Sinners Surpasses Oscar Record, Breaking the 14-Nomination Milestone Set by All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land
The 2026 Academy Awards nominations are officially in, and one film has unmistakably stolen the spotlight.
Sinners, the Mississippi Delta–set vampire thriller from director Ryan Coogler, shattered Oscar history Thursday with a record-breaking 16 nominations, making it the most nominated film the Academy has ever seen. The milestone pushes past the 14-nomination benchmark first set by All About Eve and later matched by Titanic and La La Land.
Leading the haul is a coveted Best Picture nomination, marking Coogler’s first time competing in the category. The nomination is also historic on a personal level: Coogler and his wife become the first Black married couple nominated together for Best Picture.
Beyond the top prize, Sinners landed nominations across nearly every major category, including Best Director, Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan (who portrayed twin roles), Best Supporting Actor for Delroy Lindo, Best Supporting Actress for Wunmi Mosaku, Best Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Production Design, Costume Design by Ruth E. Carter, Original Score, Sound, Visual Effects, Makeup and Hairstyling, and the Academy’s newly added Best Casting category. The film also earned recognition for Best Original Song, “I Lied To You,” performed by breakout artist Miles Caton.
For several members of the cast, the nominations mark long-awaited firsts. Lindo, Mosaku, Jordan, and Caton are all celebrating their inaugural Academy Award nods for their work on the genre-bending horror film, which blends Southern folklore, blues mythology, and vampire lore.
Elsewhere in the nominations, other Black-led films also made notable showings. One Battle After Another, starring Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, and Regina Hall, picked up key nominations, as did F1 starring Damson Idris.
Taylor, fresh off her first Golden Globe win, earned her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Should Taylor or Mosaku win, they would join a historic lineage of Black women who have claimed the category, including Hattie McDaniel, Whoopi Goldberg, Jennifer Hudson, Mo’Nique, Octavia Spencer, Lupita Nyong’o, Viola Davis, Regina King, Ariana DeBose, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
If Jordan takes home Best Actor, he would become just the sixth Black man to win the honor, joining Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, and Will Smith.
As previously reported, Sinners has dominated the entire awards circuit this season and currently leads nominations for the NAACP Image Awards.
