Torn between two masterpieces

By Artchil B. Fernandez

The 98th Academy Awards ceremony is taking place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, this weekend (March 15, 2026). Ten motion pictures are vying for the best picture award. Among the 10, two films are standing out and are considered front-runners for best picture in this year’s Oscars race.

Sinners is a unique film that fused music and horror. It is a vampire flick infused with social commentary on the Black community’s social condition in the Jim Crow Deep South. While the focus of the movie is on the Black community, it does not neglect the situation of Asian immigrants, reminding the audience that they, too, are part of the storied history of the American South.

Director Ryan Coogler, who also helmed Black Panther (2018) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), weaved an adrenaline-filled story in Sinners that cleverly combined gothic horror with jazz, blues and Irish traditional folk music while showing racial injustice, the alluring power of music and the value of family ties. Coogler cobbled together an assorted ensemble of vampiric ghouls, Ku Klux Klan members, an alcoholic bluesman, a voodoo devotee, a talented blues guitarist, sharecroppers and bootlegging brothers whose interaction made the film gory, bloody and messy. The clash of race, ethnicity, gender and religion is the signature feature of the horror-musical film.

Twin brothers — Smoke and Stack — played by Michael B. Jordan, returned to their hometown in the Mississippi Delta loaded with cash and Irish beer to start a new life after a stint in Al Capone’s Chicago underworld empire. They are opening a juke joint for Black people only in an old sawmill purchased from a white Klan member, who is planning, along with other white racists, to attack the juke joint. They recruited old friends and family members to join the venture, including their younger cousin Sammie, who is a talented guitar player with a superb voice, as well as the alcoholic bluesman Delta Slim.

The opening night was going well — the patrons were having a good time under Sammie’s and Delta Slim’s enchanting talents. Unfortunately, Sammie’s otherworldly and seductive music drew three bloodthirsty whites led by the radiant Remmick, an Irish immigrant who asked to join the party but was refused, highlighting the Black-non-Black tension. Then mayhem replaced electric blues as the movie speeds up to a violent siege.

The creative mixing of violence, horror, blues, Southern folklore and social critique by juxtaposing dark reality with the supernatural makes Sinners a standout in the horror-musical genre. Who are worse tormentors, the bloodsucking monsters or the white supremacists? In the vampire world, race is not an issue, Remmick told the beleaguered.

Sinners broke Oscars history by earning a record 16 nominations, including best picture, best screenplay, best director and nominations in three of the four acting categories. It is both a critical and box-office success, earning USD 370.1 million worldwide.

Giving Sinners a tough fight in the Oscars is the black comedy, action-filled political thriller One Battle After Another, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio. The film is a political commentary on the times, timely and relevant in Trump’s MAGA America.

Bob Ferguson (DiCaprio) is a former member of the revolutionary group French 75. He is struggling with drugs and alcoholism while raising his 16-year-old daughter Willa. She is a mixed-race teenager, a result of Bob’s liaison with Perfidia Beverly Hills, a charismatic Black member of the revolutionary group.

Bob’s past caught up with him when racist military officer Col. Steven J. Lockjaw started to hunt him and Willa. The film is mostly focused on the cat-and-mouse game between Bob and Lockjaw while utilizing flashbacks to explain current events.

One Battle After Another is a canvas of gunfights, harrowing escapes and pounding car chases. The race between Bob and Lockjaw is set amid the chaos and turmoil of mass protests against immigration raids and arrests, giving the film a Minneapolis flavor. It is a roller coaster of emotion as the protagonists struggle and fight for survival and for their personal and political agenda.

The film explores the connection between the past and the present as well as the tension between redemption and repression, revolution and inaction, idealism and pragmatism, and loyalty and treachery. The tension between the political and the personal is highlighted by the movie. White Christian nationalism, racism, sexism and migration are themes tackled by the film. It eerily and chillingly echoes present-day America.

Nominated for the Oscars in 13 categories, including best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay and four acting nominations, One Battle After Another has already won various accolades. It was named best picture at the Golden Globe Awards (musical/comedy) and best film at the 79th British Academy Film Awards.

Rotten Tomatoes’ Critics Consensus considered One Battle After Another “an epic screwball adventure teeming with awe-inspiring action set pieces … Paul Thomas Anderson’s most entertaining film yet while also one of his most thematically rich.” Samantha Schuster, in Rotten Tomatoes, on the other hand, called Sinners “one of the most outstanding horror films of recent years, because it proposes to delve into social and political themes through a vampire story …”

The race for this year’s Oscar best picture is without doubt between Sinners and One Battle After Another. The former delved into socially significant themes through the lens of the past, while the latter did it through the lens of present events. Oscars voters are certainly torn between two masterpieces. Well-acted and well-crafted, both movies reflect current realities and are attuned to the signs of the times. Both deserve to win. If possible, the two films should be awarded the best picture statuette.