26th Black Reel Awards: ‘Sinners’ Breaks Record with 14 Wins

After smashing the nominations record with 21 at the Black Reel Awards, Sinners set a new record wins, taking 14 wins including Outstanding Film, Director and Screenplay for Ryan Coogler as well sweeping the non-gendered acting categories with Lead Performance for Michael B. Jordan, Supporting Performance for Wunmi Mosaku and Breakthrough Performance for Miles Caton.

The win count for Sinners beat the previous record of 10 set by Black Panther at the 19th Black Reel Awards in 2019 and Coogler joins Jordan Peele (Get Out) and Cord Jefferson (American Fiction) as the only producing-writing-directing triple winners for the same film. Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman to win Outstanding Cinematography, Hannah Beachler extended her record with a third win for Outstanding Production Design, and Ludwig Göransson made Black Reels history as the first person to win Outstanding Score and Original Song (“I Lied to You”) in the same year. In all, Sinners won every category it was nominated in save one; Paul Tazewell bested Ruth E. Carter for his costume design of Wicked: For Good, his second win in a row here, previously winning for the first Wicked film.

Nomination runner-up Highest 2 Lowest (11) went home empty-handed, as did fellow Best Film nominee Hedda. One of Them Days pulled out a win for Best First Screenplay.

Elsewhere, double wins came for Geeta Gandbhir, who took Outstanding Documentary for The Perfect Neighbor and Short Film for The Devil Is Busy, while R.T. Thorne won Outstanding Independent Film and Emerging Director for 40 Acres.

Here is the complete list of winners of the 26th Black Reel Awards, presented by the Foundation for the Augmentation of African-Americans in Film (FAAAF).

Best Film
Hedda (Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Gabrielle Nadig, Nia DaCosta, Tessa Thompson)
Highest 2 Lowest (Todd Black, Jason Michael Berman)
One of Them Days (Issa Rae, Deniese Davis, Sara Rastogi, James Lopez, Poppy Hank)
Sinners (Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, Ryan Coogler) (WINNER)
Wicked: For Good (Marc Platt, David Stone)

Best Director
Ryan Coogler, Sinners (WINNER)
Nia DaCosta, Hedda
Spike Lee, Highest 2 Lowest
Rungano Nyoni, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
R.T. Thorne, 40 Acres

Best Lead Performance
Danielle Deadwyler, 40 Acres
Cynthia Erivo, Wicked: For Good
André Holland, Love, Brooklyn
Chase Infiniti, One Battle After Another
Dwayne Johnson, The Smashing Machine
Michael B. Jordan, Sinners (WINNER)
Jonathan Majors, Magazine Dreams
Keke Palmer, One of Them Days
Tessa Thompson, Hedda
Denzel Washington, Highest 2 Lowest

Best Supporting Performance
Miles Caton, Sinners
Regina Hall, One Battle After Another
Damson Idris, F1
David Jonsson, The Long Walk
Delroy Lindo, Sinners
Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners (WINNER)
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Eternity
A$AP Rocky, Highest 2 Lowest
Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
Jeffrey Wright, Highest 2 Lowest

Best Breakthrough Performance
Miles Caton, Sinners (WINNER)
Susan Chardy, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Naya Desir-Johnson, Sarah’s Oil
Damson Idris, F1
Chase Infiniti, One Battle After Another
Jayme Lawson, Sinners
A$AP Rocky, Highest 2 Lowest
Abou Sangaré, Souleyman’s Story
SZA, One of Them Days
Tyriq Withers, HIM

Best Screenplay
40 Acres — R.T. Thorne
Hedda — Nia DaCosta
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl — Rungano Nyoni
One of Them Days — Syreeta Singleton
Sinners — Ryan Coogler (WINNER)

Best Documentary
Being Eddie — Angus Wall, director
In Whose Name? — Nico Ballesteros, director
Orwell: 2+2=5 — Raoul Peck, director
Songs From the Hole — Contessa Gayles, director
The Perfect Neighbor — Geeta Gandbhir, director (WINNER)

