.
‘Sinners’ is the most nominated film in the history of the Academy Awards, commonly known as the ‘Oscars’, with 16 nominations.
When director Ryan Coogler called Raphael Saadiq to run him through its script, the celebrated R&B singer and songwriter knew the song he wanted to write before he hung up the phone.
Saadiq felt guided, picked up a guitar and a few hours later, he and Coogler’s longtime collaborator, composer Ludwig Göransson, had written “I Lied to You,” the now Oscar nominated song sung by newbie actor Miles Canton in the role of blues musician Sammie “Preacher Boy” Moore.
“I was sitting there going ‘Preacher’s son who plays blues, and it’s gonna be hard for him to get out to church and go do what he wants to do,’” Saadiq recalled in an interview with CNN. “I lived that life. A lot of my friends lived that life.”
“Sinners” has felt guided from the beginning by those who have gone before in the Black community, with Coogler bringing all that history and ancestorial memory — both the bitter and the sweet — to the big screen.
On its surface, “Sinners” is a story about twin brothers returning to their Mississippi hometown for a fresh start, only to face vampires who threaten their dream — and lives.
But it is so much more than that. It is a statement about racial injustice, how we are all connected by our collective history, religion, faith, music and family trauma, all wrapped in a fantastical, Southern Gothic tale.
That such a film would go on to break the record for most Oscar nominations — with 16 including best film and best director for Coogler — is a fulfillment of the ancestors’ dreams. (The film is produced and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, which is owned by CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.)
From the future back to the past
Ironically, it was the success of his hit 2018 film “Black Panther” that helped bring Coogler’s latest project to fruition. The Afrofuturistic Marvel movie became a box office juggernaut and changed the awards season conversation around “comic book movies,” much like how “Sinners” has shifted that narrative about horror films.
“I don’t think there’s another Black director who could have gotten the funding to do a movie like ‘Sinners,’” said Tananarive Due, an acclaimed horror writer. “I think Ryan Coogler was the one who had the capital to bring this vision to life, and boy did he bring it.”
Since the 2013 release of his first film, “Fruitvale Station,” which depicted the events leading up to the real-life police killing of a young Black man named Oscar Grant, Coogler has been intentional in his art as a reflection of the Black experience.
With “Sinners,” Coogler told the outlet Junkee, he “got the chance to dig into my own ancestral history.”
“This film is about the music that was so special to my uncle and I couldn’t be happier with it.”
