Everyone has already been talking about this recently, but I felt it would be an injustice for a blog called “The Western Vampire Scholar” to not at least mention the seminal Oscar wins for Ryan Coogler’s SINNERS (2025). It wasn’t till the 1990s that vampire films were even nominated for Oscar awards, let alone winning some in the process¹. I am proud of all of the sixteen nominations that SINNERS accrued, and ultimately satisfied for the four that the production team was able to take home.

I believe that films like Nosferatu (2024) and SINNERS mark a new moment for vampire films, one that asks award committees to see horror and vampires in a serious artistic light. And, the movie is just fantastic. If me seeing it six times throughout the year wasn’t an indication, then hopefully the academy awards will get more people to see this groundbreaking motion picture.

1. Eddy, Cheryl. “A Brief History of Vampires at the Oscars.” Gizmodo, March 13, 2026. https://gizmodo.com/a-brief-history-of-vampires-at-the-oscars-2000731986. ↩︎