Sam Rockwell Wins the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor at the 2018 Academy Awards

It takes a strong man to play a supporting role, and the Oscars honored “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” star Sam Rockwell for that role during the 2018 ceremony, winning over fellow nominees Willem Dafoe (“The Florida Project”), Woody Harrelson (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”), Richard Jenkins (“The Shape of Water”), and Christopher Plummer (“All the Money in the World”).

Rockwell’s speech praised his parents’ love of movies and thanked “anyone who’s ever looked at a billboard.” He was the frontrunner coming into Sunday’s awards, as he was a force for his portrayal of an, um, “complicated” small town police officer, whose personality flaws include deeply embedded racism. The “Charlie’s Angels” breakout star had previously won nearly every trophy for which he was nominated this Oscar season, including the Golden Globe, BAFTA, and SAG Award.

At the Oscars, Rockwell faced off against “Three Billboards” star Woody Harrelson in the Best Supporting Actor category — the first time that’s happened since 1992, when both Ben Kingsley and Harvey Keitel were nominated for “Bugsy.”

Of the selected nominees, 88-year-old Christopher Plummer was the oldest actor to compete, and is already the oldest actor to win an Oscar, following his work in 2012’s “Beginners.”

Among the performances that didn’t make the nominations cut were Michael Stuhlbarg and Tracy Letts for playing, in critic David Ehlrich’s words, “good dads” in the films “Call Me By Your Name” and “Lady Bird,” respectively. The 90th annual Academy Awards were hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on March 4, 2018 at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, CA. Check out IndieWire’s full coverage here.