Ryan Coogler Wins Best Original Screenplay Oscar for ‘Sinners’

The win marks the first for the talented filmmaker.

Maybe the most key word of all key words here is “original.” After working on big IP projects and real-life events alike, Ryan Coogler wrote “Sinners” as his first, fiercely original story. The film takes the Delta Blues of his family’s history and mixes it with elevated genre work, a raucous horror-thriller finale, and the playful spectacle of twin Michael B. Jordans.

He has now won his first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, his first nomination in the category and his fifth overall — “Judas and the Black Messiah” (which he produced) was nominated for Best Picture in 2020 and a song from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” also got an Oscar nod in 2022. Coogler is nominated for Best Director and Best Picture for “Sinners” as well.

The Best Original Screenplay win follows Coogler’s success as a writer with wins at the BAFTAS, Critics Choice, Writers Guild, National Board of Review, as well as a Golden Globe nomination. Maybe even more excitingly, it is the highest critical stamp that could be put on Coogler’s rare deal with Warner Bros. for the ownership rights for “Sinners” to revert to him in 2050. This win, to say nothing of “Sinners” 16 total Oscar nominations, should be an object lesson in the value of letting artists bet on themselves and getting out of their way.

Coogler’s “Sinners” script beats out the screenplays for “Blue Moon” (Robert Kaplow), “It Was Just An Accident” (Jafar Panahi, in collaboration with Mehdi Mahmoudian, Shadmehr Rastin, and Nader Saïvar), “Marty Supreme” (Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie), and “Sentimental Value” (Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt); and Coogler becomes only the second African American writer to win for Best Original Screenplay — alongside Jordan Peele for “Get Out” — and only the sixth to be nominated in the Academy’s history.

The writer-director told IndieWire’s Chris O’Falt on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast that, from the film’s virtuostic musical oner across space and time to the jokes between Stack (Jordan) and Smoke (Jordan), “Sinners” was an act of conjuration. It evokes both his family’s history and his uncle’s love of Blues music specifically, but also the immense cultural impact Blues has had on the United States, and the world.

That starts with Coogler’s script, which he imbued with the feeling of a great song, with rhythm in every scene change and resonance in the simple, evocative dialogue. Receiving the award, Coogler asked all of the film’s cast and crew present at the ceremony to stand and be recognized; he said they were all winners in his book. It’s now an award-winning one.

Speaking backstage to press at the Oscars, Coogler thanked his late Uncle James, whom he said he didn’t get the chance to talk about enough this evening. His uncle to him was more like a grandfather, having never gotten to meet his actual grandfathers before he was born. James, Coogler said, gave him the gift of music that permeates through “Sinners,” and he told the press room that his Uncle James “continues to give me gifts from where he is now.”

Coogler was also asked about the prospect of his film being used as curriculum in film school classrooms. He shared an anecdote about a professor he had who told him he should pursue a career as a writer in Hollywood, and he said if any professor were to teach it, “they’ll know how to do it best.”

The 98th Academy Awards took place at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday, March 15, with Conan O’Brien returning as host. The ceremony was broadcast live on ABC starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. Check out the full list of winners right here.

Additional reporting by Brian Welk