The 2026 Oscars aired its award ceremony with nominated movies such as “Weapons”, “One Battle After Another”, “Train Dreams”, “K-Pop Demon Hunters”, “Sinners”, and many other major films from 2025. The event had over a billion viewers and featured performances from Huntrix singing “Golden” as well as the Sinners cast performing “I Lied to You”.
When it comes to the nominations of each category, to say that the movies that were nominated were deserving is an understatement. One specific movie that swept the Oscars when it came to nominations was Ryan Coogler’s film “Sinners.” It broke the record for the most nominated film in Oscar history, with the movie receiving 16 nominations, including the biggest category, with that being best picture.
It would be easy to think that since this movie was nominated for so much, it would have had a clear sweep with the most wins, but unfortunately, that was not the case. Sinners had only four awards in the categories of best original score, best original screenplay, best cinematography,y and best male actor in a leading role. All of these were well deserved, and there were categories such as best actress in a leading role and best costume design that Sinners was nominated for but lost to Weapons and Frankenstein, which deserved it more.
When it came to the other categories they lost, specifically best original song and best picture, there was no question that Sinners should have won.
“Sinners” lost to “Golden” from K-pop Demon Hunters for best original song and although Golden was national phenomenon and reached peak popularity on the charts, “Sinners” song “I Lied to You” was much more impactful in terms of culture and sound as it is something like you have never heard before where as “Golden” is a bit more of an average pop song.
“I Lied to You” mixes hip-hop with blues and is played during one of the most incredible cinematic scenes. This, along with Miles Caton’s astonishing vocals, makes for the perfectly deserved win.
For Best Picture, One Battle After Another won. This move was great, especially when it comes to Leonardo DiCaprio’s and Teyana Taylor’s performances. But compared to Sinners, it is clear which one should have been the winner. Sinners perfectly blended the real history of African Americans in the U.S. and the rich music of several cultures,s and combined it perfectly with a frightening and riveting horror of vampires. Despite these two things being completely different, Ryan Coogler managed to pull it off so well that this movie will definitely be remembered for years to come.
The movie was rich in culture that it impacted and represented so many and even though the main antagonists are vampires, the movie is so focused on provoking emotion that rather than it being a horror movie about vampires it is more of a powerful historical drama that has vampires in it, and that fact that it was so well done is the reason why is deserved that Oscar win.
