Did the Oscars finally get it right?
- AZ Yeamen
- Jan 26
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 26
Read Oscar Nominees & Contenders Screenplays
2026 - Oscar Nominees
Bridge 17 Studio - Did the Oscars finally get it right?
When the Academy announced the nominations for the 98th Oscars, the reaction across film circles wasn’t just excitement, it was a collective double take. This year’s slate feels less like incremental progress and more like a recalibration of what the Academy is willing to celebrate as prestige cinema.
Leading the charge is Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s vampire, Afro-folklore thriller, which landed a staggering 16 nominations, breaking the long-standing Oscar record. Until now, the ceiling sat at 14 nominations, a benchmark shared by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2016).
That alone is historic. But what Sinners represents is arguably bigger than the number.
Coogler’s film is genre-bending, culturally rooted, unapologetically Black, and wildly cinematic, exactly the kind of movie that, for decades, would have been dismissed as “too commercial,” “too niche,” or “not Oscar material.” Instead, the Academy leaned in. And that shift matters.
To understand why this moment lands the way it does, it’s worth looking back.
At the 90th Academy Awards in 2018, Jordan Peele became the first Black writer to win Best Original Screenplay for Get Out. The film was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Director, a rare feat for a socially incisive horror film. That win cracked a door that had been bolted shut for generations.
In the years that followed, Black writers made important inroads in the Adapted Screenplay category:
John Ridley for 12 Years a Slave (2014)
Barry Jenkins & Tarell Alvin McCraney for Moonlight (2017)
Kevin Willmott & Spike Lee for BlacKkKlansman (2019)
Cord Jefferson for American Fiction (2024)
These wins were meaningful, but they were also contained. Prestige, yes. Box-office dominance? Rarely.
Nearly a decade after Peele’s win, we’re now looking at something different: a Best Original Screenplay win paired with blockbuster success, critical acclaim and institutional recognition across the board. Sinners didn’t just get a polite nod; it dominated the conversation.
So the question isn’t just did the Oscars get it right? It’s whether this marks the beginning of an Academy that no longer treats Black genre storytelling as an exception, but as central to the future of cinema.
If history is any indication, progress isn’t permanent. But this year, for once, the math, the culture, and the art all lined up. And that feels like more than a moment, it feels like a shift.
Sinners Nominations:
Best Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Original Screenplay
Best Original Score
Best Director
Best Cinematography
Best Visual Effects
Best Film Editing
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Best Costume Design
Best Production Design
Best Casting
Best Original Song
Best Picture
Best Sound
Best Film of the Generation*
Best Adapted Screenplay
(screenplays below)
BUGONIA (Screenplay by Will Tracy)
FRANKENSTEIN (Written for Screen by Guillermo del Toro)
HAMNET (Screenplay by Chloé Zhao & Maggie O'Farrell)
ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (Written by Paul Thomas Anderson)
TRAIN DREAMS (Screenplay by Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar)
Best Original Screenplay
(screenplays below)
BLUE MOON (Written by Robert Kaplow)
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (Written by Jafar Panahi; Script collaborators - Nader Saïvar, Shadmehr Rastin, Mehdi Mahmoudian)
MARTY SUPREME (Written by Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie)
SENTIMENTAL VALUE (Written by Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier)
SINNERS (Written by Ryan Coogler)
2025 - Award Contenders (Film)
Zootopia 2
Sorry Baby
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
The Long Walk
Peter Hujars Day
Wake Up Dead Man
The Testament of Ann Lee
Song Sung Blue
No Other Choice
Springsteen Deliver Me From Nowhere
Sirat
Weapons
The Chronology Of Water
The Voice of Hind Rajab
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