Ryan Coogler has won the BAFTA for original screenplay for “Sinners”, making him the first Black person to win in that category.
“I didn’t expect that,” Coogler said as he took the stage. “This is nerve-wracking.”
“I come from a community that loves me. They made me believe that I could do this, that I could be a writer,” Coogler continued. “And it was amazing to be accepted into the community of film actors, the community of Los Angeles.
“For all the writers out there, when y’all look at that blank page, think of who you love, think of anybody who you’ve seen in pain that you identify with and wish they felt better and let that love motivate you. I’ll be forever grateful for this, thank you all.”
Coogler beat tough competition from “I Swear” by Kirk Jones, “Marty Supreme” by Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie, “The Secret Agent” by Kleber Mendonça Filho, and “Sentimental Value” by Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier.
This is good news for the filmmaker as he looks to beat two of his BAFTA competitors again — “Marty Supreme” and “Sentimental Value” — along with “Blue Moon” (Robert Kaplow) and “It Was Just an Accident” (Mehdi Mahmoudian, Jafar Panahi, Shadmehr Rastin and Nader Saivar) for original screenplay at the Oscars.
Only one Black screenwriter has won for that category — Jordan Peele for “Get Out” (2017).
Coogler’s “Sinners” initially made history as this year’s second-most nominated film at BAFTA with 13 nominations. This is the most nominations a film directed by a Black filmmaker has received. The historical horror also broke the all-time Oscars nominations record with 16.
Many have already hailed Coogler for the feat he has achieved in terms of the revenue and profit he generates with the budget Marvel Cinematic Universe provides for his films. In his first film, “Fruitvale Station,” Coogler was given a $900,000 budget, and he made over $16 million. For “Creed”, Marvel gave him a $40 million budget, and Coogler made about $173 million.
With Black Panther, he was given a $200 million budget, the most ever to be given to an African-American director, and he did wonders with it. The 2018 Marvel film made $1.3 billion in box office revenue, making him one of the highest-grossing Black filmmakers ever and the youngest director to lead a billion-dollar movie.
Now, Coogler’s new film “Sinners” could change his life just 10 years after he was deep in debt. A deal he made with Warner Bros. in relation to “Sinners” could pay him for the rest of his life.
According to Vulture, the deal includes a provision that will give Coogler the rights to the movie after 25 years. For the rest of his life, he could receive royalties from streaming services and TV broadcasts of the film that would usually go to a production studio.
He could also earn money from merchandise and receive lump-sum payments from licensees seeking rights to the film for a set period.
Coogler’s “Sinners” deal is rare because directors hardly get ownership of their films, even decades after their cinematic release.
