Sinners Got 16 Oscar Nominations. No Film Had Ever Done That Before.

On March 15, 2026, a vampire horror film set in 1932 Mississippi walked away from the Oscars with four Academy Awards. The Academy had never seen 16 nominations for a single film before. And yet, by the end of the night, Sinners by Ryan Coogler had etched its name in Oscar history while the Best Picture trophy went somewhere else entirely. Hollywood, as usual, found a way to be complicated.

This was the 98th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Conan O'Brien at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. If you missed it, here is everything that happened and why it matters for where cinema is heading in 2026.

Sinners: The Most-Nominated Film in Oscar History

Ryan Coogler's Sinners arrived at the ceremony with 16 nominations, breaking the record previously shared by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2016). No film in the history of the Academy Awards had ever collected that many nominations in a single year. The nominations covered nearly every major category, from Best Picture to Best Costume Design, and made history by including the most Black individuals nominated for a single film at ten people.

The film itself is a supernatural thriller set in Jim Crow-era Mississippi. Michael B. Jordan plays identical twin brothers who return to their hometown to open a juke joint for the local Black community, only to find themselves targeted by a vampire played by Jack O'Connell. The score by Ludwig Goransson weaves blues, gospel, and original compositions together into something that feels genuinely alive. It's the kind of film Hollywood rarely makes: original, rooted in history, and completely uninterested in playing it safe.

On Oscar night, Sinners won four awards: Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan (playing a dual role, only the second actor in Oscar history to win for that feat, after Lee Marvin in 1965), Best Original Screenplay for Ryan Coogler (only the second Black filmmaker to win that category after Jordan Peele for Get Out in 2018), Best Cinematography for Autumn Durald Arkapaw (the first woman and first Black person to ever win in that category), and Best Original Score for Ludwig Goransson. Four wins from 16 nominations sounds like a disappointment. It was not. It was a moment.

One Battle After Another: The Unexpected Best Picture Winner

Best Picture went to One Battle After Another, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film took home six Oscars total, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Anderson, plus Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn, who became only the fourth male actor to win three acting Oscars. It was also notable for winning Best Casting, a brand-new category at the Academy Awards this year, making it the inaugural recipient of that honor.

Best Actress went to Jessie Buckley, making her the first Irish actress to win the award. Timothee Chalamet, at age 30, became the youngest actor to earn three acting nominations since Marlon Brando, though he went home empty-handed this time. Wagner Moura became the first Brazilian nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

The ceremony also featured Frankenstein with three wins, and KPop Demon Hunters with two, including one for Best Animated Feature. If that title sounds like it belongs in a T. Kingfisher horror novel, that is not entirely a coincidence: genre fiction is having a genuine moment in prestige spaces right now.

Why Sinners Losing Best Picture Is Actually Fine

Here is the thing about Oscar season: Best Picture does not always go to the best film. It goes to the film that the Academy can agree on. Sinners was too specific, too weird, too rooted in a particular American experience to be everyone's consensus choice. That is also why it grossed over $370 million worldwide on a $90-100 million budget. Audiences knew something fresh when they saw it.

The 16 nominations were the Academy saying: we see what you did here. The four wins were proof that they meant it. And Autumn Durald Arkapaw's win for cinematography, in particular, is the kind of barrier-breaking moment that film schools will be discussing for the next decade.

There's a broader point worth making about what Sinners represents. Hollywood has been in a strange place for a few years. The franchise machine has started showing real cracks, as you can see in the ongoing tension between big IP and original content across all entertainment. Original films with real vision are being made at the margins while studios pour money into sequels. And then Sinners shows up, original, bold, and grounded in history, beats the competition at the box office, and makes Oscar history. That story matters beyond just the awards.

The Record Books

Here is a quick rundown of the records set at the 98th Academy Awards:

• Sinners: 16 nominations, the most in Oscar history for any single film
• Autumn Durald Arkapaw: first woman and first Black person to win Best Cinematography
• Ryan Coogler: second Black filmmaker to win Best Original Screenplay
• Michael B. Jordan: second actor to win an Oscar for a dual role
• Jessie Buckley: first Irish actress to win Best Actress
• Sean Penn: fourth male actor to win three acting Oscars
• Dede Gardner: most-nominated female producer for Best Picture (nine nominations total)
• Adam Somner: second producer to win Best Picture posthumously

The telecast itself drew 17.86 million viewers in the United States, a strong number for a ceremony that has spent years trying to rebuild its audience after declining ratings through the late 2010s and early 2020s.

What to Watch Next

If you have not seen Sinners yet, it is currently available to stream. A film that received 16 Oscar nominations, 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, and over $370 million at the global box office is not a film you skip. It is long (138 minutes), it is genuinely unsettling in places, and it has a juke joint sequence in the first act that is one of the most joyful things put on screen in years before everything goes wrong.

For One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson does what Paul Thomas Anderson does: long, demanding, rewards the patient viewer. If you liked There Will Be Blood or The Master, you already know whether you want to watch it.

The 2025 film year was genuinely strong. Between Sinners, Project Hail Mary which turned Andy Weir's novel into a $148M box office hit with a 94% Rotten Tomatoes score, and a handful of international films that found their way to global audiences, there is a case that 2025 produced some of the best cinema of the decade so far. The Oscars, for once, mostly agreed.

Sources

• 98th Academy Awards — Wikipedia
• Sinners (2025) — Wikipedia
• Oscars 2026 — Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences