The Oscars ceremony on 15 March may tell a different story, but today, as the nominations for the Academy Awards were announced, Ryan Coogler’s alternative horror Sinners was the big winner.
The film’s haul of 16 nominations is an unprecedented achievement, setting a new record. The previous highest number of nominations – 14 – was shared by three films: Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s All About Eve (1950), James Cameron’s Titanic (1997) and Damien Chazelle’s La La Land (2016).
It’s a resounding vindication for Coogler, for Black filmmaking, and for creative and original storytelling that has succeeded without the springboard of existing intellectual property – and it’s one in the eye for the risk-averse industry pundits who confidently predicted the film would bomb.
It disrupts an awards narrative that has hitherto been regarded, rather tediously, as a two-horse race for best picture and best director, with Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another and Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet considered to be the main contenders.
The added momentum that Sinners nominations bring to the film’s overall campaign can’t be underestimated. I would expect to see the film picking up a decent haul of statuettes, including, hopefully, best cinematography – which would result in another historic first, making Autumn Durald Arkapaw the only female cinematographer to win the Oscar.
Will it win best picture? That’s harder to call – and I wouldn’t fancy betting against One Battle After Another just yet.
The success story emerging from the nominations is foreign language cinema. Two international pictures, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value (Norway) and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent (Brazil), made it into the best picture category. Both of these pictures received numerous nominations, with Sentimental Value tallying an impressive nine – including no less than four acting nominations (Renate Reinsve for lead, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Elle Fanning for supporting) – and The Secret Agent four.
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Not only these foreign language films did well: Oliver Laxe’s Sirât (Spain) and Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident (Iran) also received two nominations apiece.
This may be a consequence of the academy’s newly broadened and increasingly international voting body. But at a time when America is becoming more isolationist politically, the Oscars’ embrace of other cultures and the international reach of the nominations could be seen as a statement.
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The losers this year? Well, women, once again. Only one female-directed film – Zhao’s Hamnet – cracked the best picture list, with Zhao, a previous winner for Nomadland, also getting a best director nod. Any egregious snubs? Wicked: For Good failed to connect with voters, but that campaign had already been dismissed by most awards experts. I would have liked to have seen the terrific Odessa A'zion get a supporting actress nomination for Marty Supreme (her co-star, Timothée Chalamet, seems a likely winner for best actor, although the success of Sinners could now favour Michael B Jordan). And Paul Mescal deserved a supporting actor nomination for Hamnet (again, his co-star, Jessie Buckley, is a near certainty to win best actress).
What’s certain is that the awards conversation – which was starting to get rather stale and repetitive – has now been spiced up considerably. We may even get a few surprises.
See the full list of nominations below:
Best picture
•
•
•
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Hamnet
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Marty Supreme
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One Battle After Another
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The Secret Agent
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Sentimental Value
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Sinners
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Best director
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Chloé Zhao, Hamnet
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Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
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Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
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Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
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Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Best actor
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Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme
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Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
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Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
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Michael B Jordan, Sinners
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Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Best actress
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Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
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Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
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Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue
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Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value
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Emma Stone, Bugonia
Best supporting actor
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Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another
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Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
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Delroy Lindo, Sinners
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Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
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Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value
Best supporting actress
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Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
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Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
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Amy Madigan, Weapons
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Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
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Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
Best original screenplay
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Blue Moon
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It Was Just an Accident
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Marty Supreme
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Sentimental Value
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Sinners
Best adapted screenplay
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Bugonia
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Frankenstein
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Hamnet
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One Battle After Another
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Train Dreams
Best animated feature film
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Arco
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Elio
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KPop Demon Hunters
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Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
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Zootopia 2
Best international feature film
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The Secret Agent
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It Was Just an Accident
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Sentimental Value
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Sirât
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The Voice of Hind Rajab
Best documentary feature film
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The Alabama Solution
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Come See Me in the Good Light
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Cutting Through Rocks
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Mr Nobody Against Putin
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The Perfect Neighbor
Best documentary short film
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All the Empty Rooms
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Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud
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Children No More: Were and Are Gone
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The Devil Is Busy
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Perfectly a Strangeness
Best animated short film
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Butterfly
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Forevergreen
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The Girl Who Cried Pearls
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Retirement Plan
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The Three Sisters
Best live action short film
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Butcher’s Stain
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A Friend of Dorothy
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Jane Austen’s Period Drama
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The Singers
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Two People Exchanging Saliva
Best casting
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Hamnet
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Marty Supreme
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One Battle After Another
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The Secret Agent
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Sinners
Best cinematography
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Frankenstein
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Marty Supreme
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One Battle After Another
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Sinners
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Train Dreams
Best costume design
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Avatar: Fire and Ash
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Frankenstein
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Hamnet
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Marty Supreme
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Sinners
Best film editing
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F1
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Marty Supreme
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One Battle After Another
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Sentimental Value
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Sinners
Best makeup and hairstyling
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Frankenstein
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Kokuho
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Sinners
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The Smashing Machine
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The Ugly Stepsister
Best production design
•
Frankenstein
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Hamnet
•
Marty Supreme
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One Battle After Another
•
Sinners
Best original score
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Bugonia
•
Frankenstein
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Hamnet
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One Battle After Another
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Sinners
Best original song
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Dear Me, Diane Warren: Relentless
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Golden, KPop Demon Hunters
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I Lied To You, Sinners
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Sweet Dreams of Joy, Viva Verdi!
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Train Dreams, Train Dreams
Best sound
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F1
•
Frankenstein
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One Battle After Another
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Sinners
•
Sirât
Best visual effects
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Avatar: Fire and Ash
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F1
•
Jurassic World Rebirth
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The Lost Bus
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Sinners
Photograph courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures