New Orleanian makeup artist wasn’t on the stage at the Academy Awards program, and her name wasn’t called. But she was in the Dolby Theatre in Ovation Hollywood Sunday night when h-filmed “Sinners” won an Oscar, then another, then another and yet another.
The highly acclaimed movie had four Oscar winners:
— Best Actor: Michael B. Jordan, for his dual roles as identical twins Smoke and Stack, the sixth Black man to win that award category.
— : Ryan Coogler, the movie’s director and producer who wrote the script, won his first Oscar
— : Autumn Durald Arkapaw, a Black Creole-Filipino (CONFIRM) photographer, is the first woman to win the award
— : Ludwig Göransson, a Swedish composer, musician and producer who has earned his third Oscar in this category
The cast and crew celebrated with Coogler, Jordan, Arkapaw and Göransson, in California and here at home.
LaCour was on her way to the Dolby Theatre at the Ovation Hollywood, a shopping center, in Hollywood, when I caught up with her before the program started. She was riding in style with Sherri Hamilton, Lana Mora and Tene Wilder, all members of the Sinners hair and makeup team.
“We’re pulling up to the theater now,” she said, quickly interrupting the conversation to check on the drop-off spot. “It’s so exciting to be here.”
When producer, director and screenwriter Ryan Coogle accepted his Oscar for screenwriting, he said, “All my cast and crew stand up….You guys are amazing….You all are winners in my book.” LaCour stood proudly, accepting the praise and thanks.
Gralen Bryant Banks
Courtesty of Gralen Bryant Banks
New Orleans actors Gralen Bryant Banks, Aaydn Encalarde and Sam Malone were in h. Banks caught clips. Encalarde was at an Oscars watch party with her mom and friends. Malone was catching pieces of the show while getting a couple of kids ready for bed. Banks, from Uptown, played Patterson, the first customer the night the new dance and music joint opened. He spent six weeks filming with Sinners. Encalarde played the teen who took money to watch a car and turned in the thieves who were trying to steal it. Malone played one of those thieves, the one who got shot in the butt.
“Yeah, I’m watching,” Malone texted me as he watched some of the program, “kinda bitterly because I was really hoping Delroy (Lindo) and Ms. Ruth (Carter) would win. Really, all categories.”
Many of us were hoping for more wins. Though the academy got it wrong in the Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and other categories, Coogler, Jordan and our locals were winners before this film award season.
Teen actress Aadyn Encalarde enjoys a moment of fun and laughter with actor Sam Malone when the two were filming “Sinners” in 2025
Courtesy of Sam Malone
“It’s been a beautiful run. It’s been a beautiful year,” LaCour told me the next morning as she prepared to catch an early flight back to New Orleans. As a key makeup artist on the movie, LaCour did a job that a number of big studios normally have one of their own fly in to handle.
A self-described “Seventh Ward baby,” Encalarde was 13 years old when Sinners was made. She’ll be 15 next week. “I didn’t realize the impact that the role would have, but I’m beyond grateful,” she shared with me. The Isidore Newman ninth grader can be seen in the upcoming Apple TV+ series Lucky, executive-produced by Reese Witherspoon.
Malone got his jollies from his three days of shooting, not Sunday night. Banks, a hospitality expert, culture bearer and WBOK radio host, called the movie “an instant classic,” a movie he paid to see eight times.
I’m elated for Coogler, Jordan, Arkapaw and Göransson. I’m happy for Banks, Encalarde, LaCour and Malone.
Sinners is a phenomenal movie that digs deeper than surface-level horror, twisting plots and surprises. Even if it is unintentional on the part of some who see it, Coogler successfully uses the script and Sinners characters to challenge our thinking about systematic White oppression and supremacy that continue to attack, and threaten, Black people, Black joy and Black love.
How could a Black man do that? It’s a Warner Bros. movie with a different deal. Coogler’s WB deal with Proximity Media, his company, gives him first-dollar gross revenue rather than waiting to reap financial benefits once the production company recoups expenses; full creative and final-cut control and, amazingly, complete ownership rights after 25 years.
That is special.
For those who haven’t seen the movie, watch it. For those who saw the movie and missed this context, watch it again.
Sinners is an instant classic. Movie buffs, cinematographers, fans, scholars, writers will be watching it, teaching from it and using its themes to challenge evil, naive oppression, especially for those who don’t see them among those groups.
Coogler led our h creatives and others to make an impactful movie. I have a question:
Will we watch, listen and be better?.