The Academy Makes History With ‘Sinners,’ Misses the Mark With Jafar Panahi

It wouldn’t be Oscar nomination day without some surprises — good, bad and ugly.

As Danielle Brooks and Lewis Pullman read out nominations in Los Angeles on Thursday, I sat on an LAX runway, preparing to fly to Utah for the state’s final Sundance Film Festival. While the presenters called out names and film titles, I furiously scribbled notes by hand in an unlit cabin to capture my live reactions (a page that has since been called “illegible” by my social media followers).

Suffice it to say, I felt a mix of emotions. Here are a few of my big takeaways.

#TheVotingBooth: TheWrap Awards Reporter @CaseyMLoving is on the ground in Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival, but he couldn't leave the airport without breaking down Thursday morning's #Oscar nominations.#Sinners scored a record 16 nominations, beating out past… pic.twitter.com/Xkn2bUG1Zs

— TheWrap (@TheWrap) January 22, 2026

A historic morning for “Sinners”

In the final days leading up to nomination morning, I grew increasingly certain that “Sinners” would tie the record of 14 nominations established by “All About Eve,” “La La Land” and “Titanic” — or even beat it by one. I could hardly contain my excitement when I learned that Ryan Coogler’s horror musical period masterpiece shattered the record with 16 nods.

As I look category by category through every place of recognition for “Sinners,” I can’t find a single nomination that’s anything less than wholly deserving. Coogler really did create one of those whole package pieces of filmmaking (a feat he’s accomplished more than once before), a film both massively entertaining and deeply thought-provoking. Whether in 70mm IMAX or at home on HBO Max, “Sinners” enthralls me every time I watch (the current count is 4, if we’re keeping track).

Every “Sinners” nod, whether above-the-line or technical, feels wholly deserved. That’s no small feat for a film that got nominated in 16 of the 17 categories it was eligible for. The only nomination it “missed” was Best Actress — a category they didn’t campaign for in the first place.

By the way, before anyone tries to put an asterisk next to “Sinners” record due to the addition of the Best Casting category, keep in mind that “Titanic” and “La La Land” both got nominations for Sound Editing and Sound Mixing, two categories that have since been consolidated into one. All three films were eligible for one more category than “All About Eve,” but that film also got five acting nominations, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished in 50 years — not even by “One Battle After Another.” It’s safe to say that those fields have gotten a bit more competitive since the ‘50s.

“Sinners” did manage, however, to grab a surprising three acting nominations thanks to Michael B. Jordan, who was considered a lock, Wunmi Mosaku, who felt like a coin flip, and Delroy Lindo, who probably became the surprise of the morning.

When I interviewed Lindo during TheWrap’s “Sinners” photoshoot, we talked a lot about his nuanced, layered embodiment of Delta Slim (and yeah, we talked a bit about his history with the Oscars after whatever happened with “Da 5 Bloods”). That chat was one of the most thoughtful and meaningful interviews I’ve ever gotten to be a part of, and I could not have been more elated to see his name called out Thursday morning.

So congratulations to “Sinners,” a generational movie from a generational filmmaker. Moments like this are what we watch the Oscars for.

A failure to meet the moment

Just as every nomination morning comes with great stories, they too often have quite a bit of heartbreak. While I can’t say I was wholly surprised by the day’s outcome for “It Was Just an Accident” (many pundits not named Casey Loving predicted it getting left out of Best Picture), I still find the nomination haul baffling.

Back when it won the Palme d’Or, “It Was Just an Accident” seemed a shoo-in for Best Picture, if not Best Director as well. The film brings with it a powerful narrative: Jafar Panahi, once imprisoned in his home country of Iran and facing an artistic ban, makes a new movie in secret that takes the top prize at Cannes.

Since then, the real-world narrative around “It Was Just an Accident” has only gotten more complex. In December, the Iranian government sentenced Panahi in absentia to another year in prison, with the director vowing to serve out his sentence after the awards season concludes. Recently, Panahi has more or less entirely dedicated his campaign and platform to speaking out on behalf of Iranian protestors and the severe dangers they face from the current regime.

