The Sinners snubbing has begun

I think we all saw it coming but it was still surprising when Sinners, one of the most critically and commercially successful movies of 2025, was nearly shut out at the Golden Globes. Among seven nominations, Sinners won only two: Best Original Score for Ludwig Göransson, which was not even presented on air during the telecast, and the laughable, made-up category of Best Cinematic and Box Office Achievement (aka the Don Draper ‘That’s What the Money Is For’ Award).  

The moment Sinners won the box office award, it was clear they would not be taking a more serious (“serious”) prize home. Acknowledging box office achievement at an awards show that is ostensibly about the best of the best filmmaking in a given year is clearly a consolation prize, an also-ran category because these shows know they need a place to include popular movies that otherwise don’t get included in awards shows, so as to attract more casual viewers to their telecast. Sadly, Sinners, which is truly excellent in vision and execution, has now become one of those films.

As with the Critics Choice Awards, the Golden Globes don’t have overlap with the Academy, so they mean nothing in terms of how the Academy will vote. But Oscar nominations open today, and momentum matters, and in that way, Sinners has lost significant momentum. I still think it will land a bunch of nominations, including nods for Ryan Coogler, Michael B. Jordan, and Wunmi Mosaku, but at this point, the only Oscar I think Sinners has a legit chance of winning is Ludwig Göransson for Best Original Score.

I’ve been saying for almost a year now that the industry is weird about Sinners because studio executives are pissy about Ryan Coogler’s rights-reversion deal—as it threatens the studios’ supremacy as the Owners Of All Content—and that is going to play out with the Oscars, too, where Hollywood executives make up over 800 members of the Academy. It’s also a vampire movie, and there will be some old farts who will insist on not taking it seriously because it’s a genre film, we have seen that genre bias at work before with the Academy. There is a lot of love for Sinners among artists and artisans, who see the superb work within the film, but once the nominations are made, I think we’re in for a Barbie situation. There’s no doubt Sinners is a huge film, but that probably won’t translate to Oscars.

But that doesn’t mean Sinners is out of awards season. It definitely is not. They’re nominated for four SAG Awards, it’s long-listed in 14 categories for the BAFTAs, and we’ve not yet gotten into craft and guild awards. Based on the Golden Globes, that BAFTA long list, and the SAG nominations, Sinners is consistently going head-to-head with One Battle After Another, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, and Frankenstein (which is another film I expect to rack up nominations but achieve few wins). I’m just saying, prepare yourself for an eventuality in which Sinners shows up at all the awards shows, but is always the bridesmaid, never the bride.