Ryan Coogler’s southern vampire horror film Sinners received a record 16 Oscar nominations, two more than the previous record of 14 held by All About Eve in 1950, Titanic in 1997, and La La Land in 2016. Individually, Coogler received a nomination for Best Picture (as a Producer), Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. The film’s other notable nominees include Michael B. Jordan for Best Actor, Wunmi Mosaku for Best Supporting Actress and Delroy Lindo for Best Supporting Actor (each is a first-time nominee).
Not to be outdone, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another followed closely behind with 13 nominations. Like Coogler, Anderson also received three nominations for Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay. The film’s star, Leonardo DiCaprio, got the password right once again for his fifth Best Actor nom. Teyana Taylor claimed one of the five Best Supporting Actress nods after winning this year’s Golden Globe in the same category, and many consider her performance to take home the Oscar this year. Also setting a high-water mark, Warner Bros. tied its own record with 30 total nominations, putting to rest any notion that taking a chance on filmmakers with original and independent-leaning concepts and not solely relying on comic book adaptations and popular IP can pay off at the box office and during awards season.
Speaking of independents, NEON, the studio behind the foreign films Sentimental Value, The Secret Agent, and It Was Just an Accident, secured 18 nominations, including two nods each for Best Picture and Best International Feature. Equaling that tally, mega-streamer Netflix (the soon-to-be owner of Warner Bros.) received 18 noms, also securing two Best Picture contenders for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (nine nominations) and Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams (four nominations).
Universal Studios’ independent arm Focus Features tallied 13 nominations, eight coming from Chloé Zhao’s Shakespeare period piece Hamnet. Zhao earned recognition in the Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director categories, becoming only the second female director in history to receive two Best Director noms. Steven Spielberg, one of Hamnet’s producers, also set a record with his 14th Best Picture nomination. The film’s star (and Oscar frontrunner), Jessie Buckley, received a Best Actress nod.
Lastly, independent studio A24 managed to secure 11 nominees, with Josh Safdie’s anxiety-inducing ping-pong drama Marty Supreme accounting for nine of them. Like Coogler and Anderson, Safdie received three individual nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. The film’s star, Timothée Chalamet, is battling it out in a very competitive field for Best Actor. Chalamet, 30, is now the youngest actor to receive three Best Actor nominations in Academy Awards history.
Here is a list of top nominee recipients per film and per studio:
Nominations by film
| Sinners | 16 |
| One Battle after Another | 13 |
| Frankenstein | 9 |
| Marty Supreme | 9 |
| Sentimental Value | 9 |
| Hamnet | 8 |
| Bugonia | 4 |
| F1 | 4 |
| The Secret Agent | 4 |
| Train Dreams | 4 |
Nominations by studio
| Warners Bros. | 30 |
| Neon | 18 |
| Netflix | 18 |
| Focus Features | 13 |
| A24 | 11 |
| Apple | 6 |
| Walt Disney | 4 |
| GKIDS | 2 |
| Sony Pictures Classics | 2 |
As we get closer to the Academy Awards (which take place on Sunday, March 15th at 6 PM CST), I’ll have a rundown of who I think will take home that golden Oscar statue. Until then, it’s time to get caught up on all of the great films you may have missed, especially since most of these titles are already streaming (and are sure to get a re-release at our local Showplace Cinemas or AMC Theaters locations).
Henderson resident Dr. McManus Woodend is an Assistant Professor of Digital Media at the University of Southern Indiana and has worked in film, television and commercials for more than 20 years. To see some of his work, visit www.mcmanuswoodend.com.
