Why SINNERS is the only unicorn Oscar nom this year?

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent

What if SINNERS, a vampire movie boasting a record 16 Best Picture nominations, actual bites down hard this 98th Oscar ceremony and sweeps on Sunday, March 15th, on ABC – not because of the critical acclaim only, but because it has one quality all the other noms do not? What is that one silver bullet? We’re saving that big reveal, but we even have proof that SINNERS is the real legitimate favorite. Wait for it… that is coming up later.

GET UP TO SPEED ON SINNERS FIRST… 

As most Oscar viewers know by now, the “front loaded” movie typically drops back with a surprise push by a film with a lower number of noms. And this might happen as usual during the Ides of March Conan O’Brien hosted show.

For now, Sunday’s telecast, also available on Hulu, includes critic darlings ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, HAMNET, FRANKENSTEIN, BUGONIA. MARTY SUPREME. Do you notice what these films and other Best Pics have in common? Here’s the actual list from The Academy for Best Picture 2026 (with producers credits) in alphabetical order.

THE 98th OSCAR NOMINEES for BEST PICTURE

BUGONIA -Ed Guiney & Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone and Lars Knudsen, Producers

F1 – Chad Oman, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Joseph Kosinski and Jerry Bruckheimer, Producers

FRANKENSTEIN – Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale and Scott Stuber, Producers

HAMNET – Liza Marshall, Pippa Harris, Nicolas Gonda, Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes, Producers

MARTY SUPREME – Eli Bush, Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Anthony Katagas and Timothée Chalamet, Producers

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER – Adam Somner, Sara Murphy and Paul Thomas Anderson, Producers

THE SECRET AGENT – Emilie Lesclaux, Producer

SENTIMENTAL VALUE – Maria Ekerhovd and Andrea Berentsen Ottmar, Producers

SINNERS -Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian and Ryan Coogler, Producers

TRAIN DREAMS – Marissa McMahon, Teddy Schwarzman, Will Janowitz, Ashley Schlaifer and Michael Heimler, Producers

Did you guess that these are mainly director-driven top critic picks: Yorgos Lanthimos (BUGONIA), Joseph Kosinski (F1), Guillermo del Toro (FRANKENSTEIN), Paul Thomas Anderson (ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER), Ryan Cooler (SINNERS) Joachim Trier (SENTIMENAL VALUE), Josh Safdie (MARTY SUPREME) and Chloé Zhao (HAMNET, who also directed NOMAD, if you’re unfamiliar with this star helmer). Only TRAIN DREAMS (Clint Bentley) and THE SECRET AGENT (Kleber Mendonça Filho) are by lesser recognized directors.

What this list doesn’t include are the Top Box Office Earners for the year, and here’s where the claims about “Are The Oscars Out of Touch” enter the frame. If you read down this top-grossing list, the Money Frontrunners are almost in need of another award show altogether.

Nor does this Oscar list include the standard fare Rotten Tomatoes Top 10 by audience comment ranking, or any other number of popularity ranked fan favorites like this list…

RIPPED OFF THE VINE – ROTTEN TOMATOES TOP 10

Or how about some insights linking both, critic and audience choices? Wouldn’t that be a great chart to view? Here you go…

Look at what we discovered with our insights chart?  SINNERS overlaps here, the only movie of 2025 to do so.

On paper, Ryan Coogler’s Michael B. Jordan starrer SINNERS, about some rangy Southern Gothic vampires set in Depression Era Mississippi, is really an unlikely movie to have made it this far. But Writer/Director Coogler, who nails this script, has created such an original work from the shopworn depths of vampire hood that it has jumped the critic-fan barrier.

Compare it to Christopher Nolan’s exquisite tune-up of the dormant Batman franchise. Ryan Coogler has hit those perfect notes here, created a critic and audience fan-base harmonic, shall we say?

This is what sets SINNERS apart, declares its unicorn status, from the applaudable crowd in the 98th Oscar Best Picture race. We see a sweep coming…

Make sure to watch the whole telecast this Sunday, March 15th, on ABC, and let us know if this bold prediction holds up. You never know, in a twist, maybe THE SECRET AGENT breaks out and takes the top gong this year?

For Warner Bros. release SINNERS, visit here – more Oscar lore and glory, can be found here.

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