Despite being a huge critical and theatrical hit in 2025, Ryan Coogler’s stunning horror movie Sinners somehow left the Golden Globes without recognition for its acting or directing. However, it looks like Hollywood has an opportunity to redeem itself: the film has just received a record-breaking 16 Oscar nominations, including nods in most of the top-tier categories.
Sinners, one of the smartest horror movies ever made, tells the story of identical twin brothers Elijah (Smoke) and Elias (Stack) Moore (both Michael B. Jordan), a pair of WWI vets and criminals returning to their hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1932 after seven years of robbing the mob in Chicago. In the Jim Crow South, the brothers buy an abandoned sawmill and open it as a jazz joint for the Black population of the town, but find themselves and their club entwined in some deeply complex supernatural shenanigans that involve Robert Johnson-like blues abilities, vampires and vampire hunters, and the all-too real horror of the Ku Klux Klan. It’s a breathtaking work from the Black Panther director, and despite its Golden Globes snubbing it looks far better set to receive the awards it deserves from the Academy.
Sinners was nominated for seven Golden Globes, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Screenplay in the Drama category, but won not a single one of them. It did come away with gongs for Best Original Score and the peculiar booby prize of Cinematic and Box Office Achievement. (Deserved, of course, given it was the first original movie to make over $200 million domestically since 2017.)
When it comes to March 15’s Academy Awards, the prospects are looking far better. No film has ever received 16 Oscar nominations before, indicating judges are already pretty enamored. Here’s the full list of Sinners‘ nominations:
- Best Actor in a Leading Role – Michael B. Jordan
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Delroy Lindo
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Wunmi Mosaku
- Best Casting – Francine Maisler
- Best Cinematography – Autumn Durald Arkapaw
- Best Costume Design – Ruth E. Carter
- Best Directing – Ryan Coogler
- Best Film Editing – Michael P. Shawver
- Best Makeup and Hairstyling – Ken Diaz, Mike Fontaine and Shunika Terry
- Best Original Score – Ludwig Goransson
- Best Original Screenplay – Ryan Coogler
- Best Original Song – ‘I Lied To You’, Raphel Saadiq and Ludwig Goransson
- Best Picture – Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian and Ryan Coogler
- Best Production Design – Hannah Beachler and Monique Champagne
- Best Sound – Chris Welcker et al
- Best Visual Effects – Michael Ralla et al
Competition remains stiff at the 98th Academy Awards, and the list of Best Picture nominations gives you the best idea of the movies that could pip Sinners at the post:
- Bugonia
- F1
- Frankenstein
- Hamnet
- Marty Supreme
- One Battle After Another
- The Secret Agent
- Sentimental Value
- Sinners
- Train Dreams
It’s a very pleasingly eclectic list, and it’s likely that Timothée Chalamet could spoil Michael B. Jordan’s chances for Best Actor, given the Oscars’ reputation for so many factors, such as recency bias, an aversion to so-called “genre” films, and the fact that the Academy really seems to struggle with giving trophies to non-white actors. Marty Supreme and One Battle After Another seem the most likely rivals in the list.
Horror movies, like anything that’s not a straight-laced drama, do have a far harder time getting deserved acclamation, so even setting this record for the most nominations is already a huge achievement. That it’s been achieved by a Black-led movie from a Black director with a predominantly Black cast makes it even more so. Could this finally be the year when the Oscars are not quite so white?