“Sinners,” Ryan Coogler’s vampire tale set in the Jim Crow South with Michael B. Jordan playing twin criminal brothers, made Oscar history Thursday, scoring a record 16 Academy Award nominations — followed by “One Battle After Another” with 13 nods, “Frankenstein, “Marty Supreme” and “Sentimental Value” with nine each and “Hamnet” with eight.
Each of those films was nominated for best picture for the 98th Academy Awards, which honors films released in 2025. The Oscars will be handed out March 15 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
The previous record for most Oscar nominations was 14 — by “La La Land” in 2016, “Titanic” in 1997 and “All About Eve” in 1950.
Also nominated for best picture — the lone Oscar category with 10 nominees — were “Bugonia”; “F1”; “The Secret Agent” and “Train Dreams.”
For best actor, nominations went to Jordan in “Sinners”; Timothée Chalamet in “Marty Supreme”; Leonardo DiCaprio in “One Battle After Another;” Ethan Hawke in “Blue Moon”; and Wagner Moura in “The Secret Agent.”
Come Oscar night, that will be one of the more intriguing categories, a battle of Hollywood heavyweights. Chalamet would seem the early front-runner, coming off wins earlier in this awards season at the Critics Choice Awards and Golden Globes — and with some forecasters thinking he’s owed after his upset loss as best actor last year playing a young Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown.”
Best actress nods Thursday went to Jessie Buckley in “Hamnet”; Rose Byrne in “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”; Kate Hudson in “Song Sung Blue”; Renate Reinsve in “Sentimental Value” and Emma Stone in “Bugonia.”
For best director, Coogler captured a nomination for “Sinners,” joining Chloé Zhao for “Hamnet”; Josh Safdie for “Marty Supreme”; Paul Thomas Anderson for “One Battle after Another” and Joachim Trier for “Sentimental Value.”
Anderson has already won the Critics Choice and Golden Globe best director awards, and is among those nominated for the coveted Directors Guild Award — a good barometer for success on Oscar night in that category.
Oscar nods for best supporting actor went to Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn in “One Battle After Another”; Jacob Elordi in “Frankenstein”; Delroy Lindo in “Sinners”; and Stellan Skarsgard in “Sentimental Value.”
For best supporting actress, nominees were Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas in “Sentimental Value”; Amy Madigan in “Weapons”; Wunmi Mosaku in “Sinners”; and Teyana Taylor in “One Battle After Another.”
The nominations were announced early Thursday morning via livestream by actress Danielle Brooks and actor Lewis Pullman from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Besides the best picture, director, actor and supporting actor and actress nominations for “Sinners,” the film’s haul Thursday included nods for casting (a new category this year), cinematography, costume design, film editing, makeup and hairstyling, original score, original song, production design, sound, visual effects and original screenplay.
“One Battle After Another” — Anderson’s dark-comic tale about a group of one-time revolutionaries, also captured nominations for casting, cinematography, film editing, original score, production design, sound and adapted screenplay.
Both those films were produced by Warner Bros., which recorded a leading 30 nominations Thursday amid the multi-billion-dollar battle over its ownership between Netflix and Paramount. Neon was next with 18 noms in the corporate categories, followed by Netflix at 16, Focus Features at 13 and A24 with 11.
Notable snubs Thursday included Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande for reprising their “Wicked” roles in 2025’s “Wicked: For Good.” Both had been nominated in the first iteration of that franchise.
Paul Mescal was another notable absentee from Thursday’s nominations for his turn as Williams Shakespeare in “Hamnet.” The film tells the story of Shakespeare and his wife (played by Buckley) as they mourn the death of their 11-year-old son Hamnet — a real-life tragedy that inspired Shakespeare to pen “Hamlet.”
A total of 317 feature films are eligible for consideration for the 98th Academy Awards, including 201 that met the criteria for consideration for best picture, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced.
To be eligible for consideration in the general entry categories, feature films must open in a commercial motion picture theater in at least one of six U.S. metropolitan areas — Los Angeles County; the city of New York; the San Francisco Bay Area; Chicago, Illinois; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; and Atlanta, Georgia, between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 of 2025, and run for at least seven consecutive days in the same venue. The films must be more than 40 minutes long.
Qualifying for the best picture category, films must be eligible for the general categories and producers must submit an Academy Representation and Inclusion Standards form. They also must complete an expanded theatrical release standard, including a run of at least seven days in 10 of the top 50 U.S. markets, no later than 45 days after their initial release in 2025.
Voting for the Oscars is conducted by the Academy’s 10,136 voting members.