Critical Darlings: Sinners And The Academy’s Growing Genre Acceptance with Sam Sanders

Blank Check with Griffin & David

Blank Check Productions / Talkhouse

Tv & Film, Film Reviews, Society & Culture, Comedy

4.7 • 6.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2026

⏱️ 87 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week we’re joined by Sam Sanders of The Sam Sanders Show to discuss Sinners, the most nominated film in Academy Awards history. With sixteen nominations across directing, writing, music, and acting categories, Sinners is a somewhat surprising record breaker, as genre films, especially films with horror elements, are rarely awarded by The Academy. On this episode we discuss the film, why it was able to break through, if Sinners counts as a genre film; and if so, what genre it represents. We also get into what effect the Warner Bros. Paramount merger might have on the Oscars, the film’s blunt sexuality, Michael B. Jordan’s double act, and what to make of the film's coda. Finally, Sam makes an impassioned case for Sung Song Blue and Kate Hudson’s nominated performance. Check out Sam’s interviews with Kate Hudson, as well as some of the cast and crew of Sinners on The Sam Sanders Show. Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook! Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Critical Darlings, a conversation about the award season conversation.
0:13.0	One contender at a time.
0:17.0	Please welcome to this stage, your hosts, Richard Lawson and Alison Wilmore.
0:26.4	Well, thank you, Marie, as ever, for that spirited introduction.
0:30.2	We are joined, as ever, by producer Ben.
0:32.8	Hello, Ben.
0:33.3	Hello.
0:34.0	And we have a very special guest today from the Sam Sanders show by KCRW with four. I don't know. We have the eponymous Sam Sanders. Hello. It's so good to be here. We're thrilled to have you. I'm a fan. Honored to be in the number. Catching you coming through town was so serendipitous. It all just happened to work out. And putting, well, at least me to shame wardrobe-wise.
0:54.8	No, definitely.
0:55.5	I should have stepped it up today. I was like, oh. This was the suit that I wore yesterday at the conference and the one that I wore earlier today for another interview. You know how French people, they're like, you only need like three, three outfits in your wardrobe and just, I'm like, I believe it that. Like, I'll wear this for everything professional for the next three years.
1:11.5	Exactly.
1:12.0	And there'll be holes in it and I'll start over again.
1:13.6	That sounds like a great plan.
1:14.6	For listeners, I'm like, I believe in that. Like, I'll wear this for everything professional for the next three years.
1:11.6	Exactly.
1:12.0	And there'll be holes in it and I'll start over again. That sounds like a great plan. For listeners, Sam is wearing a beautiful brown blazer and a black turtleneck. Yeah. Yeah, I forget we're not just a solely video. So we are gathered here today to talk about sinners. But before we do that, I thought we would catch up with you, Sam, in terms of, like, how you're feeling about this crop, this year's crop of movie, like, Oscar-nominated movies, movies, in general.
1:35.4	How have you found this season? Is it a good one for you?
1:38.8	I have been overall kind of happy that there hasn't felt as if there's been a big Oscar scandal that sucked out all of the air from Oscar season.
1:50.8	Yeah.
1:51.3	I remember being annoyed by week two of Amelia Perez Gate.
1:57.5	Like, we get it.
1:58.6	Yeah.
	...

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