Who won Best Original Score at the 2026 Oscars for Sinners?

Ludwig Göransson won Best Original Score at the 2026 Oscars for Sinners.

Göransson’s Oscar recognized the original instrumental music he composed for Ryan Coogler’s 2025 film Sinners. The film’s score helped shape its supernatural period atmosphere, blending cinematic orchestration with the movie’s strong musical identity. The award was presented at the 98th Academy Awards on March 15, 2026.

The category is listed by the Academy as Music (Original Score), although “Best Original Score” remains the familiar shorthand used by audiences and trivia references. Göransson won over the composers nominated for Bugonia, Frankenstein, Hamnet, and One Battle after Another.

This win is easy to confuse with Sinners’ Original Song recognition. Göransson also shared songwriting credit on “I Lied to You” with Raphael Saadiq, but that is a separate category. The score award belongs specifically to the film’s original background and thematic music, not to an individual song performed during or associated with the movie.