The Academy Awards' Audience Made Their Pick For Best Picture Clear Immediately

Multiple Michael B. Jordans in the audience at the Oscars — (Image credit: ABC)

It didn’t take long for the audience at the 98th Academy Awards to make known what movie is their favorite: Sinners. Every mention of Sinners in the early moments of the show was met with a lot of applause and cheering. Conan O’Brien’s hilarious opening montage and monologue feature references to all the Best Picture nominees, and the support for Ryan Coogler’s movie was the most palpable.

Sinner Gets A Lot Of Love

During Conan O’Brien’s opening skit, as he ran through all the Best Picture nominees (and more) as Aunt Gladys from Weapons, he found himself outside Smoke and Stack’s juke joint; the audience’s applause hit a crescendo. There was applause for all the movies, of course, but it was Sinners that clearly got the biggest reception.

That’s not all. When O’Brien started his monologue, he merely had to mention Sinners to light the audience up. While movies like One Battle After Another and Weapons got warm applause, but nothing like Sinners did. When O’Brien made a joke about Michael B. Jordan, he barely had to start the joke before people were applauding for the Best Actor nominee.

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By the time Miles Caton hit the stage to perform the song "I Lied To You," which is nominated for Best Song, the crowd was up and dancing, just like the memorable scene in the movie. It's hard to say that there is an audience favorite, but it's harder to say it's not Sinners at this point. It's also hard to predict the Oscar winners and who will take home the most awards, but Sinners has a real chance to be that movie tonight.

Sinners got a similar reception at the Actor Awards last week, and that translated to a lot of awards as well. As the horror movie did what seemed like it would be impossible for a so-called “genre film,” by receiving a record 16 Oscar nominations, it’s obvious why. The crowd, like the film's audience (and CinemaBlend, as we named it the best movie of 2025), loves the movie. In recent weeks, the momentum for the movie has only increased, especially after Jordan won Best Actor at the Actor Awards (formerly the SAG Awards) and the cast took home Best Ensemble.

SAG is the single largest voting group in the Academy, and judging by the audience at the Dolby Theatre, which is made up almost entirely of Academy members, could mean big things for the vampire movie. The Oscars are airing on ABC and are available with a Hulu subscription.

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Hugh Scott is the Syndication Editor for CinemaBlend. Before CinemaBlend, he was the managing editor for Suggest.com and Gossipcop.com, covering celebrity news and debunking false gossip. He has been in the publishing industry for almost two decades, covering pop culture – movies and TV shows, especially – with a keen interest and love for Gen X culture, the older influences on it, and what it has since inspired. He graduated from Boston University with a degree in Political Science but cured himself of the desire to be a politician almost immediately after graduation.

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