“One Battle After Another” and “Sinners” are linked together in a way that no Oscar season has linked two movies together since “Moonlight” and “La La Land” in 2016. In a way, it helped “Sinners” keep hope alive that it could follow in “Moonlight’s” footsteps as a Black-led/made movie that rallied to beat a season-long favorite in Best Picture. However, Oscar night 2025 ended up as the reverse of 2016 – and not just in how “One Battle After Another” held off “Sinners” after all.
“Sinners” Actually Won More Oscars Than “Moonlight” Did
When “Sinners” suffered perhaps the biggest upset of the night for Best Casting to none other than “One Battle After Another,” it painted a very dire picture. At that point, it looked like it could easily wind up only winning two Oscars for Best Original Screenplay and Best Score, suffer the most losses in Oscar history, and see “One Battle After Another” win up to eight Oscars for the night.
Yet “Sinners,” if not the Academy as a whole, saved face with the historic wins for Autumn Durald Arkapaw in Best Cinematography and Michael B. Jordan in Best Actor. At the very least, it actually gave “Sinners” a bigger Oscar haul than “Moonlight,” even if it didn’t win Best Picture. For that matter, while both “Sinners” and “Moonlight” won an acting and Screenplay Oscar, only “Sinners” won in a lead acting category.
“Sinners” was always a bigger film than “Moonlight,” in terms of its budget, box office, record-setting nomination haul, and guarantee of at least one technical Oscar that “Moonlight” couldn’t get. By getting two of them, matching it in Screenplay and getting its lead actor a win, “Sinners” didn’t match “Moonlight“ as a Best Picture winner, but it did do it one better in other aspects – meaning it wasn’t a total step backwards.
“One Battle After Another” Didn’t Outdo “La La Land“ In Every Way
“One Battle After Another“ got the Best Picture win “La La Land” didn’t, the Screenplay Oscar that it didn’t, the same Best Director win that it had, a Best Supporting Actor win instead of a lead acting win, and two below-the-line wins in Best Casting and Best Editing instead of “La La Land’s“ four for Best Score, Best Song, Best Cinematography and Best Production Design.
All told, “One Battle After Another“ matched “La La Land“ with six Oscars, while still finishing one Oscar short of recent sweepers “Everything Everywhere All at Once“ and “Oppenheimer.” “La La Land“ lost Best Picture despite winning six Oscars to “Moonlight’s“ three, whereas “Sinners“ and “One Battle After Another“ would have finished in a 5-5 tie for most wins if “Sinners“ had rallied for Best Picture.
In some ways, “One Battle After Another“ survived a much tougher season-long test from “Sinners“ than “La La Land” seemed to get from a seemingly overmatched film in “Moonlight.“ Ironically enough, “One Battle After Another” survived despite having a weaker overall haul than “La La Land“ did in some ways, yet had a much stronger one in others.
Both “Sinners“ & “One Battle After Another“ Had An Acting And Screenplay Oscar Combo
The biggest glaring difference between “Moonlight” and “La La Land” is that “Moonlight” won for Acting and Best Screenplay, which is normally the most unbeatable combination in this era. Since “La La Land” could never truly threaten “Manchester by the Sea” for Best Original Screenplay, and since “Moonlight” paid off its shift into the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar category despite winning the WGA for Best Original Screenplay, it was the small but crucial crack needed to get through “La La Land’s” armor.
There was no such crack this year, given that “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another” made both of the 2025 Screenplay categories the most lopsided of all time. Most importantly, since “One Battle After Another” had the all-important acting and Screenplay Oscar combination, along with a bonus win for Best Director, whereas “La La Land” only had a Best Actress and Best Director combination above the line, it left no real weaknesses in its Best Picture package.
“Sinners” is now only the fifth ever film in the expanded era to have both an acting and Screenplay win and still lose Best Picture, after “Precious,” “Django Unchained,” “Manchester by the Sea,“ and “The Father.“ However, winning Best Director, an acting Oscar, and a Screenplay Oscar is an even more unbeatable combination, which “One Battle After Another’s” win proved just as much as “La La Land’s” loss did.
“One Battle After Another“ Backlash Never Stuck
For a series of reasons, “La La Land“ came to be seen as an all-too-safe, all-too-light, and all-too-conventional choice for Best Picture against a more groundbreaking, diverse, and clearly far more socially conscious film in “Moonlight.“ In contrast, most argued “One Battle After Another“ was the most meaningful and political choice compared to the more horror-fueled, blockbuster sensibilities of “Sinners,“ despite its own socially conscious themes and messages.
Since both “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners“ tackled important, political subject matter in their own ways, they weren’t set apart from each other in the way that “Moonlight” and “La La Land“ came to be. Yet the opportunities to cast “One Battle After Another“ as a “La La Land“ esque rival compared to “Sinners“ were right there – they just didn’t manage to catch on beyond the occasional Internet argument and below-the-surface tension.
There were more than a few ways to attack “One Battle After Another“ as being something far more palatable to white voters and their most conventional sensibilities than “Sinners“ could ever be. Between the questions of whether Anderson wrote Teyana Taylor’s Perifida as more stereotypical than tragic in her compressed arc, whether Sean Penn’s Colonel Lockjaw was too cartoonish to be a convincing attack on white supremacy even in this era of cartoonish white supremacists, and whether Anderson really had or could have had as much of a grip on certain racial, political and social issues as Coogler did in “Sinners,“ the openings were right there to put “One Battle After Another“ through a “La La Land“ trajectory from frontrunner to Oscar season villain – especially in direct comparison to “Sinners.”
But while there were certainly a share of critics and commentators who tried to make such attacks stick, they never affected “One Battle After Another“ for any extended period of time, and not enough to change the perceptions of it to a “La La Land“ level degree. Maybe in another time and another era, it might have been different – yet perhaps such a time and era is past.
2025/26 Is Not 2016/17
The context of the beginning of the first Trump administration and the initial desire for Hollywood to take a stand against the threat of societal and racial progress going backward were a big part of “Moonlight’s“ eventual rise over “La La Land.“ And yet, since then, no movie made by an African-American or starring an African American ever seriously threatened to win Best Picture again until “Sinners“ – another Black-led/made movie released at the beginning of a Trump administration, amidst even more serious threats against societal and racial progress.
This time around, for one reason or another, the prospect of making a statement by honoring a groundbreaking, unconventional, and unprecedented Black-led/made smash hit movie with Best Picture – the kind of winner that hasn’t been seen in many ways since “Moonlight“ – did not catch on with as many voters this time. They could still argue that “One Battle After Another“ was its own statement as an attack against the current times and regime – yet would it have been seen the same way if its own credibility on racial and political issues had been questioned in ways that stuck, especially compared to a more diverse, supposedly underdog Black led/made movie like “Sinners?”
Maybe in early 2017, such comparisons, contrasts, and parallels would have affected just enough voters to make a difference in the end, as it did when “La La Land“ suffered from late comparisons to “Moonlight.“ But in early 2026, not enough voters either made those comparisons or were affected by them. Whether they were that much more attached to “One Battle After Another,“ were much less inclined to make a far larger, unconventional statement with their votes than they were nine years ago, or just didn’t want to make any “ocean waves.“
If “Moonlight“ opened the doors to what the Oscars were capable of recognizing, there is still too much room to argue the challenge to open them wider still hasn’t been answered – at least when it comes to movies that star, are made by, and are about African-Americans. “Sinners“ was the biggest chance in years to change that backwards slide, and while it did change it in many ways, not enough voters had the desire or willpower to go a step further for it as they did for “Moonlight.“ But if they couldn’t do something as record-breaking as “Sinners“ in a year like 2025, what can they possibly do better in the future?
After the year of “Moonlight“ and “La La Land,“ the skies appeared to be the limit in such aspects. But after the year of “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners,” which reflected a time of even greater strife and a season already seen as the last hurrah for Warner Bros before it takes a much darker turn, keeping such optimism is considerably harder. In that final bittersweet way, the 2025 two-film Oscar season truly did end up the opposite of the one from 2016.
What did you think of the 98th Academy Awards last night? How do you feel about how the Best Picture race between “Sinners” or “One Battle After Another” went down? Please let us know in the comments section below and on Next Best Picture’s X account, click here here for the most recent tally of awards season winners, and here for Next Best Picture’s podcast reactions episode to the ceremony last night.
You can follow Robert and hear more of his thoughts on the Oscars & Film on X @Robertdoc1984
