Sinners tops Academy Award nominations with 16 nods, the most in 97 years

Ryan Coogler’s vampire drama Sinners led the Academy Award nominations with 16 nods, the most for any film in the Oscars’ 97-year history. The piece described Sinners as a violent, high-energy fantasia about racism, music and the black experience. The article said the nominations delivered a surprise to industry expectations that films such as Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme would dominate awards season.

It framed Sinners’ rise as a “colossal smackdown” to those assumptions and quoted a character played by Delroy Lindo: "White folks like the blues just fine, just not the people who make it." The piece also highlighted Michael B. Jordan as the film’s "very stylish leading man" and noted several snubs, including Paul Mescal (not nominated for playing Shakespeare), the second half of the Wicked saga and Chase Infiniti.

Other nomination counts cited in the article included One Battle After Another on 13 nominations, Marty Supreme, Sentimental Value and Frankenstein on nine each, Hamnet on eight (with Jessie Buckley described as "still in pole position" for best actress) and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent on four, with Wagner Moura nominated.

Key Topics

Culture, Sinners, Academy Awards, Ryan Coogler, Michael B Jordan, Delroy Lindo