It is a story you see appear in your social media feed like clockwork: The Academy Awards simply don’t understand hard-genre fare. The likes of science fiction, fantasy, and horror seem to be relegated to the outside of acknowledgement at Hollywood’s biggest night. Though a statement that strong is rooted in some form of truth, that discourse carries much more nuance than your typical Twitter user would like to believe. Looking back on the Academy’s history, it is surprising how much they are willing to acknowledge those pictures, particularly in the last decade. While a famous snub like Toni Collette in Hereditary (2018) certainly carries with it the air of an inability to take that movie seriously, it genuinely paved the way for a nomination like Demi Moore last year.
This year, the dam finally broke: Sinners has smashed the record for most nominations for a single film ever, a record previously thought unbeatable. The record alone would be a major accomplishment for any film, but a true-blue genre picture, one with vampires, blood, sex, and musical numbers, is just one of the many historic elements of the film. With this, that age-old narrative that the Oscars hate horror has officially passed. And yet, given the surprising presence of horror in Hollywood’s biggest night for nearly 60 years, the rhetoric should never have existed.
We can trace the origins of the Academy acknowledging horror back to 1960 and Psycho. At the time, Alfred Hitchcock was no stranger to the Academy, having won a Best Picture Trophy for Rebecca and being nominated for Best Director four times. Still, the way the film was able to instantaneously pierce both the Academy’s view and pop culture through its incredible secrets-driven marketing campaign was nothing short of impressive. It became the second-highest-grossing film of 1960, and the cultural impact extended to the Oscars.
Hitchcock received a nomination for Director, along with star Janet Leigh in Lead Actress. Those two “above-the-line” nominations showed broad support for the film across multiple branches. It also received nominations in Art Direction and Cinematography. Though the film wasn’t nominated for the biggest award of the night, an honor that went to Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, that stamp of Academy approval subtly swung a door open in the right direction. Hitchcock established himself on his ability to turn from a director into a celebrity. Ryan Coogler seems to have taken that playbook and run with it. His viral video explaining the formats you can watch Sinners in was genuinely the best piece of marketing the film could have received, and Coogler has become a major part of every film event leading up to the Oscars.
Another major turning point that connects previous horror acknowledgement to Sinners is The Exorcist. William Friedkin’s adaptation of William Blatty’s pulp novel sensation became a dominant force at the Oscars in 1974, earning 10 nominations, including for Friedkin and stars Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, and Jason Miller. In fact, the awards narratives mirror each other almost exactly: like Psycho before it and Sinners after, The Exorcist was a massive box office success. Additional connections include three acting nominations, as well as representation in Director, Screenplay, and Editing. Though The Exorcist didn’t win the final trophy (that honor went to The Sting), the presence was still a major headway in the genre’s acceptance.
No conversation about horror at the Oscars is complete without The Silence of the Lambs. Jonathan Demme’s 1991 serial killer thriller is a major landmark in Academy history, being one of only three films to win the “Big Five” awards: Actress for Jodie Foster, Actor for Anthony Hopkins, Adapted Screenplay for Thomas Harris, Director for Demme, and Best Picture. These accomplishments would be a feat for any film, let alone something as gnarly and psychological as The Silence of the Lambs. While Sinners cannot quite hit that milestone without an Actress nomination, it could still rack up every other win, which would be a major milestone. The pair of supporting performances with a very real possibility for wins in both categories is very exciting. Wunmi Mosaku has already won a few major precursors, including a BAFTA, and Supporting Actor is a wide-open field, leaving first-time-this-season nominee Delroy Lindo space to scoop up another win for the film.
There is a factor that separates Sinners from the previous two movies: originality. Both The Exorcist and The Silence of the Lambs were based on massively successful previously existing material. Coogler creating the world of his film whole cloth has been a major talking point this year. It has won original screenplay at every major precursor, including the WGA awards, which all but guarantees it a win at the Oscars. Combine that with a rapidly growing sense of excitement around the film, and you have a recipe for success — or disappointment.
There is a very uncomfortable reality that must be faced when examining the film’s Oscar chances, beyond its genre: it is a black film. Not only is it a black film, but it is also a film that does not center the suffering of its black characters at the hands of slavery or Jim Crow. Those elements loom over the film, and thematically, the ties to where black culture in the south evolved cannot be separated. But the Academy is still very wary of properly awarding black talent. In its nearly 100-year history, the Academy has never given Best Director to a black director, and with how precursors have gone, with Paul Thomas Anderson winning every precursor directing award, that doesn’t seem likely to change this year.
Black horror at the Oscars is especially tricky. We can often cite how we live in a post-Get Out world when it comes to the acceptance of black horror in the mainstream. Still, it is telling that Jordan Peele has not been nominated since winning his Original Screenplay Oscar, despite continuing to produce work that goes above and beyond typical Hollywood fare. Still, there is a true sense that the momentum is continuing to build in Sinners’ favor, and while it may not walk away with Director, it could leave with the top prize and even a more surprising one.
With the potential major shakeups presented by the SAG wins for both ensemble and Michael B. Jordan, Sinners has not only leapt ahead in the race but could be the source of some surprising upsets. Maybe if the momentum is strong enough to carry its way through the entire voting body, we could truly see a win for the ages on March 15.
I keep asking myself what is still causing people to hold onto the narrative that the Academy doesn’t care about horror. We have three major examples of horror being acknowledged in the Academy’s past, and even more examples in its present. With both The Substance and Nosferatu being critically acknowledged last year, the story has shifted. Still, the persistence comes from a place many prognosticators are not always willing to accept: the Academy is still viewed as an elitist organization.
Even as they become more interested in awarding popular fare, the general filmgoing public still views them as a stodgy old group that they do not want to associate with. While these arguments may be presented from a place of good faith, they may not always hold as much water as they’d like. Certainly, the examples listed here can function as a major indication that the Academy has always acknowledged the genre, but still, those examples leave a sour taste in the mouth.
There’s a key point that they often miss: Who actually makes up the Academy? Yes, their membership is full of old-timers with an elitist mindset, but it is also a body of true artists and craftspeople. Costume designers, editors, associate producers, ADs, and people all the way down the call sheet have a say in the films that get awarded. Because of that, as these perceptions begin to shift and change, in large part thanks to Sinners, we can hope that maybe we can see that legacy shift to something more productive.
Article Courtesy of Dean Coburn