Ryan Coogler’s vampire horror Sinners breaks all-time Oscars record with 16 nominations

LOS ANGELES – Vampire period horror film Sinners smashed the all-time Oscars record with 16 nominations, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Jan 22.

The blues-inflected race allegory from director Ryan Coogler scored nominations in nearly every category possible, including best picture.

In doing so, Sinners blasted past the previous record of 14, jointly held by La La Land (2016), Titanic (1997) and All About Eve (1950).

Coogler told industry website Deadline that the “pretty crazy” record haul of nominations was “so rewarding”.

A rare original Hollywood film that is not based on any existing franchise, Sinners was viewed with scepticism by many in the business before its April release, but became a US$360 million (S$460 million) global hit.

Coogler said he “did not have any expectations” for awards, adding that “people just showing up to the movies and having a good time, that would’ve been enough”.

But its huge tally included a best actor nomination for Michael B. Jordan – who plays twins returning home to the 1930s segregated US South – plus nods for everything from screenplay to score.

There was also a nomination for best casting, the first new category to be added to Hollywood’s most prestigious awards in more than two decades.

One Battle After Another came in second place with 13 nods, including best picture, best actor for Leonardo DiCaprio and best director for Paul Thomas Anderson.

But its female lead, 25-year-old newcomer Chase Infiniti, was surprisingly snubbed by voters at the academy.

Both of the top two nomination getters came from Warner Bros., the movie studio that is currently the target of a bidding war between Netflix and Paramount.

Guillermo del Toro’s monster epic Frankenstein, Timothee Chalamet’s ping-pong drama Marty Supreme and Norwegian arthouse favourite Sentimental Value each bagged nine nominations.

Hamnet, a period drama in which William Shakespeare and his wife struggle to cope with the loss of their son in plague-ravaged Elizabethan England, secured eight.

Jessie Buckley was nominated for playing the Bard’s long-suffering wife Agnes, though the film’s male lead Paul Mescal missed out.

“There’s no part of Agnes that exists without Paul... and what he poured into this story,” Buckley told The Hollywood Reporter after the announcement.

Acting races

The nominations set the stage for the 98th Oscars ceremony on March 15.

While Sinners tops the nominations, One Battle remains the front runner to win best picture, having won almost every precursor prize going so far this awards season.

The zany thriller about a retired revolutionary looking for his teen daughter against a wild backdrop of radical violence, immigration raids and white supremacists broke the all-time record for nominations by Hollywood’s Screen Actors Guild.

DiCaprio, Chalamet and Jordan will do battle for the best actor Oscar, along with Ethan Hawke for Broadway period drama Blue Moon, and Wagner Moura from Brazilian political thriller The Secret Agent.

For best actress, Buckley will compete with Emma Stone playing an alien – or is she? – in conspiracy theorist drama Bugonia, Renate Reinsve in Sentimental Value, Kate Hudson in quirky music biopic Song Sung Blue and Rose Byrne as a struggling mum in indie hit If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.

International voters

With the academy’s overseas voter base rapidly expanding, both Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent were nominated for best picture.

But Persian-language Palme d’Or winner It Was Just An Accident missed out in the top category, and will compete for best international film, along with Spain’s nomadic hippie odyssey Sirat and heartrending Palestinian docudrama The Voice Of Hind Rajab.

Pop megastar Ariana Grande surprisingly missed out on a best supporting actress nomination for her portrayal of Glinda in Wicked: For Good, which failed to pick up any nods.

Recently appointed Academy president Lynette Howell Taylor opened the early-morning announcement in Los Angeles with a warning about the threat of artificial intelligence.

“We live in a time of limitless technology that enables us to push the boundaries of our cinematic experience,” she said. “And our profound belief is that the heartbeat of film is and will always remain unmistakably human.” AFP