Why Sinners Should Win the Academy Award for Best Picture | Oscars 2026

IIt is a symptom of the modern entertainment landscape that films are now either commercially successful or critically acclaimed, but rarely do both. Take a look at the highest-grossing movies of 2025, and you’ll find it’s a familiar plea for sequels and spin-offs; Take a look at the critics’ favorites and you’ll find that they’re mostly great movies that haven’t been seen by enough people — all hoping for an awards season boost. But Sinners achieved both goals: it was a smash hit (the seventh highest-grossing film in the US and almost the only original film in the top 20), and it was a critical triumph (97% on Rotten Tomatoes, 84% on Metacritic). Most of all, Sinners was a truly original film that combined action, horror, and deep, rich personal storytelling. There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing a filmmaker swing for the fences and literally knock it out of the park; Contrary to expectations, 39-year-old Ryan Coogler did just that.

What’s more, Sinners contains one of the year’s most memorable cinematic moments: the scene in which blues singer Preacher Boy (Miles Caton) performs his new song “I Lied to You” for a raucous Mississippi joke that’s powerful enough to pierce “the veil between life and death, past and future.” As the song builds, reality collapses. African tribal musicians, Chinese opera performers, modern-day turntable players, and P-Funk-style electric guitarists: they all join in the raucous festivities. Coogler literally rips the roof off the joint: he’s on fire from all this energy and we’re in another realm of space and time. Give the film an Oscar just for that!

As great as the scene is, it’s more than just gratuitous theatrics; It’s also the moment when Sinners turns from what could have been an engaging historical drama into something more supernatural and action-packed. Preacher Boy’s veil piercing attracts the attention of Irish vampire Jack O’Connell, and the film begins on another note.

The vampire element adds another layer of mythology to a story already full of it. At its core, Sinners evokes the black experience in the early twentieth century, in the deep South where slavery is a living memory and Jim Crow laws are a lived reality for black people. More recent are World War I, the Great Migration (of Americans from southern Africa to the northern states), the Great Depression, and the persecution of the Ku Klux Klan. Michael B. Jordan’s twin brothers, Smoke and Stack, carry all this baggage with them as they return from Chicago to set up their new club venture.

Then there is blues folklore, which originated in this exact time and place. Its primitive power is coupled with the power of the Church. “The blues wasn’t imposed on us like this religion,” says Delta Slim, veteran pianist for Delroy Lindo’s band. “No, we brought this with us.”

On the surface, O’Connell and his populist interlopers can be seen as a direct metaphor for cultural appropriation: whites smashing up the party and taking over what blacks built. But it’s not that simple. O’Connell points to the history of colonialism in Ireland, for example. But in contrast to the liberated blues that takes place inside the juke joint, his devilish folk music insists that everyone dance to the same crazy tune — which, admittedly, kind of slaps. Duality abounds in this story: church and blues; Day and night. Melting pot multiculturalism and top-down hierarchy; Good and evil. past and present; The Happy Twin/The Scary Twin. In his own way, Coogler also pierces the veil.

The result is a film you can admire from every angle: the performances, the music, the historical settings, the costumes, the special effects, the swoop camera work, and the artistry with which Jordan portrays his dual roles so seamlessly – we stop questioning that the moment Smoke passes by stacking a cigarette in their first scene together (give him an Oscar, too!). It’s also, as cast member Yao declared in an interview, “very sexy.” No wonder it received 16 Oscar nominations: it’s a triumph across the board. It is a living, breathing work of art.