Can Sinners pull off the biggest Oscars upset in recent times? That’s the question that many in Hollywood will be asking after Ryan Coogler’s genre-bending period-musical-horror picture has been nominated for a mighty 16 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor and Actress, and more. While it has been looking like a done deal that Paul Thomas Anderson’s Pynchon adaptation One Battle After Another will be sweeping to victory – and with a far from inconsiderable 13 nominations, it still could – the fact that Sinners is now the most nominated film of all time means that, on paper at least, it’s a serious challenger.
Still, PTA won’t be too worried, given that his picture has been nominated for all the awards that it was expected to, including picture, director, actor, supporting actor (for both Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn, who may well cancel each other out) and supporting actress for Teyana Taylor’s powerhouse but oddly controversial turn. Additionally, it’s up for a whole raft of craft and technical awards, which it will largely be competing with Sinners with.
Given that both films were produced by Warner Bros, the studio is in the luxurious position of deciding which one to invest time, energy and – most crucially – money into promoting, and which one they can quietly put on the backburner. It is widely regarded as PTA’s turn to be recognized by the Academy, but Sinners made a lot more money, and honoring Coogler as the first African American to win best director would play very well with liberal Hollywood. Either way, the race has become a good deal more interesting – and dramatic – than the simple coronation that was expected after the Golden Globes.
There are other surprises. The Brad Pitt vehicle F1, which was written off by some critics as little more than a fun genre picture, has joined the ranks of the best picture nominees, alongside the more widely anticipated likes of Marty Supreme, Hamnet and Frankenstein, the latter of which was shut out from the best director category in favor of Sentimental Value’s Joachin Trier and Marty’s Josh Safdie. (Safdie should win the award for Most Direction, I reckon: the in-your-face dynamism of his picture is both intoxicating and rather exhausting, much as I imagine a night on the tiles with a similarly Oscar-nominated Timothée Chalamet must be.) Oscar favorite Emma Stone is nominated twice, once for acting in Bugonia and once for producing it, and as we await the coming of Wuthering Heights, its star Jacob Elordi has been recognized for his poignant turn as the creature in Frankenstein.
The streaming services will be pleased by their showing – Netflix’s Train Dreams, which was seen as something of an also ran, has been nominated for best picture, adapted screenplay and cinematography, and F1 was funded by Apple, becoming comfortably its most commercially successful picture thanks to a long box-office run – but ultimately it’s Warner’s show.
Amid continuing speculation as to whether, this time next year, the company is going to be owned by Netflix, Paramount or an as yet unknown third party, Warner Bros can pat themselves on their collective backs in the certain knowledge that March 15 this year is going to be a very, very good night for them indeed – possibly all the more so if Amy Madigan wins Best Supporting Actress for her indelible turn in Weapons, too. But it’ll be auteur vs. auteur for the main prizes, and, as they say in Highlander, there can only be one.
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