Sinners Just Made Movie History by Breaking a 75-Year-Old Oscars Record That Looked Unbeatable

January 22, 2026, 9:08am

The nominations for the 98th Academy Awards were made this morning, with critical favorites like Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, Frankenstein, and Sinners all coming away with multiple Oscar nominations. Though it’s no surprise that Ryan Coogler’s blockbuster horror movie managed to snag multiple nominations, the film was a critical and commercial success upon release; no one could have predicted that the film would officially stamp its place in movie history by setting an Oscar record, one that hasn’t been broken in 75 years.

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Sinners was nominated in sixteen different categories for the Academy Awards, officially becoming the most nominated movie in film history at the Oscars. The original record of 14 nominations was first set all the way back in 1950, when All About Eve made history and set the bar that high. In the time since then, only two movies have been able to match that record, with 1997’s Titanic earning 14 nominations as well, and 2016’s La La Land also reaching the achievement. For Sinners to match and then exceed that amount is stunning for any movie, and one that sets it up for major wins on Oscar night.

Sinners Makes Oscar History With Most Nominations Ever

Though Sinners has officially captured the record for most nominations, the precedent for films with this many nominations taking home the majority of those Oscars isn’t exactly high. All About Eve, despite setting the record at fourteen, only won six of its awards, with La La Land reaching the exact same benchmarks. Titanic is the outlier, winning eleven out of its fourteen nominations. This year, Sinners faces tough competition in the form of One Battle After Another, the other Warner Bros. Pictures film with multiple nominations, which arrives as the favorite in many categories that include both films.

Sinners, having secured sixteen nominations, does put it in a prime position to set another major Oscar record, though, when the ceremony takes place. To date, the most awarded movie in Oscar history is also a three-way tie, with Ben-Hur (1959), Titanic, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King all taking home eleven Oscars. Should Sinners win in twelve categories, the movie could officially take that record as well. Given the headstart it already has with nominations, it doesn’t seem that far out of the realm of possibility for the movie to achieve this. It’s also worth noting that The Return of the King has the best winning percentage for a film, winning eleven out of eleven. Only four other movies have been able to achieve this: It Happened One Night, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and The Silence of the Lambs, though these movies were only nominated in five categories.

There’s one more record that Sinners has totally shattered with its sixteen nominations, though, and it’s one that Oscar pundits may not even realize. Coogler’s movie has officially become the most-nominated horror movie in Oscar history. Before this, 1973’s The Exorcist had secured that title, earning 10 nominations (and two wins), which put it well ahead of almost every other horror movie to even be nominated by the Academy Awards. It’s safe to say that this record may never be broken.

All of Sinners’ Oscar nominations: