'Sinners' makes history, setting Oscars nomination record
[January 23, 2026]
By JAKE COYLE
Ryan Coogler’s blues-steeped vampire epic “Sinners” led all films with
16 nominations to the 98th Academy Awards on Thursday, setting a record
for the most in Oscar history.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters showered “Sinners”
with more nominations than they had ever bestowed before, breaking the
14-nomination mark set by “All About Eve,” “Titanic” and “La La Land.”
Along with best picture, Coogler was nominated for best director and
best screenplay, and double-duty star Michael B. Jordan was rewarded
with his first Oscar nomination, for best actor.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s father-daughter revolutionary saga “One Battle
After Another,” the favorite coming into nominations, trailed in second
with 13 of its own. Four of its actors — Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana
Taylor, Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn — were nominated, though newcomer
Chase Infiniti was left out in best actress.
In those two top nominees, the film academy put its full force behind a
pair of visceral and bracingly original American epics that each
connected with a fraught national moment. Coogler’s Jim Crow-era film —
the rare horror movie to win the academy’s favor — conjures a mythical
allegory of Black life. In “One Battle After Another,” a dormant spirit
of rebellion is revived in an out-of-control police state.
Both are also Warner Bros. titles. In the midst of a contentious sale to
Netflix, the 102-year-old studio had its best Oscar nominations mornings
ever, with 33 total nods. In a memo to Warner Bros. Discovery employees,
David Zaslav, chief executive, called it “a golden moment for our
company.” As the fate of Warner Bros., which Netflix is buying for $72
billion, hangs in the balance amid a challenge from Paramount Skydance,
Hollywood is bracing for potentially the largest realignment in the film
industry’s history.
A coronation for Coogler
For Coogler, the 39-year-old filmmaker of “Fruitvale Station” and “Black
Panther,” it was a crowning moment. One of Hollywood's most esteemed yet
humble filmmakers, Coogler has called “Sinners” — a film that he will
own outright 25 years after its release — his most personal movie.
“I wrote this script for my uncle who passed away 11 years ago,” Coogler
said in an interview Thursday morning. “I got to imagine that he’s
listening to some blues music right now to celebrate.”
Reached by phone an hour after the nominations were read, Coogler —
speaking alongside his wife and producer Zinzi Coogler and producer Sev
Ohanian — was still trying to process the movie's record-breaking haul.
“I love making movies. I’m honored to wake up every day and do it. I was
writing last night. That’s why I didn’t get too much sleep,” said
Coogler, chuckling. “Honestly, bro, I still feel a little bit asleep
right now.”
The other top nominees
The 10 films nominated for best picture are “Bugonia,” “F1,”
“Frankenstein,” “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme,” “One Battle After Another,”
“The Secret Agent,” “Sentimental Value,” “Sinners” and “Train Dreams.”
Guillermo del Toro’s lush Mary Shelley adaptation “Frankenstein,” Josh
Safdie’s period ping-pong odyssey “Marty Supreme” and Joachim Trier’s
family drama “Sentimental Value” all scored nine nominations. Chloé
Zhao's speculative Shakespeare drama “Hamnet” collected eight nods. With
the notable exception of del Toro, those filmmakers filled up a best
director category of Anderson, Coogler, Safdie, Trier and Zhao, who in
2021 became the first woman of color to ever win the award.
The nine nods for “Marty Supreme” included a third best actor nod for
30-year-old Timothée Chalamet, the favorite in the category he narrowly
missed winning last year for “A Complete Unknown.” With Jordan and
Chalamet, the nominees are Ethan Hawke for “Blue Moon,” Wagner Moura for
“The Secret Agent” and DiCaprio for “One Battle After Another.”
Reached by phone Thursday, DiCaprio said the nominations for “One Battle
After Another” and “Sinners” signaled a sea change in an industry where
studios have largely shied away from big-budget original stories.
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A replica of an Academy Awards statuette is pictured prior to the
98th Oscars nominations announcement on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, at
the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan
Strauss/Invision/AP)
 “To me, what matters is great ideas
and original filmmaking,” said DiCaprio. “I think there’s this tide
of change that is going to happen no matter how we feel about it.”
Nominated for best actress was the category favorite, Jessie Buckley
(“Hamnet”), along with Rose Byrne (“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”),
Kate Hudson (“Song Sung Blue”), Renate Reinsve (“Sentimental Value”)
and two-time winner Emma Stone, who landed her seventh nomination,
for “Bugonia.”
‘KPop’ leads a field light on big hits
The year’s most-watched movie, with more than half a billion views
on Netflix, “KPop Demon Hunters,” scored nominations for both best
song (“Golden”) and best animated feature. Sony Pictures developed
and produced the film, but, after selling it to Netflix, watched it
become a worldwide sensation.
Blockbusters otherwise had a difficult morning. Universal Pictures’
“Wicked: For Good” was shut out entirely. While “Avatar: Fire and
Ash” notched nominations for costume design and visual effects, it
became the first “Avatar” film not nominated for best picture. The
biggest box-office hit nominated for Hollywood's top award instead
was “F1,” an Apple production that landed four nominations. The
streamer partnered with Warner Bros. to distribute the racing drama,
which collected $631.7 million worldwide.
This year, the Oscars are introducing a new category for casting.
The added award helped “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another” pad
their already impressive stats. Along with those two films, the
nominees are “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme” and “The Secret Agent.”
An international shift continues
The academy, which has expanded its overseas membership in recent
years, also continued its tilt toward international films. Every
category included one international nominee. For the eighth year in
the row, a non-English-language film was nominated for best picture.
More non-English performances were nominated than ever before.
The top nominee of them all was Trier's Norwegian drama “Sentimental
Value.” It cleaned up in the supporting actor categories, with nods
for Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter LilIeaas and Elle Fanning.
Also nominated for best supporting actress, in addition to Taylor:
Amy Madigan for “Weapons” and Wunmi Mosaku for “Sinners.” In
supporting actor, the nominees included Jacob Elordi for
“Frankenstein” and, in a surprise that likely dislodged Paul Mescal
of “Hamnet,” Delroy Lindo for “Sinners.”
A competitive best international feature category mirrored the
turbulent state of the world. That included the Iranian revenge
drama and Palme d'Or winner “It Was Just an Accident,” by the
often-imprisoned filmmaker Jafar Panahi. He's spoken passionately
against the ongoing crackdown of demonstrators in his home country.
France nominated the film.
Also nominated: the Tunisian entry “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” about
volunteers at the Palestine Red Crescent Society; the timely
Brazilian political thriller “The Secret Agent”; the apocalyptic
Spanish road movie “Sirât” and “Sentimental Value.” Four of those
nominees came from one independent distributor: Neon. The company,
which has had an enviable streak of Palme d'Or wins, was second only
to Warner Bros. with a collective 18 nominations.
The 98th Academy Awards will take place on March 15 at the Dolby
Theatre in Los Angeles and will be televised live on ABC and Hulu.
YouTube's new deal to exclusively air won't take effect until 2029.
This year, Conan O’Brien will return as host.
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