no, definitely not fitting for the best actress winner."

Who Is Jessie Buckley?

For those unfamiliar with the Kerry-born actress, her Oscar win marks the culmination of a career defined as much by resilience as by raw talent.

Raised among the glacial lochs and sandstone peaks of County Kerry, Buckley grew up the eldest of five children, with a poet father and an opera-singer-turned-vocal-coach mother.

Sent to board at an all-girls convent school in Tipperary at the age of 11, she found herself wrestling with her identity and the pressure to conform. When asked if this left her depressed in a recent Vogue interview, she admitted, "Yeah, depressed and… I was just lost."

Her path to stardom was anything but linear. In 2008, rejected by the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, she stumbled upon an open BBC audition for "I'd Do Anything" — the reality series searching for the next Nancy for Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Oliver!" revival.

She made the final, only to lose the public vote to "Coronation Street's" Jodie Prenger. What the cameras captured during filming, she has since reflected on with discomfort.

She confessed she "was not well fully" at the time — "I was depressed and I – just wasn't well" — and experienced what she described as "a lot of body shaming and bringing me to femininity school". She was 17.

Today, Buckley — who also released a Mercury Prize-nominated album with Bernard Butler in 2022 — is married to a mental health worker, Fred with whom she had daughter Isla just months before Oscars season.

She credits playing Agnes in "Hamnet" with stirring a "deep need" to become a mother herself. She still uses her hair as armour — "My hair's my way of hiding," she confirmed with a laugh — and approaches fame with characteristic wariness.

"I feel a little bit like a rabbit in headlights," she admitted ahead of the ceremony. Her philosophy, though, is simple:

"My job is to be human. To make people feel rather than becoming disembodied, disconnected, disengaged."

An Irish Giant

As her star rises, Buckley seems determined to stay tethered to what matters.

"Being pregnant, and becoming a mother, I felt like a sort of giant," she said. "In this next chapter of my existence, that's what I'm trying to embrace. In fashion, in every aspect of my being. I am a giant!"

The Stars the Oscars Forgot

While the Oscars' In Memoriam segment opened with a heartfelt personal tribute from Billy Crystal to his friend Rob Reiner — who was killed alongside his wife Michele in late 2025 — and included a musical tribute to Robert Redford from Barbra Streisand, several beloved names were conspicuously absent.

Brigitte Bardot, who died in December 2025 aged 91, was left off the list, as were James Van Der Beek, who died aged 48 from cancer in February, and "General Hospital's" Eric Dane, who passed away earlier this year from ALS.

"The Tuskegee Airmen's" Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who died in July 2025 aged just 54, was also missing, along with "Howards End" actress Prunella Scales.