Sean Penn Skipped The Oscars, What He Received Was Far More Symbolic

Activist actor Sean Penn raised eyebrows for skipping the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday, especially after he won the award for Best Supporting Actor in “One Battle After Another.” It was later revealed that Penn was in Ukraine at the time.

Per Page Six, Penn was meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Monday, and while he was there, he was given a flat, Oscar-shaped statue made out of forged metal from a destroyed railcar.

Ukrainian Railways CEO Oleksandr Pertsovskyi shared a video of Penn receiving the “IronOscar” on X. 

“You’re missing the Oscars,” Pertsovskyi told Penn. “Plus, you gave the last one to the president. So we made this one … You said the metals survived, so we put some words here that are very special to us. It’s not golden, but it’s very real, and it’s from the bottom of our hearts. It’s important to us.”

Penn hugged Pertsovskyi and said, “These are all treasures, thank you.”

Sean Penn opted for the trip to ???????? vs. Oscar ceremony at Dolby Theater where he was awarded his 3rd ????. We couldn’t leave our great friend and loyal Ukrainian Raiwlays passenger without an award. So, I have presented Sean with our IronOscar on behalf of all of us! pic.twitter.com/OLyzOY4h7L

— Oleksandr Pertsovskyi (@Pertsovskyi_O) March 17, 2026

The iron Oscar-shaped statue says on the back, “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.”

Academy Awards presenter Kieran Culkin joked during Sunday’s broadcast about Penn not being there after announcing he had won.  “Sean Penn couldn’t be here this evening, or didn’t want to, so I’ll be accepting the award on his behalf,” Culkin said from the stage.

In 2022, Penn threatened to “smelt” his Oscar if the Academy Awards planners said no to a virtual appearance by the Ukrainian president, plus encouraged other celebrities to boycott the ceremony. 

Penn later gave his Oscars statue to Zelensky.

“I feel terrible. This is for you. It’s just a symbolic silly thing, but if I know this is here with you then I’ll feel better and stronger for the fight,” he said at the time. “When you win, bring it back to Malibu. I’ll feel much better knowing a piece of me is here.”