‘Sinners’ filmmaker reportedly 'blown away' by Oscar noms record

After the horror epic Sinners made Oscar history Thursday by garnering 16 nominations — including Best Director for Ryan Coogler and Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan — Angelique Jackson, senior entertainment writer at Variety, told LAist's AirTalk the director was "completely blown away."

Jackson said she spoke with Coogler and his co-producers after the news of the nominations broke.

“They were just completely blown away by the number of nominations, especially getting a few first-timers in there for some of their stars, like Michael B. Jordan,” she said.

Jackson added that Jordan, who has been working since he was a child and has delivered a “blockbuster movie star performance,” had been left out of the Oscars race until now.

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Sinners, a mashup of vampires and blues music set in 1930s Mississippi, surpassed Titanic and La La Land for nominations, followed by Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, which received 13 nominations.

Sinners was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Score.

Other standout nominations

Thirty-year-old Timothée Chalamet, nominated for best actor for his role in Marty Supreme, also made history as the youngest man with three nominations to his name.

KPop Demon Hunters was nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song, “Golden,” which spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The film is up against Disney’s box office hit, Zootopia 2 for the Best Animated Feature category.

“The phenomenon that KPop Demon Hunters has been, this just makes us all the more excited for what we’re going to see on that Oscars stage come March,” Jackson said.

Elle Fanning, who has been acting since she was a child, also received her first Oscar nomination at age 27 for her role in Joachim Trier's film, Sentimental Value.