LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 14: Michael B. Jordan attends the European premiere of “Sinners” at Cineworld Leicester Square on April 14, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Pictures)
Getty Images for Warner Bros. Pictures
Ryan Coogler’s stylish vampire drama, Sinners, just made Academy Award history. The film, which stars Michael B. Jordan in twin roles, earned 16 Oscar nominations, breaking the previous record of 14.
That record was held by Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s All About Eve (1950), James Cameron’s Titanic (1997) and Damien Chazelle’s La La Land (2016) – films that managed to perform well in both acting and technical categories.
Sinners was nominated in every technical category. This is only the seventh time this has happened at the Academy Awards. The only other films to snag this many technical category nominations include Titanic (1997), Master and Commander (2003), Hugo (2011), The Revenant (2015), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and Dune (2021).
The thriller, which is set in the 1930s American south and deals with monsters both supernatural and mundane, was nominated for:
- best picture
- best director
- best actor (Michael B. Jordan)
- best supporting actress (Wunmi Mosaku)
- actor in a supporting role (Delroy Lindo)
- original screenplay
- casting
- production design
- cinematography
- costume design
- film editing
- makeup and hairstyling
- sound
- visual effects
- original score
- best song (“I Lied To You”)
Sinners deserves the nominations, and hopefully takes home some wins. It was one of my favorite films of 2025, even if it was a little derivative of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn.
Sinners was largely shut out of the Golden Globes, both in terms of nominations and wins. Where it was nominated, it lost out to films like Hamnet and One Battle After Another.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s action-comedy racked up 13 Oscars nominations. Both films were nominated for Best Picture alongside Frankenstein, Bugonia, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, Sentimental Value, Train Dreams, F1 and The Secret Agent. I’m a little bummed that Weapons, one of my Top 5 2025 films, isn’t on the list, though not entirely surprised.
Warner Bros is the studio behind both Sinners and One Battle After Another and led the nominations pack with 30 nods, beating out Netflix this year. Of course, Netflix is in the process of purchasing Warner Bros so in the long run it may make no difference. What a peculiar world.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2026/01/22/oscars-nominations-2026-sinners-ryan-coogler/