Why Sinners' 16 Oscar nominations matter so much for horror and for history

Sinners - Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Last week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced nominations for the 98th Annual Academy Awards. Sinners made history with 16 nominations, smashing a three-way record previously held by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2016). Writer/director Ryan Coogler's period vampire piece was nominated for its technical achievement, its production design, its editing, its script, its phenomenal score, and its cast. The film also snagged Best Director and Best Picture nominations. Yes, indeed, SInners made history. This matters because it underscores that the Academy is becoming more open to genre filmmaking. It also comes against the backdrop of an erasure of U.S. history, specifically Black history.

Sinners' record-breaking nominations mark a turning point in the Academy's recognition of horror

Horror fans have long held a gripe against the Academy for refusing to recognize achievements in the genre. For instance, The Exorcist received 10 Oscar nominations but only won two - Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound. It didn't win Best Picture or Best Director, despite the fact it's one of the most influential films of the last fifty plus years. Meanwhile, actors Linda Blair, Jason Miller, and Ellen Burstyn were all nominated, but didn't win.

A more contemporary example is Get Out. The 2017 film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Jordan Peele), Best Actor (Daniel Kaluuya), and Best Original Screenplay (Jordan Peele). It only won Best Original Screenplay. This is significant, but I can't think of another movie from that period that had a greater cultural impact than Get Out. The Sunken Place became part of the cultural zeitgeist.

In 1992, The Silence of the Lambs bucked the trend. It swept the major categories, including Best Picture and Best Director. Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins also walked away with an Academy Award. However, for the most part, the Academy has largely dismissed the horror genre or sidelined it. For instance, last year, The Substance won an Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, despite nominations in multiple categories, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Actress (Demi Moore).

Sinners' 16 nominations, however, hopefully marks a turning point. In fact, horror has largely been propping up the box office and theater attendance. The movie has grossed over $368 million so far, in an otherwise dismal time for box office numbers. As Business Insider declared at the end of December, 2025 was a great year for movies, but a wretched year for the box office and theater attendance. What's especially impressive is that Sinners is an entirely original property. It's not a sequel. It's not part of a Marvel franchise.

The fact Sinners wasn't the only horror movie nominated again proves that maybe the Academy is finally paying attention. Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein received nine nominations, including Best Picture. Amy Madigan received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role as Aunt Gladys in Weapons, and The Ugly Stepsister, a twisted retelling of Cinderella, was nominated for Best Hair and Makeup. All of this, especially Sinners' record-setting number of nominations, should give horror fans reason to celebrate, especially since the Academy has, for too long, ignored genre filmmaking or sidelined it.

Sinners makes history during a period of erasure

While Sinners is a vampire movie, it's also a film unapologetic in its depiction of Black history, culture, and music. The movie takes place in the Jim Crow South, specifically the early 1930s in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Michael B. Jordan plays twins named Smoke and Stack. These characters are successful businessmen who return home from Chicago to set up a juke joint. The role of juke joints, jazz, and blues as a form of protest against racial segregation has been written about frequently, including in Langston Hughes' essay "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" and Zora Neale Hurston's essay/manifesto "The Characteristics of Negro Expression." Hurston writes of juke joints, "Musically speaking, the Jook is the most important place in America. For in its smelly, shoddy confines has been born the secular music known as blues, and on blues has been founded jazz."

In short, the juke joint in Sinners is a Black-owned space where local Black citizens and musicians can hang out, free of harassment and racism, that is until the vampires arrive. The film depicts the importance of this space and the music to the local Black community. It's their own, the one place they can get away, free of violence and intimidation. It's why they unite to protect the space from the vampires, even if it's futile.

Sinners broke a record during a time when the United States is undergoing a severe backlash towards how history and literature are taught. It's not unlike what happened following Reconstruction and the rise of Jim Crow laws in the South. For example, this month, exhibits regarding slavery were removed from the President's House site in Philadelphia. In response, the city just sued the acting director of the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior to have them restored. What happened in Philly, however, is part of a broader trend, not a rarity. Just a few months ago, the Trump administration generated a list of "20 objectionable" Smithsonian exhibits and artwork. Most of them deal with minority history and/or expression.

It's not hyperbole to state there's a concerted effort to erase and/or rewrite U.S. history. This is why Sinners' 16 Oscar nominations matter. It's a movie about Black history that appealed to a wide audience. Like The Exorcist or Get Out, it's one of those horror movies that had mass appeal and tapped into something deeper. It also helps that Sinners has a banger of a soundtrack.

When the Academy Awards ceremony occurs on March 15, I'll be watching and rooting for Sinners and all of the other horror movies nominated. This year truly feels like a breakthrough for the genre, while Sinners' record-setting comes at a crucial time. Its broad appeal and acclaim stand in defiance against erasure.