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Considerations
Covering the annual film industry awards races, with sharp commentary on the pictures, the players, the money and the spectacle. by Tyler Coates
What Powered Sinners‘ Record-Breaking Haul of Oscar Nominations
One of the great things about living in Los Angeles is that the awards shows start and end at reasonable hours. The trade-off is that the Oscar nominations are announced at the ungodly hour of 5:30 am Pacific Time (timed so that the east coast-based morning shows can carry the news), and I’m already thinking way too much about them before the sun has even come up.
But, at last, we have our 10 best picture nominees in Bugonia, F1, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, Sinners and Train Dreams—a solid lineup if you ask me. Sinners leads the pack with a whopping 16 nominations, beating the previous record set by All About Eve, La La Land and Titanic’s 14 noms to become the most Oscar-nominated film in history. Not bad for a blockbuster that many of Warner Bros.’ critics dismissed ahead of its release nearly a year ago! (The studio, which also has F1 and One Battle After Another in the race, is the first distributor since 1975 to earn three best-picture nods in a single year.)
Sinners was a box-office smash in the United States, but its international returns were more modest, leading some Oscar-trackers to worry that it could underperform with AMPAS’s increasingly international membership. Happily, those fears were wildly misplaced. Like just about every other voting body this year, the Academy proved eager to reward a daring piece of original storytelling that combines crowd-pleasing genre thrills with an all-too-relevant social critique. It helps too that the film is a wonder of craftsmanship, with everybody in the creative team—from writer-director Ryan Coogler and his phenomenal cast to costume designer Ruth E. Carter, cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, composer Ludwig Goransson, casting director Francine Maisler, production designer Hannah Beachler and editor Michael P. Shawver—operating at the top of their game. The question now is whether the record-setting haul of nominations can propel Sinners past One Battle After Another, which has been the odds-on favorite to win best picture all season long.
With Sinners and One Battle After Another both earning noms in the double digits (the latter received 13), it would be a mistake to overlook the competition. Netflix’s Frankenstein, A24’s Marty Supreme and NEON’s Sentimental Value received nine noms each, which ain’t half bad. The Norwegian drama performed better than expected, with writer-director Joachim Trier landing nominations for best director and original screenplay (shared with collaborator Eskil Vogt), plus acting nods for lead actress Renate Reinsve and supporting players Stellen Skarsgärd, Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas.
While Frankenstein might be Netflix’s big winner today, I’m particularly excited for Clint Bentley’s much smaller and more intimate Train Dreams. The writer-director earned his second consecutive nomination for best adapted screenplay with collaborator Greg Kwedar (the duo were nominated for last year’s Sing Sing, which Kwedar directed), and the film also scored in cinematography and original song (a first for singer-songwriter Nick Cave, who co-wrote the title track with the film’s composer, Bryce Dessner).
While NEON did very well, I was surprised to see It Was Just an Accident miss in best picture, the first Palme d’Or winner to fall short in that category since 2021’s Titane. Jafar Panahi was also passed over by the director’s branch but did earn a nom for original screenplay. Meanwhile, Brazil earned its second nomination for best picture with The Secret Agent, also honored for best actor (Wagner Moura) and casting. The studio still dominated the international feature category with four films (Spain’s Sirāt also landed a deserved nom for best sound), with The Voice of Hind Rajab rounding out the nominees.
The biggest surprise among the acting nominees was Sinners’ Delroy Lindo, a first-time nominee who received cheers from the audience in the Samuel Goldwyn Theater when his name was called. (I was one of many who cheered online.) Elle Fanning broke through in the crowded supporting actress field, while Bugonia’s Emma Stone (a two-time Oscar winner) and Blue Moon’s Ethan Hawke (now a five-time nominee) also edged out the competition in best actress and best actor, respectively. The most glaring omission from the acting categories might be 2025 nominee Ariana Grande, whom I expected to earn a second nom for her role as Glinda in Wicked: For Good. Alas, the Universal sequel was shut out entirely despite its predecessor landing 10 noms and winning last year for costume and production design.
The Gotham Award–winning My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow, which won plenty of critics’ honors leading up to the Oscar noms, was skipped over in best documentary (its 324-minute runtime couldn’t have helped). Instead, Denmark’s Mr Nobody Against Putin served as the Russia-themed documentary nominee of the year. (Since 2023 winner Navalny, the category has had at least one anti-Putin contender in the mix every year.) While the documentary category has trended internationally in recent years, this year’s picks are predominantly set in the US, thanks to The Alabama Solution, Come See Me in the Good Light and The Perfect Neighbor. (The fifth nominee, the Iran-set Cutting Through Rocks, won the world cinema grand jury prize at last year’s Sundance.)
Even so, the Academy continues to exhibit a global outlook. The unstoppable KPop Demon Hunters was nominated for animated feature and original song (it will likely win both!), and its fellow animated nominees include two French titles, Arco and Little Amelie and the Character of Rain. Kokuho, one of the highest-grossing Japanese films of all time, landed a nom for best makeup and hairstyling. And the Italian documentary Viva Verdi! earned a nom for best original song.
And if there’s one lesson we will continue to learn, it’s that Diane Warren truly is beloved by the members of the music branch. The prolific songwriter has now earned her 17th nomination for best original song, this time for a documentary about herself. “Dear Me,” sung by Kesha, beat out the likes of Miley Cyrus, Stephen Schwartz, Nine Inch Nails, and Billy Idol, but can it possibly outrun KPop Demon Hunters’ “Golden” on Oscar night? That’s unlikely. But as the title Diane Warren: Relentless suggests, she certainly won’t stop trying to win the award she very openly desires.
Find the full list of nominees below.
BEST PICTURE
Bugonia
F1
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Train Dreams
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 ACTRESS
Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue
Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value
Emma Stone, Bugonia
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
Delroy Lindo, Sinners
Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
Stellan Skarsgärd, Sentimental Value
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
Amy Madigan, Weapons
Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
Chloé Zhao, Hamnet
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Bugonia
Frankenstein
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
Train Dreams
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Blue Moon
It Was Just an Accident
Marty Supreme
Sentimental Value
Sinners
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Arco
Elio
KPop Demon Hunters
Little Amelie and the Character of Rain
Zootopia 2
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Alabama Solution
Come See Me in the Good Light
Cutting Through Rocks
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
The Perfect Neighbor
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
It Was Just an Accident
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sirat
The Voice of Hind Rajab
BEST CASTING
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sinners
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Frankenstein
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Train Dreams
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
Sinners
BEST FILM EDITING
F1
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sentimental Value
Sinners
BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Frankenstein
Kokuho
Sinners
The Smashing Machine
The Ugly Stepsister
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Bugonia
Frankenstein
Hamnet
One Battle After Another
Sinners
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Dear Me,” Diane Warren: Relentless
“Golden,” KPop Demon Hunters
“I Lied to You,” Sinners
“Sweet Dreams of Joy,” Viva Verdi!
“Train Dreams,” Train Dreams
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners
BEST SOUND
F1
Frankenstein
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sirāt
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
Jurassic World: Rebirth
The Lost Bus
Sinners
BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT
Butcher’s Stain
A Friend of Dorothy
Jane Austen’s Period Drama
The Singers
Two People Exchanging Saliva
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Butterfly
Forevergreen
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Retirement Plan
The Three Sisters
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
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
