Kieran Culkin wins best supporting actor at the Oscars, completing his sweep

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kieran Culkin won the Oscar for best supporting actor Sunday at the 97th Academy Awards, completing a sweep of the category that followed his dominance in television awards last season.

The award, for portraying the chaotic but endearing Benji in Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain," marked his first win and nomination.

Culkin thanked his manager, his mom, Eisenberg and his wife, Jazz Charton — taking the moment to remind his wife that he wants more kids.

“About a year ago, I was on a stage like this, and I very stupidly, publicly, said that I want a third kid from her because she said if I won the award, I would, she would give me the kid," he said, recalling his speech at the Emmys last January. After the show, “She goes, ‘Oh, God, I did say that. I guess I owe you a third kid.’ And I turned to her and I said, ‘Really? I want four.’”

“She said, ‘I will give you four when you win an Oscar,’” Culkin, who has two kids with Charton, said to a chorus of laughs from the audience. “Jazz, love of my life, ye of little faith. No pressure. I love you.”

Culkin triumphed over nominees Guy Pearce for “The Brutalist,” Edward Norton for “A Complete Unknown,” Yura Borisov for “Anora” and his fellow “Succession” alum Jeremy Strong for “The Apprentice.” The category was one of few with a clear favorite ahead of this year's ceremony, after Culkin picked up the Golden Globe, BAFTA, Independent Spirit Award, SAG Award and a slew of critics awards earlier this month.

Written and directed by Eisenberg, “A Real Pain” follows cousins — played by Culkin and Eisenberg — on a trip through Poland for a Holocaust tour to honor their late grandmother. Culkin’s Benji is introduced as unfiltered but quick to connect. Eisenberg’s David is his rule-following, guarded foil. Oscillating between serious reflections on Jewish identity, generational trauma and mourning and the inherent comedy of mismatched relatives, Eisenberg’s script deftly navigates heavy themes with humor that lands because of Culkin’s ability to deliver it earnestly.

“Jesse Eisenberg, thank you for this movie. You’re a genius," Culkin said on stage. "I would never say that to your face. I’m never saying it again. So soak it up.”

It wasn't a sure bet that Culkin's Benji would make it to screens. When production on the final season of “Succession” ran long, Culkin considered dropping out of the film to spend time with his family. Emma Stone, last year's best actress Oscar winner whose company Fruit Tree produced the project, convinced him to stay on — by reassuring him that they could make it work without him, knowing that wasn't necessarily true.

“She let me off the hook completely,” Culkin told The Associated Press of his ex-girlfriend. “And I think it was the moment I got off the phone that I was like ‘Oh (expletive), I’m doing this movie.’”

Culkin’s film debut came at age 7 in “Home Alone,” where he played the soda-slurping younger cousin of his older brother Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin McCallister. His first major award nomination was a Golden Globe nod for the 2002 film “Igby Goes Down.” But it was his turn as Roman Roy, on “Succession” nearly two decades later that brought Culkin widespread fandom and acclaim, including a Golden Globe and Emmy Award for the series' final season.

“Sometimes people will say like, oh, you’re a lot like that character. I'm like, I wasn't until I did it, and now I feel like I took something with me," Culkin said of Benji after his win. “But I'd like to think that I'm a little more together than that guy. I'd like to think that I’ve figured some stuff out."

For more coverage of the Oscars, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/academy-awards.

Kieran Culkin accepts the award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role for "A Real Pain" during the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Kieran Culkin accepts the award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role for "A Real Pain" during the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Kieran Culkin accepts the award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role for "A Real Pain" during the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Kieran Culkin accepts the award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role for "A Real Pain" during the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Kieran Culkin accepts the award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role for "A Real Pain" during the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Robert Downey Jr. looks on from right.(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Kieran Culkin accepts the award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role for "A Real Pain" during the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Robert Downey Jr. looks on from right. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Kieran Culkin accepts the award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role for "A Real Pain" during the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Kieran Culkin accepts the award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role for "A Real Pain" during the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump will happen “in the near future,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday, signaling progress in talks to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine.

“We are not losing a single day. We have agreed on a meeting at the highest level – with President Trump in the near future,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.

“A lot can be decided before the New Year,” he added.

Zelenskyy's announcement came after he said Thursday he had a “good conversation” with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Trump has unleashed a diplomatic push to end the war, but his efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv.

Zelenskyy said Tuesday he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end the war, if Moscow also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarized zone monitored by international forces.

Though Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that there had been “slow but steady progress” in the peace talks, Russia has given no indication that it will agree to any kind of withdrawal from land it has seized.

In fact, Moscow has insisted that Ukraine relinquish the remaining territory it still holds in the Donbas — an ultimatum that Ukraine has rejected. Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk — the two areas that make up the Donbas.

On the ground, one person was killed and three others wounded when a guided aerial bomb hit a house in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, while six people were wounded in a missile strike on the city of Uman, local officials said Friday.

Russian drone attacks on the city of Mykolaiv and its suburbs overnight into Friday left part of the city without power. Energy and port infrastructure were damaged by drones in the city of Odesa on the Black Sea.

Meanwhile, Ukraine said it struck a major Russian oil refinery Thursday using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.

Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces hit the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in Russia’s Rostov region. “Multiple explosions were recorded. The target was hit,” it wrote on Telegram.

Rostov regional Gov. Yuri Slyusar said a firefighter was wounded when extinguishing the fire.

Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue its full-scale invasion. Russia wants to cripple the Ukrainian power grid, seeking to deny civilians access to heat, light and running water in what Kyiv officials say is an attempt to “weaponize winter.”

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a media conference at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)