History Made: Breaking Down 'Sinners' 16 Oscar Nominations

Just under a year ago, Sinners debuted in movie theaters, and it lit the world on fire, which was helpful because those flames killed vampires. It leaped out to a massive box office success, spawned a million think pieces arguing many different aspects of the film and filmmaking process, and now, it's taking a victory lap.

Especially after the Oscar nominations have come out.

In a morning that felt less like a typical announcement and more like a coronation, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners has 16 nominations and has officially surpassed the 14-nomination record previously held by All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land.

That makes it the most nominated movie of all time.

For those of us tracking the industry, this isn't just a win for Warner Bros. (who are currently navigating a sale to Netflix); it’s a seismic shift for genre filmmaking.

Let's dive in,

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The Full Breakdown: 16 Paths to Gold

Sinners is on a historic run, so I wanted to break down all its nominations to show you just how dominant it's been this year.

It’s rare to see a film sweep the "Big Five" while simultaneously dominating the craft categories. Sinners managed to land nods in nearly every corner of the ballot.

The Major Categories:

• Best Picture: Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Coogler, and Sev Ohanian.
• Best Director: Ryan Coogler.
• Best Actor: Michael B. Jordan (Finally! This marks his first-ever Oscar nomination).
• Best Original Screenplay: Ryan Coogler.
• Best Supporting Actor/Actress: Delroy Lindo and Wunmi Mosaku.

The Tech Sweep:

The Academy clearly fell for the atmospheric, 1930s Mississippi Gothic aesthetic. And the people who helped bring that singular vision to the screen.

• Cinematography: Autumn Durald Arkapaw makes history as only the fourth woman nominated here.
• Costume Design: The legendary Ruth E. Carter grabs her 5th nod.
• Production Design: Hannah Beachler and Monique Champagne.
• Best Casting: Francine Maisler (securing a spot in the Academy's brand-new category).
• Film Editing, Sound, Visual Effects, and Makeup & Hairstyling.

The Music:

• Best Original Score: Ludwig Göransson.
• Best Original Song: "I Lied To You" by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson.

Sinners Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

Why This Matters for Filmmakers

We talk a lot at No Film School about the "elevated genre" trend, but Sinners is something different. It’s a massive-budget, supernatural horror film that refused to stay in the box.

Talking to NPR, Coogler explained how this is a story that has followed him for his whole life.

"This movie was, like, all about dichotomy, you know, and that's something that I've been dealing with my whole life. You know, this feeling of not totally fitting in or things not totally squaring with each other. You know, like, coming up, I was Black. I was from Oakland. I was middle-class, and I was in these neighborhoods where my parents were kind of outliers. They got married young, and they went to college, but they stayed in their neighborhood, you know? So I constantly, as a kid, would feel like I was, like, living in two different worlds. There's a dichotomy there. And I took the student (ph) serious. I was, like, a big old giant nerd, but I was also, like, a very, very serious athlete, you know? And where I'm from, to be an athlete, you're, like, adjacent to street culture. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, you get, you know, you get cool points in the streets when you're good at football or basketball or running track like I was. I was also raised Christian. I was raised Baptist in the Black Baptist tradition. You know what I'm saying? But I was going to Catholic school. So I was around these, like, two very different types of Christianity, and trying to reckon - you know what I mean? - reckon with that on a daily basis. And it made me very sensitive to themes of identity, you know, and the dichotomy as an idea."

This depth all allowed Coogler to build an interesting world. One where he could take his own past and his family's past and mix it for an audience who could not only see the beauty of one culture, but also understand that we all come from somewhere.

But he did all that with vampires, sex, and action, and the ticket sales followed.

Embracing A Genre

Horror is marketable, and it puts butts in seats. Shooting and showing in IMAX does the same. Coogler used both things to his advantage.

Coogler has proven that you can take high-concept, terrifying premises—vampires, Jim Crow-era tension, and folklore. And that you can execute them with the prestige level of a period drama.

He didn't run from the roots of the genre; he embraced them.

He was able to successfully meld the "Popcorn Movie" and the "Oscar Movie" together in a way that I don't think anyone has done seriously since Cameron's Titanic.

If there's one lesson for filmmakers to take away from all this, it's to always imbue a piece of themselves into everything they make. No matter if it's just supposed to be fun or popcorn fare, this is the way to set yourself apart from the pack and to ensure you're mixing art and commerce.

Summing It All Up

The competition is still fierce. Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is hot on its heels with 13 nominations, and the industry is still buzzing about how Netflix’s impending acquisition of WB will affect the final push for votes.

But for now, Coogler stands on top of them. And I can't wait to see what Sinners takes home, and what Coogler does next.

Let me know what you think in the comments.