Oscars 2025 | Kieran Culkin wins Best Supporting Actor for ‘A Real Pain’

Actor Kieran Culkin today grabbed the Oscar for the Best Supporting Actor for his spectacular turn in A Real Pain at the ongoing 97th Academy Awards

Actor Kieran Culkin today grabbed the Oscar for the Best Supporting Actor for his spectacular turn in A Real Pain. The actor won the award at the ongoing 97th Academy Awards which are being handed out at The Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Culkin won the award against fellow nominees Yura Borisov (Anora), Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown), Guy Pearce (The Brutalist), and Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice)

“I have no idea how I got here,” Culkin said while accepting his award on stage. “I’ve been acting all my life. I never felt like this was my trajectory.”

Notably, this is Culkin’s first Academy Award. The star had previously grabbed a BAFTA, Independent Spirit Award, and a Critics Choice Award for his performance as Benjamin “Benji” Kaplan in Jesse Eisenberg’s comedy-drama.

Written and directed by Eisenberg, the film 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.

(With inputs from AP)