Best Ensemble
40 Acres — Stephanie Gorin, casting director
Highest 2 Lowest — Kim Coleman, casting director
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl — Isabella Odoffin, casting director
One of Them Days — Nicole Abellera and Jeanne McCarthy, casting directors
Sinners — Francine Maisler, casting director (WINNER)

Best International Film
My Father’s Shadow (United Kingdom)
Night Call (Belgium)
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (Zambia, UK, Ireland) (WINNER)
Souleymane’s Story (France)
We Were Here — The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe (Germany)

Best Voice Performance
Danielle Brooks, The Bad Guys 2
Quinta Brunson, Zootopia 2
Idris Elba, Zootopia 2
Anthony Ramos, The Bad Guys 2
Zoe Saldana, Avatar: Fire and Ash (WINNER)

Best Original Song
“Highest 2 Lowest” from Highest 2 Lowest
“I Lied to You” from Sinners (WINNER)
“Last Time (I Seen the Sun)” from Sinners
“Pale, Pale Moon” from Sinners
“Sinners” from Sinners

Best Soundtrack
Freaky Tales
Highest 2 Lowest
One of Them Days
Sinners (SINNERS)
Wicked: For Good

Best Independent Film
40 Acres — R.T. Thorne, director (WINNER)
Love, Brooklyn — Rachael Holder, director
Magazine Dreams — Elijah Bynum, director
My Father’s Shadow — Akinola Davies Jr., director
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl — Rungano Nyoni, director

Best Independent Documentary
BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions — Kahlil Joseph, director
The Eyes of Ghana — Ben Proudfoot, director
Fatherless No More — Kayla Johnson, director
Seeds — Brittany Shyne, director
We Were Here – The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe — Fred Kudjo Kuwornu, director (WINNER)

Best Short Film
“The Devil Is Busy” — Geeta Gandbhir and Christalyn Hampton, directors (WINNER)
“Jules” — Tiffany Abney, director
“Walk in the Light” — Princella Smith, director

Best Emerging Director
Akinola Davies Jr., My Father’s Shadow
Rachael Holder, Love, Brooklyn
Kahlil Joseph, BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
Rungano Nyoni, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
R.T. Thorne, 40 Acres (WINNER)

Best First Screenplay
Nnamdi Asmougha, The Knife
Akinola Davies Jr. and Wale Davies, My Father’s Shadow
Rungano Nyoni, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Syreeta Singleton, One of Them Days (WINNER)
R.T. Thorne, 40 Acres

Best Cinematography
After the Hunt — Malik Hassan Sayeed
HIM — Kira Kelly
My Father’s Shadow — Jermaine Canute Bradley Edwards
Seeds — Brittany Shyne
Sinners — Autumn Durald Arkapaw (WINNER)

Best Costume Design
40 Acres — Charlene Akuamoah
Highest 2 Lowest — Francine Jamison-Tanchuck
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl — Estelle Don Banda
Sinners — Ruth E. Carter
Wicked: For Good — Paul Tazewell (WINNER)

Best Editing
BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions — Kahli Joseph, Luke Lynch, and Paul Rogers
HIM — Taylor Joy Mason
Seeds — Malika Zouhali-Worrall
Sinners — Michael P. Shawver
The Smashing Machine — Ronald Bronstein and Benny Safdie

Best Hair & Makeup
40 Acres — Antonio Hines and Chancelle Mulela
My Dead Friend Zoe — Amber Aprin and Mele Egbe
One of Them Days — Vonda K. Morris and Nikki Wright
Sinners — Ken Diaz, Mike Fontaine, Sian Richards, and Shunika Terry (WINNER)
The Smashing Machine — Kazu Hiro, Felix Fox, and Mia Neal

Best Production Design
Captain America: Brave New World — Ramsey Avery, production designer; Rosemary Brandenburg, set decorator
Hedda — Cara Brower, production designer; Stella Fox, set decorator
Sinners — Hannah Beachler, production designer; Monique Champagne, set decorator (WINNER)
The Smashing Machine — James Chinlund, production designer; Marcia Calosio, Mike Keel, and Frank Okay, set decorators
Wicked: For Good — Nathan Crowley, production designer; Lee Sanders, set decorator

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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