Sean Penn Did Get an Oscar After All

Ukraine presents actor an 'Oscar' made from a missile-damaged train car
Posted Mar 18, 2026 9:46 AM CDT
Sean Penn Did Collect an Oscar After All
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, left, talks with actor and director Sean Penn in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, March, 2026.   (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

When Sean Penn's not skipping the Oscars in Hollywood, he's apparently collecting them in Ukraine. The actor, who won best supporting actor in absentia on Sunday for Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, was instead in Ukraine meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky, reports the Guardian. For his trouble, he was handed a homemade statuette forged from the metal of a railway car hit by Russian missiles. It was inscribed thusly, notes CNN:

  • "This steel once carried millions of people away from war. Then a Russian missile came. We did not melt it into a weapon. We forged it into gratitude—for you. For your talent. For your courage to stand with Ukraine."

Ukraine's rail chief Oleksandr Pertsovskyi presented the flat, silver award, joking, "You're missing Oscars, so we made this one," and calling it "very real and from the bottom of our hearts." Penn, 65, replied, "These are all treasures." Zelensky later shared a photo of the two in his office. Penn has been a frequent visitor to Ukraine since the Russian invasion and released a 2023 documentary on Zelensky. In 2022, he left one of his own Oscars with the president, telling him to return it "when you win." Penn also skipped February's Bafta ceremony, where he won for the same role.

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