Ryan Coogler is nominated for Best Director for Sinners. He is the seventh Black filmmaker nominated in the category, after John Singleton, Lee Daniels, Steve McQueen, Barry Jenkins, Jordan Peele, and Spike Lee. None of them won. If Coogler does, he rewrites the record entirely.
The film has 16 Oscar nominations — the most in Academy history. It became the highest-grossing original movie domestically in 15 years. At the BAFTAs, Coogler became the first Black filmmaker to win Best Original Screenplay. At SAG, he became the first director to helm two best ensemble winners.
He started at USC after a football injury at Saint Mary's College ended one path and opened another. Fruitvale Station. Creed. Black Panther — the first superhero film nominated for Best Picture. Now a vampire film set in the Mississippi Delta that the Academy is treating like prestige filmmaking. Because it is.
Coogler also negotiated full ownership reversion of Sinners after 25 years, plus first-dollar gross and final cut. He directed the most nominated film in Oscar history. He also owns it.