Michael B. Jordan and Omar Benson Miller in a scene from 'Sinners.'Warner Bros Pictures/via The Associated Press
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 Pictures 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 favourite coming into nominations, trailed in second with 13 nominations 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.
'Sinners,' a Segregation-era vampire thriller starring Michael B. Jordan, stormed into the awards race on Thursday with the most Academy Award nominations of any film this year, landing a record 16 nods.
Reuters
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 favour – 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 US$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.
Actor Michael B. Jordan, left, and director-writer-producer Ryan Coogler on the set of 'Sinners.'Eli Adé/Warner Bros. Pictures/via The Associated Press
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.”
Ryan Coogler’s vampire thriller Sinners is a magnificently fiery dusk-till-dawn epic
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 honoured 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.”
Oscar nominees for best picture.The Associated Press
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 colour to ever win the award.
The nine nods for Marty Supreme included a third best actor nod for 30-year-old Timothée Chalamet, the favourite in the category he narrowly missed winning last year for A Complete Unknown. With Jordan and Chalamet, the nominees are Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another, Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon and 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 signalled a sea change in an industry where studios have largely shied away from big-budget original stories.
“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 favourite, 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.
Characters Zoey, left, Rumi and Mira in a scene from 'KPop Demon Hunters.'Netflix/via The Associated Press
‘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. The streamer partnered with Warner Bros. to distribute the racing drama.
This year, the Oscars are introducing a new category for casting. That new honour 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.
Renate Reinsve, left, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas in a scene from 'Sentimental Value.'Kasper Tuxen/Neon/via The Associated Press
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.
Sentimental Value examines what’s required for actors to play actors
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 16 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.
Leonardo DiCaprio in a scene from 'One Battle After Another.'Warner Bros. Pictures/via The Associated Press
Canada’s Oscar nods
The stop-motion fable The Girl Who Cried Pearls by Montreal’s Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski earned a nod for best animated short film. The haunting tale about a sorrowful girl and the boy who loves her is set in Montreal at the dawn of the 20th century.
Also nominated is Montreal’s Alison McAlpine, who is up for best documentary short with Perfectly a Strangeness, an experimental film that captures three donkeys discovering an astronomical observatory in the Atacama Desert.
KPop Demon Hunters, nominated for best animated feature, was written and co-directed by Toronto’s Maggie Kang.
How Frankenstein’s Guillermo del Toro became Toronto’s monster monarch
Also nominated in the best animated feature category is Elio, co-written and co-directed by Domee Shi of Toronto.
The Canadian teams behind the look of Frankenstein are nominated for makeup and hairstyling – Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel and Cliona Furey. The production design tea on the film also received a nomination, including production designer Tamara Deverell and set decorator Shane Vieau.
The Guillermo del Toro Netflix film is also up for best picture, landing Canadian producer J. Miles Dale on the list of nominees.
The nominees for Best Picture 'Marty Supreme' during the 98th Academy Awards nominations announcement at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills on Thursday.VALERIE MACON/AFP/Getty Images
Here is a list of nominees for the 98th Academy Awards
Best picture
Bugonia; F1; Frankenstein; Hamnet; Marty Supreme; One Battle After Another; The Secret Agent; Sentimental Value; Sinners; Train Dreams.
Best Actress
Jessie Buckley, Hamnet; Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You; Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value; Emma Stone, Bugonia; Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue.
Best Actor
Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme; Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another; Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon; Michael B. Jordan, Sinners; Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent.
Best Supporting Actress
Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value; Inga Ibsdotter LilIeaas, Sentimental Value; Amy Madigan, Weapons; Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners; Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another.
Best Supporting Actor
Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein; Sean Penn, One Battle After Another; Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value; Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another; Delroy Lindo, Sinners.
Director
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another; Ryan Coogler, Sinners; Chloé Zhao, Hamnet; Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme; Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value.
Original Song
Golden from Kpop Demon Hunters; Train Dreams from Train Dreams; Dear Me from Diane Warren: Relentless; I Lied To You from Sinners; Sweet Dreams Of Joy from Viva Verdi!
Original Score
Bugonia, Jerskin Fendrix; Frankenstein, Alexandre Desplate; Hamnet, Max Richter; One Battle After Another, Jonny Greenwood; Sinners, Ludwig Göransson.
Animated Film
Arco; Elio; KPop Demon Hunters; Little Amélie or the Character of Rain; Zootopia 2.
International Film
The Secret Agent, Brazil; It Was Just an Accident, France; Sentimental Value, Norway; Sirât, Spain; The Voice of Hind Rajab, Tunisia.
Documentary Feature
The Perfect Neighbor; The Alabama Solution; Come See Me in the Good Light; Cutting Through Rocks; Mr. Nobody Against Putin.
Casting
Hamnet; Marty Supreme; One Battle After Another; The Secret Agent; Sinners.
Best Sound
F1; Frankenstein; One Battle after Another; Sinners; Sirāt.
Cinematography
Frankenstein; Marty Supreme; One Battle After Another; Sinners; Train Dreams.
Original Screenplay
Blue Moon, Robert Kaplow; It Was Just an Accident, Jafar Panahi, with script collaborators Nader Saïvar, Shadmehr Rastin, Mehdi Mahmoudian; Marty Supreme, Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie; Sentimental Value, Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier; Sinners, Ryan Coogler.
Adapted Screenplay
Bugonia, Will Tracy; Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro; Hamnet, Chloé Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell; One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson; Train Dreams, Clint Bailey and Greg Kwedar.
Live Action Short Film
Butcher’s Stain; A Friend of Dorothy; Jane Austen’s Period Drama; The Singers; Two People Exchanging Saliva.
Animated Short Film
Butterfly; Forevergreen; The Girl Who Cried Pearls; Retirement Plan; The Three Sisters.
Documentary Short Film
All the Empty Rooms; Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud; Children No More: Were and Are Gone; The Devil Is Busy; Perfectly a Strangeness.
Visual Effects
Avatar: Fire and Ash; F1; Jurassic World Rebirth; The Lost Bus; Sinners.
Production Design
Frankenstein; Hamnet; Marty Supreme; One Battle After Another; Sinners.
Film Editing
F1; Marty Supreme; One Battle After Another; Sentimental Value; Sinners.
Makeup and Hairstyling
Frankenstein; Kokuho; Sinners; The Smashing Machine; The Ugly Stepsister.
Costume Design
Avatar: Fire and Ash; Frankenstein; Hamnet; Marty Supreme; Sinners.
With reports from The Canadian Press