After Some Soul Searching, Here's Why I'm Now Okay If Sinners Doesn't Win Best Picture At The Oscars

Okay, so listen. Yes, I’m aware that Sinners snagged the top award - Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture - at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. I’m also aware that Michael B. Jordan won what is essentially Best Actor (It’s about time!) at the event as well. And cool. Congratulations! Well deserved!

However, BE THAT AS IT MAY, I still don’t think Sinners or Jordan have a shot in hell at winning Best Picture, or Best Actor, respectively, at the Academy Awards, as I’m pretty sure it’s One Battle After Another and Timothée Chalamet’s year to lose when it comes to the Oscars. Both have been dominating this awards’ season.

And, for a time, I was upset about this. Sinners was my favorite movie of last year. But, after some soul searching, I think I’m okay with it now. Here’s why.

If Sinners Doesn’t Win Best Picture, It Will Be In Good Company

Do you want to know my favorite Best Picture winners from Martin Scorsese? Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull. Wait. What’s that you say? Scorsese didn’t win for any of those movies? He only won for The Departed? For real? I mean, The Departed is pretty good, but better than Taxi Driver? Get outta here!

That’s just it. Even though history might determine what the true Best Picture movie was, at the time of the awards, a different movie might be picked. And, I think Sinners might be that movie this year ( I’ll get into One Battle After Another later as the potential winner), which is why if Sinners doesn’t win, I won’t be that upset now, because it will be in good company. For example, here are some other movies that history has been very kind to that didn’t win Best Picture: Jaws, Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shawshank Redemption, and Citizen Kane.

I mean, if Citizen freaking Kane, which is often considered the best movie ever made, can’t win Best Picture, then should I really be upset if Sinners doesn’t win?

If anything, Sinners will probably be like Get Out (another movie that I think should have won Best Picture) in that its highest honor will likely go to Ryan Coogler’s writing for Best Original Screenplay, but not for Best Director or Picture (though, I do hope that Delroy Lindo snags Best Supporting Actor). There’s another reason that this doesn’t really bother me anymore.

Sinners Might Gain Even More Recognition As Being The Film That Should Have Won, But Didn’t

Though I don’t hate the movie Crash, I think it’s unanimous that people believe Brokeback Mountain should have won Best Picture. I mean, even back then people believed that, but in 2026, people overwhelmingly think that. Losing Best Picture actually helped Brokeback’s status, as people now think it was ahead of its time. Meanwhile, people find Crash to be backward, with some even finding it offensive in how it handles racial matters. In a lot of ways, I feel bad for Crash, because winning Best Picture actually hurt the movie. People hate it now BECAUSE it won.

Now, while I don’t think the same is going to happen to One Battle After Another, I do think that Sinners not winning will actually give it even more recognition than if it were to win. Let’s go back to another “loser,” The Shawshank Redemption. Now, I think the movie is just okay, but A LOT of people consider it the best movie ever made, and they think that it should have won Best Picture. The fact that it didn’t means that the Academy got it “wrong” when they gave it to Forrest Gump (I disagree, as I think Pulp Fiction should have won, but that’s just me).

That said, I think Sinners has the same trajectory. Ten years from now, I imagine people will look back at One Battle After Another, and say, “Sinners should have won,” just like they say about Annie Hall beating Star Wars, How Green Was My Valley beating Citizen Kane, or even a film like Vertigo, which wasn’t even NOMINATED for Best Picture (crazy, I know) “losing” to Ben-Hur.

I think the same will be said of Sinners - That it should have won Best Picture, but didn’t. Even so…

There Are A Lot Worse Films To Lose To Than One Battle After Another

I brought up Crash earlier, but if Sinners loses to One Battle After Another, which it likely will, given what a powerhouse it has been this awards’ season, I don’t think it will be the most crushing blow in the world. Despite everything I’ve said thus far in this article, I actually loved OBAA. In fact, I wrote a whole article about how much I loved it. In any other year, I’d be like, yeah, give it to that movie! Oh, and also give it to Paul Thomas Anderson, too. He’s due!

But, we also got Sinners in 2025, and while I’d say that OBAA was my second favorite movie of last year, Sinners was definitely my first. In that way, I’m not upset if the former wins, because it wasn’t a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination. It wouldn’t be like, say, Shakespeare in Love beating Saving Private Ryan, or, The Shape of Water beating Get Out, where I’m just like, seriously? THAT’S WHAT YOU PICKED INSTEAD? It’d be more like No Country for Old Men beating There Will Be Blood, or Birdman beating Boyhood. Because when you have two great movies going head-to-head, and the other great movie wins, can you really be that upset?

I think Battle is the Old Men in this situation, which is kind of ironic, given that I really feel like PTA should have won that year, whereas I’m rooting against him this year. Look, when I think back to Old Men winning Best Picture, I’m not mad. I love the Coen Brothers, and I’m happy that the movie won because it deserved it. Yes, I think Blood was the more deserving picture, but not winning doesn’t mean that Old Men wasn’t worthy of its victory. It just means that my pick wasn't chosen, which is often the case.

That actually brings me to my final point as to why I don’t mind anymore if Sinners doesn’t win…

I Don’t Need The Academy To Tell Me What The Best Movie Of The Year Was

I don’t do this anymore, but for a time, I used to make sure that I watched EVERY movie that was nominated for Best Picture, and then decide on my own what I thought was the best movie of the year. Sometimes, my opinions would align with the Academy’s, like with Parasite, or Everything Everywhere All At Once, but most times, I couldn’t believe what won.

In fact, you know what I’ve found more times than not - my favorite movie of the respective year wasn’t even nominated. Ex Machina is just one such example, and The Lighthouse is another.

So, honestly, if Sinners doesn’t win Best Picture, so what? The Academy doesn’t have to tell me what the best movie of the year is, because I already know that it’s Sinners. Winning would be nice, but when a movie like Godzilla Minus One doesn’t even get nominated for Best Picture, who cares what the Academy thinks? As The Dude would say, "That’s just their, uh, opinion, man."

What do you think? Will you be upset if Sinners doesn’t win?