Sinners vs. One Battle After Another: who should win Best Picture?
It's Been a Minute
NPR
4.7 • 9.2K Ratings
🗓️ 11 March 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
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Summary
It feels like every few years there are two films that really set the tone for where American culture is headed. In 2017: it was Moonlight versus La La Land. In 2019: it was Green Book versus BlackKKlansman. And now, in 2026: it’s Sinners versus One Battle After Another. And there’s one question that host Brittany Luse has at the top of her mind: How do these films capture what it means to live in this moment? And how does the conversation surrounding them become so contentious?
Host Brittany Luse is joined by Nadira Goffe, staff writer of culture at Slate, and Robert Daniels, associate editor at rogerebert.com to unpack the discourse taking the internet by storm.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Um, who is your best picture pick? I'm going to go with one battle after another. My personal |
| 0:07.2 | pick would be far different. Okay. Wait, wait, wait. What is it? So this is not your personal deep down |
| 0:13.6 | in your soul pick? No, no. It wasn't nominated. It was Blue Moon. My heart pick is sinners. |
| 0:21.9 | But if I had to choose the best movie on the list, to me, that's the secret agent. |
| 0:25.8 | Ooh. |
| 0:26.9 | If I had to choose between one battle after another and sinners, it's actually also for me one battle after another. |
| 0:34.6 | The Academy Awards are this Sunday. |
| 0:37.2 | And for the first time, in a long time, I feel like everyone |
| 0:41.4 | is anticipating who will win big. There have been so many amazing films in the past year. |
| 0:47.2 | But if we're being real, it's all boiled down to sinners versus one battle after another. |
| 0:53.2 | And on its face, it makes sense. Sinners, directed by |
| 0:56.8 | Ryan Coogler, is an original story with vampires, sensuality, and a laser focus on the way |
| 1:02.7 | whiteness can consume us all. One battle after another, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, |
| 1:08.4 | interrogates revolutionary activism, parenthood, and what it |
| 1:12.1 | means to save yourself. But what could be a productive conversation about how these films are |
| 1:18.1 | speaking to this moment in American culture has turned into a contentious online discourse about |
| 1:23.8 | race, white liberalism, representation in Hollywood, and the industry as a whole. |
| 1:29.0 | A lot of this debate actually comes from fans of sinners, feeling the need to defend sinners |
| 1:34.1 | as a movie. I think a lot of the defense for one battle after another is in response to |
| 1:39.2 | the defense for sinners. Whether you're new to this or have been deep in the discourse, |
| 1:45.2 | I've got staff writer of culture at Slate, Nadirah Goff. Hey, thanks for having us. And associate editor at roger Ebert.com, |
| 1:51.2 | Robert Daniels. Yeah, thanks for having us. To help unpack it all. |
... |
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