In SHIFTER’s Best of 2025, our journalist roundtable, including Golden Globe Awards and Critics Choice Awards voters, and Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-Approved Critics, has named Ryan Coogler’s Sinners as SHIFTER’s Movie of the Year.
Our process included a first round where our participating journalists completed a form where they could nominate the potential nominees. From the nomination form, a final voting form was created where our participating journalists voted on the winners from the list of nominees. The journalists completed the forms individually and were not able to see the other journalists’ answers.
Ryan Coogler has an impressive list of box office achievements under his belt so far as both a director and producer, but none of them have generated same the level of buzz and excitement as Sinners, his vampire/horror film, combining his ancestral Mississippi roots and his love for Black culture and immersive storytelling. But the film also served a deeper purpose as Coogler used the horror genre as a backdrop to explore a deeper message about Black struggle, identity, and culture.
From critical acclaim, box office success, and social/cultural impact, to Michael B. Jordan’s performance and Coogler’s creative approach, Sinners is our roundtable’s choice for SHIFTER’s Best of 2025: Movie of the Year.
Critical acclaim
Sinners received critical acclaim, including a 97% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes. The film also received seven Golden Globe nominations for the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, including Best Picture (Drama), Best Director (Coogler), and Best Actor (Michael B. Jordan), Best Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, and Cinematic & Box Office Achievement.
Meanwhile, it cleaned up with a whopping 17 Critics Choice Award nominations for the 31st Annual Critics Choice Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. This makes it the most-nominated film for the 2026 CCAs, just one shy of the all-time record.
Creative ingenuity and performances
Coogler generated buzz for shooting the film entirely on film, combining IMAX 70mm and Ultra Panavision 70; this was the the first time they had been used to together in the making of a film. This led to him being honored with the Director Award at the Critics Choice Association’s 8th Annual Celebration of Black Cinema & Television. Cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw also got some of her own buzz for becoming the first female DP to shoot on 15-perf IMAX film.
Michael B. Jordan delivered memorable performances portraying the twins Smoke and Stack. In order to capture Jordan’s split screen twin scenes, he was shot twice and the shots were later combined digitally. The physical interactions between the twins were shot using a 10 to 12 ring of cameras, known as a halo rig, with Jordan’s face being superimpose on his stunt double.
Box Office success
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners was not only a box office success, grossing $367,953,537 worldwide, including $279,653,537 in the United States ($48,007,468 opening weekend) and $88,300,000 internationally, but fans gave the film a 96% Popcornmeter score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 4.1/5 on Letterboxd.
Social/cultural impact
As mentioned above, behind the performances, creative decision making, and box office achievement was a deeper message about the Black experience that resonated the with the Black community and made them feel represented and seen. But the film also resonated beyond the Black community to a wide and diverse audience showing the industry that films rooted in the Black experience can have a message while still earning box office success.
Click here for SHIFTER’s full Sinners review on CBC’s All In A Day.