This year, the Oscar season prayer has a name, and it is “Sinners.” With “Sinners,” writer-director Ryan Coogler, one of Hollywood's most quietly seismic forces, steps into a genre long neglected by the Academy,

The film represents a departure for the “Black Panther” director, and a creative risk; it grapples with ideas about music, race, family, religion—and vampires.

Director Ryan Coogler is showing his “eternal gratitude” for the moviegoers who saw his latest film “Sinners” in the theater, helping the supernatural thriller overcome expectations and claim the No.