Vampire film Sinners breaks Oscar nominations record

Vampire horror film Sinners has broken the record for the most Oscar nominations received by a single film, after being nominated for 16 of Hollywood’s most coveted honours.

The film beat the previous record of 14 nominations, and emerged ahead of its nearest rival this year, Leonardo DiCaprio’s thriller One Battle After Another, which is up for 13 awards.

Sinners’ contenders include its star Michael B Jordan and his British co-stars Wunmi Mosaku and Delroy Lindo.

Other stars up for trophies include Timothee Chalamet, who is hoping for third time lucky after two previous nominations, and Irish actress Jessie Buckley, who is the frontrunner to win best actress for Hamnet.

However, there was no space for her co-star Paul Mescal, who starred opposite Buckley as William Shakespeare in Hamnet; while Wicked: For Good and its stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande missed out completely.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Hollywood on 15 March.

The leading films:

• Sinners – 16
• One Battle After Another – 13
• Marty Supreme – 9
• Frankenstein – 9
• Sentimental Value – 9
• Hamnet – 8

Sinners has exceeded expectations and bucked the trend that normally means horror films don’t perform well at award ceremonies.

The film stars Michael B Jordan as twin brothers who return home to Mississippi in the 1930s to set up a juke joint, which is set upon by blood-sucking vampires.

Its nominations include best actor for Jordan, best supporting actress for British-Nigerian star Wunmi Mosaku, best director for Ryan Coogler, and the top prize, best picture.

BBC Radio 1 film critic Ali Plumb said: “The last time anything to do with a horror won best picture was The Silence of the Lambs in the early 1990s. That is a long time ago.”

He said it was good to see Sinners get “this broad a series of accolades and thumbs up from across the whole industry”.

It is “more than just a horror”, he added. “Although obviously vampires are obviously involved, there’s so much more to it.”

BBC culture editor Katie Razzall said: “It is to my mind the perfect blend of revenge thriller and sexy, decadent, musical journey through America’s race issues, good against evil, the power of music – and redemption.

“Who knew that combining vampires, KKK racists, ex-gangster twins (both played by Michael B Jordan), Mississippi delta folklore and blues history would pay off so spectacularly?”

The previous record total of 14 nominations was achieved by All About Eve in 1951, Titanic in 1998 and La La Land in 2018.

Sinners’ total this year has been boosted by the addition of a new award, for best casting, although the number of categories has fluctuated over the years.

While Sinners deals with the spectre of racism in the American South, One Battle After Another gives a take on the current messy political climate in the US.

Leonardo DiCaprio is nominated for best actor for playing a revolutionary battling an authoritarian US regime, whose past comes back to haunt him.

The film has also scooped nominations for supporting cast members Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn and Teyana Taylor, as well as director Paul Thomas Anderson.

It has been the presumed favourite to win best picture throughout award season so far, and it could still pip Sinners to the top trophy in March.

The frontrunner in the nominations doesn’t always turn out to be the big winner on the night. In the past 21 years, the movie with the most nominations has gone on to win best picture just six times.

Either way, the nominations are good news for Warner Bros, which made both Sinners and One Battle After Another, as it is in the process of being sold, possibly to Netflix.

DiCaprio and Jordan will face stiff competition from Timothee Chalamet, who is hotly tipped to win his first Oscar for his role in table tennis caper Marty Supreme.

The best actor category is completed by Ethan Hawke, who has his fifth Oscar nomination for Blue Moon, and Brazilian actor Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent).

Emma Stone has her sixth Oscar nomination for Bugonia, being listed for best actress alongside Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You) and Norway’s Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value) – but Buckley is regarded as the clear favourite in that race.