"Sinners" made history Thursday morning, picking up a record 16 Oscar nominations.
The horror film, released in April 2025, earned nominations in several categories, including best picture and best director and best acting nominations for three of its stars -- Michael B. Jordan, Wunmi Mosaku and Delroy Lindo.
Get to know the Oscar-nominated film, its director and cast below.
"Sinners" stars Jordan (as Smoke and Stack), Hailee Steinfeld (as Mary), Miles Caton (as Sammie), Jack O'Connell (as Remmick), Mosaku (as Annie), Jayme Lawson (as Pearline), Omar Benson Miller (as Cornbread) and Lindo (as Delta Slim).
Peter Dreimanis (Bert), Lola Kirke (Joan), Li Jun Li (Grace), Yao (Bo), Saul Williams (Jedidiah), David Maldonado (Hogwood), Helena Hu (Lisa), Andrene Ward-Hammond (Ruthie), Nathaniel Arcand (Chayton) and Emonie Ellison (Therise) play supporting roles.
Legendary blues guitarist Buddy Guy also appears in the film.
"Sinners" follows twins Smoke and Stack who return to their hometown and open a juke joint, before bloodthirsty vampires crash their plan.
The horror film serves as a gory allegory for the evils that persisted in the South in the Jim Crow era in the late 19th century and onward. The movie is set in the Mississippi River Delta during the 1930s and tackles themes of music, race, family, religion and vampires.
Ryan Coogler, who directed 2013's "Fruitvale Station," 2015's "Creed," 2018's "Black Panther," and 2022's "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," is the director of "Sinners." He also wrote the film -- serving as producer alongside his wife Zinzi Coogler and frequent collaborator Sev Ohanian -- and said it is a "love letter" to his late uncle, who died in 2015.
Coogler told "Good Morning America" in December 2025 that making the horror action movie was "a little nerve-wracking," in part because he felt he was "opening [himself] up to the audience completely for the first time."
"Usually, I'm putting bits of myself into movies with, whether for 'Fruitvale,' it was a pre-existing story or for the 'Panther' films and 'Creed,' they were franchises that I thought I was adding to. But for ['Sinners'], it was completely something that we came up with on our own," Coogler said. "And for me, as a writer-director, I was really putting a lot of myself out there in a different type of way."
Coogler also said he first came up with the premise for "Sinners" while listening to the blues song "Wang Dang Doodle."
"I had an uncle, my Uncle James from Mississippi, who passed away about 10 years ago, and he would always listen to blues music," Coogler said. "And after he passed, I would listen to records to kind of, you know, remind myself of him, remind myself of the time that we spent together … and one day, I was listening to that song, and the idea for the film came to me."
Jordan plays twins Smoke and Stack in the film, and the actor told "GMA" in April 2025 that playing a double role was both "fun" and "challenging."
"It was a lot of fun playing these two extreme sides. One's a little bit more grounded, a little bit more mellow -- different temperaments, for sure, and one's a little bit more charismatic and a little more of a slick talker," Jordan said.
Jordan's co-star Steinfeld plays Mary, whose character has a history with Stack. Steinfeld told "GMA" that to embody Mary, she drew on her own personal family history to help shape the character.
"This character challenged me in ways I've never been challenged and in ways I don't know I would have been able to sort of tackle and overcome had it happened any sooner in my life," Steinfeld said.
She continued, "Part of my research sort of included understanding my own family history a little bit better, which I am so grateful for, feeling closer to my family, to my grandfather, who's no longer with us."
"This movie started a big conversation for me," she added, "and I hope that's one of the many things it does for viewers."
The 98th Oscars will be held Sunday, March 15, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The awards will be televised live on ABC and streamed live on Hulu beginning at 7 p.m. ET.
The Walt Disney Co. is the parent company of ABC and Hulu.
