Delroy Lindo in 'Sinners.' Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on Reddit Post a Comment Share on Whats App Share on Pinterest Share on LinkedIn Print the Article Share on Tumblr A NOTE FROM SCOTT Well, we have some answers. On Thursday morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its nominations for the 98th Oscars. Sinners landed an astounding 16 noms, besting by two the record of 14 that was previously shared by 1950's All About Eve, 1997's Titanic and 2016's La La Land. Moreover, it landed a nom in every category in which it had a plausible chance, whereas each of its fellow top contenders had at least one glaring hiccup: One Battle After Another missed Chase Infiniti for best actress; Hamnet missed Paul Mescal for best supporting actor, as well as cinematography and film editing; Frankenstein missed Guillermo del Toro for best director, as well as VFX; Marty Supreme missed makeup/hairstyling; The Secret Agent missed original screenplay; and the list goes on. All in all, it was a remarkable showing for Sinners - but was it enough to jolt the widely held belief that One Battle After Another, which already won top honors at the Critics Choice and Golden Globe awards, is the film to beat for the best picture Oscar? Over the 16 seasons since the Academy returned to a preferential/ranked-choice ballot to determine its best picture winner, the film with the most noms (or one of the films that tied for the most noms) went on to win best picture only six times (Oppenheimer, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Shape of Water, Birdman, The King's Speech and The Hurt Locker). But 16 noms - three more than the second-most-nominated film (One Battle) and seven more than the third (Frankenstein, Marty Supreme and Sentimental Value tied with nine) - feels like a statement. And an increasing number of smart industry insiders believe that Sinners is better positioned than One Battle moving forward. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how these two films - both from great filmmakers who are telling largely original stories about race in America - are promoted during phase two, not least because they share the same distributor, Warner Bros., which, largely because of them, led all studios by far with 30 noms ... and is now, ironically enough, in the process of being sold. (Fun fact: It has been more than a half-century since we last had a best picture race in which there were exactly two clear frontrunners and both hailed from the same studio - Paramount's Chinatown vs. The Godfather Part II, which co-led the field with 11 noms each, 51 years ago!) I expect that Warners will give its two films equal treatment - as it has done thus far, as best as I can tell, with FYC ads, billboards, etc. - and let the chips fall where they may. (Indeed, even at award shows, studio co-chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy split up so that one can sit with the One Battle folks and the other can sit with the Sinners folks.) But this won't stop personal reps from going all out on behalf of their respective clients. In any event, my first post-noms read of all 24 Oscar races can be found below. The final round of Oscars voting will begin on Feb. 26 and end on March 5. And the 98th Oscars ceremony, to be hosted by Conan O'Brien, will follow on March 15. PLEASE REMEMBER: Scott's forecasts do not necessarily reflect his personal preferences. His aim is not to advocate for what he thinks the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences should do, but rather to project what they will do. He arrives at his projections by screening many films, analyzing their campaigns, speaking with voters and studying relevant history and stats. Best Picture Image Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures Projected Order of Finish1. Sinners (Warner Bros.) - Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Coogler and Sev Ohanian2. One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.) - Paul Thomas Anderson, Sara Murphy and Adam Somner3. Hamnet (Focus) - Nicolas Gonda, Pippa Harris, Liza Marshall, Sam Mendes and Steven Spielberg - podcast (Spielberg)4. Sentimental Value (Neon) - Maria Ekerhovd and Andrea Berensten Ottmar5. Marty Supreme (A24) - Ronald Bronstein, Eli Bush, Timothée Chalamet, Anthony Katagas and Josh Safdie - podcast (Chalamet)6. Train Dreams (Netflix) - Michael Heimler, Will Janowitz, Marissa McMahon, Ashley Schlaifer and Teddy Schwarzman7. Frankenstein (Netflix) - J. Miles Dale, Guillermo del Toro and Scott Stuber - podcast 1, 2 and 3 (del Toro)8. F1 (Apple/Warner Bros.) - Jerry Bruckheimer, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Joseph Kosinski, Chad Oman and Brad Pitt - podcast (Bruckheimer)9. The Secret Agent (Neon) - Emilie Lesclaux10. Bugonia (Focus) - Ed Guiney, Lars Knudsen, Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrew Lowe and Emma Stone - podcast (Stone) Best Director Image Credit: Focus Features Projected Order of Finish1. Paul Thomas Anderson for One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)2. Ryan C