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Vampire thriller Sinners stormed into Oscars history on Thursday with a record 16 nominations, positioning the Warner Bros film as the frontrunner for Best Picture and pitting star Michael B Jordan against Timothee Chalamet and Leonardo DiCaprio as rivals for Best Actor.

Sinners a celebration of blues music and Black culture in the segregation-era US South, will face off against One Battle After Another, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme and more for the coveted Best Picture prize.

The previous record for most nominations was 14, a mark hit by All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land.

Bugonia, F1, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value and Train Dreams were also nominated for this year’s Best Picture trophy at the highest honours in the movie business.

Together, the nominations span genres — from historical drama to supernatural horror — and reflect a film academy increasingly willing to reward unconventional storytelling. A handful of nominees also are commercial hits, which could help boost viewership for the March 15 Oscars ceremony.

Jordan was nominated for Best Actor for his dual role in Sinners as twin brothers who set up a juke joint in 1930s Mississippi, triggering a bloody gangsters versus vampires showdown that serves as an allegory for segregation and racism. The Warner Bros film also earned nominations for director Ryan Coogler, supporting actors Delroy Lindo and Wunmi Mosaku and cinematography, costume design, original screenplay and visual effects.

Jordan’s competition includes Leonardo DiCaprio in offbeat action movie One Battle After Another, which scored 13 nominations, and Timothee Chalamet in table tennis tale Marty Supreme.

Paul Thomas Anderson earned a nomination for directing One Battle After Another, which features DiCaprio as a one-time radical turned weed-smoking father of a teenager. Co-stars Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Teyana Taylor were nominated in supporting categories.

“My career has been filled with battles, doubts, and moments of deep uncertainty,” Taylor said in a statement. “It has felt like one long fight for space, for respect, and for opportunity. But today feels like a gentle reminder that dreams really do survive.”

For Best Actress, Jessie Buckley was nominated for playing William Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes Hathaway, in Hamnet, and Kate Hudson for Song Sung Blue, the story of a Neil Diamond tribute band.

Chloe Zhao, one of only three women to win Best Director in the 97 Oscar ceremonies to date, for Nomadland, landed a nomination for Hamnet. The film imagines how Shakespeare’s family dealt with the death of their 11-year-old son, whose name was Hamnet. Historians believe Hamnet’s death inspired the playwright to pen the play Hamlet.

Paul Mescal, who earned critical praise for his role as Shakespeare, did not receive an Oscar nomination.

Tunisian entry The Voice of Hind Rajab — an account of the attempted rescue of six-year-old girl in Gaza who was killed by Israeli forces in 2024 — was nominated for the international feature prize alongside the crime thriller It Was Just an Accident by dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi.

Countdown to March 15 ceremony

Winners of the gold Oscar statuettes will be chosen by the roughly 10,000 actors, producers, directors and film craftspeople who make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Walt Disney’s ABC will broadcast the awards and stream them on Hulu, and comedian Conan O’Brien will host for the second straight year.

Warner Bros Discovery, the studio subject to a bidding war between Netflix and Paramount Skydance, led all studios with 30 nominations.

Netflix has never won Best Picture despite nominations for Roma, Emilia Perez and The Irishman. It has a chance this year with Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, which earned nine nominations, and Train Dreams. The streaming service releases its movies in theatres for only a limited time to qualify them for awards consideration.

Global phenomenon KPop Demon Hunters, also from Netflix, was nominated for best animated feature and original song for ‘Golden’.

Two Best Picture contenders are non-English language films. They are Norwegian family drama Sentimental Value and Brazilian political thriller The Secret Agent.

Sentimental Value star Stellan Skarsgard said the recognition will boost awareness of a film without a multi-million-dollar advertising budget.

“We are depending on the awards and festivals to get it out, so I’m glad it will get out there,” he said. The movie has collected $16 million at global box offices, compared with $368m for Sinners and $206m for One Battle After Another.

The highest-grossing best picture nominee is Brad Pitt racing drama F1, with nearly $632m in worldwide ticket sales.

Full list of nominations

Best Picture

Bugonia

F1

Frankenstein

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

One Battle After Another

The Secret Agent

Sentimental Value

Sinners

Train Dreams

Best Actor

Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme

Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another

Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon

Michael B. Jordan, Sinners

Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent

Best Actress

Jessie Buckley, Hamnet

Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue

Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value

Emma Stone, Bugonia

Best Director

Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another

Ryan Coogler, Sinners

Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme

Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value

Chloé Zhao, Hamnet

Best Supporting Actor

Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another

Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein

Delroy Lindo, Sinners

Sean Penn, One Battle After Another

Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value

Best Supporting Actress

Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value

Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value

Amy Madigan, Weapons

Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners

Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another

Best Adapted Screenplay

Will Tracy, Bugonia

Guillermo Del Toro, Frankenstein

Maggie O’Farrell and Chloé Zhao, Hamnet

Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another

Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar, Train Dreams

Best Original Screenplay

Robert Kaplow, Blue Moon

Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident

Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme

Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt, Sentimental Value

Ryan Coogler, Sinners

Best Animated Feature Film

Arco

Elio

KPop Demon Hunters

Little Amelie or the Character of Rain

Zootopia 2

Best Animated Short

The Three Sisters

Butterfly

Forevergreen

The Girl Who Cried Pearls

Retirement Plan

Best International Feature

It Was Just an Accident

The Secret Agent

Sentimental Value

Sirât

The Voice of Hind Rajab

Best Documentary Feature

Cutting Through Rocks

The Alabama Solution

The Perfect Neighbour

Come See Me in the Good Light

Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Best Documentary Short

All the Empty Rooms

Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud

Children No More: Were and Are Gone

The Devil Is Busy

Perfectly a Strangeness

Best Original Score

Bugonia

Frankenstein

Hamnet

One Battle After Another

Sinners

Best Original Song

‘Dear Me’, from Diane Warren: Relentless

‘Golden’, from KPop Demon Hunters

‘I Lied to You’, from Sinners

‘Sweet Dreams of Joy’, from Viva Verdi

‘Train Dreams’, from Train Dreams

Best Sound

F1

Frankenstein

One Battle After Another

Sinners

Sirât

Best Production Design

Frankenstein

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

One Battle After Another

Sinners

Best Live Action Short

Butcher’s Stain

A Friend of Dorothy

Jane Austen’s Period Drama

The Singers

Two People Exchanging Saliva

Best Cinematography

Frankenstein

Marty Supreme

One Battle After Another

Sinners

Train Dreams

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Frankenstein

Kokuho

The Smashing Machine

Sinners

The Ugly Stepsister

Best Costume Design

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Frankenstein

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

Sinners

Best Visual Effects

Avatar: Fire and Ash

F1

Jurassic World Rebirth

Sinners

The Lost Bus

Best Film Editing

F1

Sentimental Value

Marty Supreme

One Battle After Another

Sinners

Best Casting

Hamnet

Marty Supreme

One Battle After Another

The Secret Agent

Sinners