As Panahi picked up other awards during the season, pundits placed him high in the pecking order. “It Was Just an Accident” grows more urgent by the day. To see it left out of Best Director and, more shockingly, Best Picture (“losing” its spot to late-emerging contenders like “F1” and “Train Dreams”) deflated a lot of the positive energy generated earlier in the nomination ceremony.

Of course, you can make the case that the Academy Awards should be a meritocracy and that these real-world factors shouldn’t matter when it comes to “It Was Just an Accident” getting into Picture and Director. To that, I would raise two points.

First of all, narratives matter a lot at the Academy Awards — sometimes even more than a nominee’s, in some ways. Awards contenders campaign, they tell stories, they shake hands, they take out ads, they host screenings, they advocate for why they should get nomination or win. A pure meritocracy this is not.

Secondly, “It Was Just an Accident” is a phenomenal film on its own merits. Panahi wrote and directed a tense, urgent, sometimes funny drama with a stellar screenplay, a strong ensemble and one of the finest endings of the year. I would argue in favor of its nomination even if there were only five Best Picture slots.

The Academy is not a monolith, and nominations are decided by many, many people. But voters still must each individually recognize that the Oscars remain a massive platform, and the movies put up on that stage do matter. To pass up as quality a film as “It Was Just an Accident” from as celebrated a filmmaker as Panahi at this point in time is a complete failure to meet the moment.

Surprises and disappointments

TheWrap had a lot of coverage on Thursday about the biggest moments of nomination morning. As always, I suggest you read Steve Pond’s breakdownof the day and its biggest moments. Joe McGovern had a great piece about the morning’s snubs and surprises, many of which I felt acutely as I heard the names read live.

In the heartbreak column, the Chase Infiniti snub really took me by surprise. She does phenomenal work in “One Battle After Another,” and I would’ve loved to see that film become the first in 50 years to pick up five acting nominations. For the record, I’ve been begging for Regina Hall’s quiet and subtle work to get the same recognition all season, but I guess we collectively decided a while ago to make her the odd one out.

While the Delroy Lindo nomination stands out as my favorite moment of the morning, I do love Paul Mescal’s work in “Hamnet” (which I defend as a supporting performance). The Best Supporting Actor lineup is filled with fantastic nominees, so sadness was guaranteed no matter who got in and who stayed out.

We expected that “No Other Choice” faced tough odds on nomination morning. I can’t say I’m surprised that another Park Chan-wook film went home empty-handed, but I must be disappointed on behalf of one of my favorites in the year.

And then there are the pleasant surprises. Seeing “Sirât” recognized with the first all-woman team in the Best Sound category was a delight. As the biggest “Avatar” fan I know, I loved the film’s appearance in Best Costume Design. I adore that I can now say the phrase “The Oscar-nominated film ‘The Ugly Stepsister’” after its Best Makeup and Hairstyling nod.

The road ahead

This week, I am taking a bit of time off of the awards race to look at some of the first films of 2026 at Sundance Film Festival. Follow me on X (@CaseyMLoving) and Instagram (@CaseyMLov) and check out TheWrap’s channels to see us break down some of the festival’s biggest and buzziest films.

Also, be sure to check in with TheWrap’s Awards Tracker to see the latest state of the Oscars race. Now that we actually have our nominees, the tracker tells you what chance everyone has at actually winning the Oscar, based on over two decades of history and more than 50,000 data points. 

The Awards Tracker did a great job at predicting Thursday’s nominees. While it missed some of the massive surprises (and really, how many people were predicting that awesome Delroy Lindo moment?), it did a phenomenal job at locating the big contenders. Several of its predictions were even more accurate than my own — I guess I should’ve listened to what the stats told me about “F1.”

When it comes time to enter your Oscar pools, you’ll want to know these stats.

So greetings from Park City, and hello to awards season Phase 2.