Sean Penn won his third Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards – but he wasn’t there to see it happen.

Sean Penn, 65, won his third Oscar for his performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s film One Battle After Another. In the movie, he plays Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw, and the win came in the Best Supporting Actor category, adding another statue to a career that has already earned him two Academy Awards: one for Mystic River in 2003 and another for Milk in 2008, along with several other nominations.

Despite the milestone, Penn chose not to attend the ceremony. Kieran Culkin addressed the reason behind Sean Penn’s absence from the stage, saying: “Sean Penn couldn’t be here this evening – or didn’t want to,” according to VT.

Sean Penn’s Oscar wins
Penn’s absence was not entirely surprising. Over the years, he has been openly critical of award ceremonies in general, and the Oscars in particular.

“The Academy have exercised really extraordinary cowardice… limiting the imagination and different cultural expressions,” he said at one point, according to VT.

In another interview, he said: “I don’t get very excited about what we’ll call the Academy Awards.”

He has also questioned how much weight the event should really carry when it comes to judging artistic quality, saying: “Ceremonies like the Oscars should best be seen as television shows first and less as barometers of artistic merit.”

Instead, Penn has used the spotlight around the Oscars to draw attention to political issues he cares deeply about. At one point, he threatened to melt down his two Oscar statues if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not given a platform during the broadcast. He later gave one of his statues to Zelenskyy.

For Penn, it seems the awards themselves have never been the most important part, no matter how prestigious others may view them.