Ryan Coogler admitted he “didn’t expect” Sinners to win Best Original Screenplay at the 2026 EE BAFTA Film Awards. The 39-year-old filmmaker wrote and directed the 2025 supernatural horror film, which took the prize Sunday night at London’s Royal Festival Hall. After presenters Bryan Cranston and Kathryn Hahn handed him the award, Coogler appeared visibly stunned.
“I didn’t expect that. This is nerve-racking …” He went on to acknowledge his fellow nominees, including Kirk Jones (I Swear), Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme), Kleber Mendonça Filho (The Secret Agent), and Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value).
“I’m nominated with some incredible writers. I share this with y’all. Y’all already won by being here, so I’m going to speak as a representative of y’all.” Coogler then paid tribute to Trier, calling him a formative influence on his career.
“Joachim was actually my mentor. I met him over a decade ago. He showed me how to be a better writer, a better filmmaker. I’ll always love him, and I love his movie. And I love all your guys’ movies.”
The director also credited his community for helping him find the confidence to pursue writing. “I come from a community that loves me, spoke a lot of power into me, a lot of pride into me. I love them back.”
“They made me believe that I could do this, that I could be a writer, and it was amazing to be accepted in the more communities, a community, filmmakers, the community of Los Angeles, the community wherever we went to make a film.”
Closing his speech, Coogler encouraged writers to draw from love and empathy when facing a blank page.
“And I hope to follow the writers out there when y’all look at that blank page, think of who you love. Think of anybody you see in pain, whom you identify with and wish felt better, and let that love motivate you as you did on this. I’ll be forever grateful for this. Thank you all.”
Sinners was nominated alongside I Swear, Marty Supreme, The Secret Agent, and Sentimental Value in the Best Original Screenplay category.
Later in the evening, One Battle After Another won Best Adapted Screenplay. The Paul Thomas Anderson-directed action thriller beat The Ballad of Wallis Island, Bugonia, Hamnet, and Pillion to take the award.
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