Sinners receives 16 Oscar nominations, surpassing films tied at 14

Sinners secured 16 Academy Award nominations on Thursday morning, making the vampire tale — described in coverage as an allegory about race in America — the most-nominated film in Oscars history.

The film earned nods in major categories including best film, best director, best actor and best supporting actor and actress, as well as several technical categories such as best cinematography and the academy’s newest category, best casting. The casting category was expected to be a potential tipping point. Its 16 nominations broke the previous three-way tie among All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997) and La La Land (2016), which each had 14 nominations.

The article notes that changes to Oscar categories over time have affected past totals: All About Eve benefited from separate black-and-white and color awards that were consolidated after the 1967 ceremony, and both Titanic and La La Land received nominations in two separate sound categories that were merged in 2020. Those evolutions complicate direct comparisons of nomination counts across different eras.

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Culture, Sinners, Academy Awards, All About Eve, Titanic, La La Land