The march to glory for Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another continues unabated after it picked up a hefty 13 nods Thursday morning when Danielle Brooks and Lewis Pullman announced the nominees for the 98th annual Academy Awards. It hit in just about every major category, with one notable exception, which we will touch on later. But, for now, the big story of the morning is the record-setting 16 nominations garnered by Ryan Coogler’s musical horror triumph Sinners.
Nominated in every category where it was eligible (it arguably has no Actress in a Leading Role), Sinners blew past the old mark of 14, previously held by La La Land, Forrest Gump, and All About Eve. Breaking the old record by two should quiet those who might want to put an asterisk on the accomplishment by noting that the film is nominated in the brand new Best Casting category. The flipside of that coin, however, is that there used to be two sound categories.
Regardless, there is no raining on the Sinners parade today. In addition to a Best Picture nomination, which Coogler shares with wife and producing partner Zinzi Coogler, as well as Sev Ohanian, Ryan Coogler becomes just the seventh Black director in history to be nominated for Best Director. Coogler also is nominated for his Original Screenplay.
Sinners nabbed three acting nominations, with Michael B. Jordan picking up his first nomination for Actor in a Leading Role, while Wunmi Mosaku was cited for Supporting Actress and Delroy Lindo earned his long-overdue first-career nomination for Supporting Actor. One Battle After Another and Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value each picked up four acting nominations, meaning 11 of the 20 acting slots were taken by just three movies.
One more note on history made by Sinners today: Director of photography Autumn Durald Arkapaw becomes just the third woman ever nominated for Best Cinematography, and based on some of the precursors, she has an excellent chance to be the first woman to win the award. Ruth E. Carter is now the most nominated Black woman in history, with her fifth nomination for Costume Design. She has two previous wins, as well, both for Coogler films.
Leonardo DiCaprio, who earned his sixth-career Best Actor nomination and eighth nomination overall, also set a record today with One Battle After Another’s Best Picture nomination. He is now the star of more Best Picture nominees than any other actor in history with 12, breaking a tie with his hero, Robert De Niro. Cate Blanchett, Jack Nicholson, Tom Hanks, and H.B. Warner are the only other actors ever to appear in double-digit Best Picture nominees with 10 apiece.
Joining DiCaprio and Jordan in the Best Actor race are Marty Supreme star Timothee Chalamet, Wagner Moura for The Secret Agent, and Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon. Alongside Lindo in Supporting Actor are One Battle tandem Benecio Del Toro and Sean Penn, Frankenstein’s Jacob Elordi, and Stellan Skarsgaard for Sentimental Value.
Marty Supreme, Frankenstein, and Sentimental Value each picked up nine total nominations, including joining Sinners and One Battle After Another in Best Picture. The other five Best Picture nominees are Hamnet (eight nominations), The Secret Agent (four), Train Dreams (four), Bugonia (4), and probably the biggest surprise of the morning, blockbuster racing film F1, which also nabbed four nominations.
In Best Actress, Jessie Buckley (Hamnet) and Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You) appear to be leading the way, joined by Kate Hudson for Song Sung Blue, Renate Reinsve for Sentimental Value, and Emma Stone for Bugonia. This was probably the category with the biggest pair of snubs, with Chase Infiniti (One Battle After Another) and Amanda Seyfried (The Testament of Ann Lee) both missing out. In Supporting Actress, Mosaku is joined by Amy Madigan for Weapons, Teyana Taylor for One Battle After Another, and both Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleas for Sentimental Value.
Hamnet director Chloe Zhao becomes just the second woman ever to earn multiple Best Director nominations, sharing the distinction with Jane Campion. Along with Zhao, Coogler, and Anderson, the other two nominees for Director are Josh Safdie for Marty Supreme and Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value.
What made me happiest this morning? The recognition for Train Dreams in the top category, as well as its beautiful screenplay and stunning cinematography, has me delighted, though I would have loved if voters could have found room for Joel Edgerton in Best Actor. Elsewhere, I was thrilled to see The Voice of Hind Rajab make the final five in a highly competitive International Feature category. It’s a bold, heartbreaking film that deserves the kind of boost this nomination hopefully will grant it.
The other International Feature nominees were The Secret Agent, It Was Just an Accident, Sentimental Value, and Spain’s Sirat, which admittedly still remains a total unknown to me, though I am excited to see it. This leaves out flashy options like No Other Choice, Left-Handed Girl, and Sound of Falling.
Also left out of the nominations were Miles Caton, who is remarkable in Sinners and Jesse Plemons, who is the driving force behind Bugonia, and my personal biggest snub, though it was always a longshot, is the sound design for Alex Garland’s Warfare, which might have the best sound of any movie I’ve ever seen.
All in all, these nominations won’t do much to change the calculus of this awards season, which appears to be adding up to a coronation for Anderson and One Battle After Another. But, for one day at least, Hollywood belongs to Sinners. It’s Ryan Coogler’s world, and we’re just living in it.
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