Oscar Nominations: The Case of Wunmi Mosaku in Sinners

As we do every year on the blog, Oscar nominations lead to my Case Of series. What are they? Glad you asked. These are 35 posts covering the nominees for Picture, Director, and the four acting contests. For each one, I give you the case for the movie/director/actor winning and the case against it with a verdict tidying it up. It’s like a trial, but no one goes to prison.

It began with the ten Best Picture contenders and now alternates alphabetically between the hopefuls in the other five races. The BP posts are readily available for your perusing pleasure. Our fourth entrant among the Supporting Actress nominees is Wunmi Mosaku for Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. If you missed the previous three write-ups in this race, you can access them here:

Previous Acting Nominations:

None

The Case for Wunmi Mosaku:

With a showcase role as Hoodoo practitioner Annie in the most nominated Oscar movie of all time (16), Mosaku’s stock in the race shot through the roof with her BAFTA victory. Seven out of the last 10 winners at BAFTA have also picked up the Academy Award. If Sinners takes Best Picture, it stands to reason that an acting nominee will come along for the ride. She was additionally nominated at Critics Choice and the Actor Awards.

The Case Against Wunmi Mosaku:

BAFTA is Mosaku’s only major precursor podium trip. Amy Madigan (Weapons) took Critics Choice and most notably SAG Actor where 15 out of the last 16 winners have matched with Oscar. Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another) took the Globe where Mosaku wasn’t even nominated. The Academy can also honor Actor Award recipient Michael B. Jordan in Best Actor or Delroy Lindo in Supporting Actor as the Sinners cast member prize.

The Verdict:

Madigan, Mosaku, and Taylor all have decently compelling arguments for the gold statue and I’ll be going back and forth between them until final prediction time.

My Case Of posts will continue with the fourth performer in Supporting Actor – Sean Penn for One Battle After Another

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