The 98th Academy Awards were last night and like many black folks, I watched with low expectations and baited breath. I prepared to watch Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, which was nominated for a record breaking sixteen Oscars, be snubbed. However, I was pleasantly surprised when Sinners won not one but four Oscars including Best Cinematography which went to Autumn Durald Arkapaw who became the first woman and first of Filipino and Black descent to win the award, as well as the highly coveted Best Actor Award which went to Michael B. Jordan for his portrayal of the SmokeStack twins towards the end of the night. Jordan was driven to tears as he thanked the giants who came before him including Denzel Washington, Sidney Poitier and Forrest Whittaker just to name a few. Personally my heart swelled with pride as I realized that Sinners’ historic wins were not just for Coogler, Jordan and the amazing cast and crew, they were for all of us.
Image Credit: LA Times
When I first saw Sinners I will admit, as much as I loved the movie, I had low hopes for its success in the awards circuit but the cultural and historic impact of the movie can not be understated. Since its release in April 2025, the movie has become the highest grossing domestic release in fifteen years, grossing over $369 million worldwide and $279.9M domestic and dominated conversations online. The movie follows twin brothers Smoke and Stack as their efforts to open up their own Juke Joint were thwarted by not only racial forces, but also otherworldly sinister vampiristic forces. Set in the Jim Crow South the antagonists can be seen as an allegory for culture vultures as the main vampire, Remmick, is a white man who sets out to quite literally steal the talents of Sammie “Preacherboy” Moore by turning him into a vampire.
Throughout all of that, the movie also tackles the realities of being poor sharecroppers in Mississippi at the time, interracial relationships and encapsulates how music has been Black people’s source of joy, rebellion and resistance for generations. With all that, it is no wonder that the movie became one of the most highly decorated of the season. In addition to the aforementioned record breaking sixteen Oscar nominations and four wins, Sinners has been recognized at the NAACP Awards, Golden Globes, Actors Awards and Critics Choice Awards, just to name a few. Something interesting that has been happening that the internet picked up on, though, is the absolute unadulterated joy that is present when a Black presenter gets the opportunity to present Sinners with an award. Most notably, Viola Davis’ reaction went viral after she presented Jordan with the award for Best Actor at the 2026 Actor Awards. There is also a clip circulating the internet from the same night of Samuel L Jackson expressing clear elation when he presented the cast with the award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
Image Credit: E! News
All of that is because Sinners’ wins go beyond a great movie getting recognition. Ryan Coogler and the entire cast took great care to showcase our culture and the entirety of our existence as Black people in this movie. For so long and far too often, Black art is awarded for portraying monolithic and typically very traumatic roles. We are awarded for playing slaves and characters that feed into dated and harmful tropes. It gets to a point where one has to wonder at what point do we stop looking for appreciation from White Hollywood because they seem to reward us when we’re doing a modern day shuck and jive for their benefit. That is what makes Sinners’ success so refreshing because it doesn’t do any of that. There is no pandering to whiteness or shrinking ourselves or our story to play into respectability politics. Sinners is authentically and unapologetically Black.
In this movie, we are portrayed in all of our complexity. Our joy, our resistance, our spirituality, our sensuality, our rhythm and our blues. Coogler uses impactful scenes to illustrate that we are not a monolith including a scene where the blues playing town drunkard, Delta Slim, played by Delroy Lindo, recalls one of his friends being lynched. Rather than show scenes of a Black man being lynched or linger in what is clearly an emotionally charged moment, Coogler chooses to showcase our resilience and has three Black men in different stages of life but bonded by racial trauma use music as a salve for the pain. In that same vein, Black women are also portrayed in a beautifully comprehensive way. Annie, portrayed by Wunmi Mosaku, is the complete personification of a Black woman. She is beautiful, soft, sharp and strong all at the same time. When all hell breaks loose and the vampires pose an immediate threat, she is treated as authority on the situation. There is never a point where she had to fight to be seen or her intelligence questioned. Her relationship with Smoke is one that is reminiscent of real Black love. One that is marred by real life tragedies, such as the loss of their baby, but also full of love, care and mutual protection. There is never a point where we as Black women can not see ourselves, our mothers and our grandmothers in Annie. Again we see Coogler take care of Black women as he shows the full range of our humanity.
Even with the backdrop of racism and the impending threat of vampires, there are scenes in the movie where Black folks are enjoying themselves, loving each other, laughing with each other and supporting each other. The essence of the movie is summed up in the interaction at the end of the movie between Sammie and Stack and the two agree that despite the fact that the night was easily the most traumatic night of their lives, it was simultaneously the best because they saw the sun and for a few hours, they were free.
Image Credit: X (formerly Twitter)
That is why this movie’s wins are so important. There is a reason why Sinners becoming such a highly decorated movie feels almost ancestral. There is a reason why the elite of Black Hollywood become so visibly excited when they have the opportunity to present the movie with the accolades it so clearly deserves. Most importantly, there is a reason why Michael B. Jordan, against all odds, all traditions of the Oscars being a celebration of white art, is so impactful. It is because as Black people we are a communal people so when one of us wins, truly wins; we all do.
