Sinners is officially on the board. The most-nominated movie at this year’s Oscars — and, for that matter, in the history of the Oscars — has won at the 2026 Actor Awards for best ensemble, a crucial precursor in the Oscars’ best-picture race. It’s also Sinners’ first top win at one of the major Oscar precursor awards so far this season, with One Battle After Another having effectively run the table to this point — including at last night’s Producers Guild Awards.
Now we’ve got a race.
Sinners was favored by many to win here, given its strength with casting/ensemble precursor awards, but SAG-AFTRA tends to bestow its top prize to an overall industry favorite — whether clear Oscar front-runners like Oppenheimer and Everything Everywhere All at Once or underdogs like Parasite and CODA. Of course, all of those movies went on to win the top Oscar, a trajectory that Sinners will hope to emulate.
With writer-producer-director Ryan Coogler looking on, the Sinners cast looked elated and stunned as they took the stage. Delroy Lindo was designated as the speaker on behalf of the group (he is individually nominated at the Oscars, but here was recognized only as a member of the ensemble). As the crowd’s deafening applause slowly wound down, Lindo understandably struggled to find his bearings. “I’m supposed to speak on behalf of our cast. There’s supposed to be a teleprompter and I don’t see it, so I’m just going to speak,” he said.
Lindo then spoke to the significance of the film. “This project is anointed, and from that standpoint, we are all anointed to be on this incredible journey created by the incredible genius Ryan Coogler,” he said. Lindo went on to shout out others including casting director Francine Maisler, producers Sev Ohanian and Zinzi Coogler, and various Warner Bros. leaders including studio chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy and SVP of publicity Suzanne Fritz.
Sinners was nominated at the Actor Awards 2026 against fellow best-picture Oscar nominees One Battle, Hamnet, Marty Supreme and Frankenstein. The vampire drama also received an impressive three individual acting noms with SAG-AFTRA, for leading man Michael B. Jordan and supporting stars Wunmi Mosaku and Miles Caton. (All are also Oscar-nominated except Caton, whom the Academy replaced with his costar Delroy Lindo.) Jordan pulled off a major upset by winning best actor, proving the film’s overall strength with the guild.
Last year’s Actor Awards ended a three-year streak of the best-ensemble winner going on to triumph at the Oscars, as Conclave beat out eventual best-picture winner Anora. The Actors and the PGAs are considered two of the stronger predictors of best-picture, and can indicate late-stage momentum — and when there’s a split between the two, while the Academy can go either way, PGA still tends to be most predictive. Coogler’s Black Panther, for instance, took home the ensemble Actor before Green Book went all the way at the Oscars.
We’ll see if things go differently this time.
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