The UK & Ireland Horror Critics Group has announced the winners of the 2026 Golden Claw Awards, with Ryan Coogler’s Sinners emerging as the year’s decisive genre success. Winning seven awards from eleven nominations, the Southern-set vampire drama took Best Film, Best Director for Coogler, and acting wins for Michael B. Jordan and Jack O’Connell, alongside a clean sweep of the technical categories. Few recent horror films have managed such broad consensus across craft, performance, and direction. Sinners did so decisively.
The Golden Claw Awards, founded in 2022 to champion horror as a vital and expressive form of cinema, have quickly become one of the clearest snapshots of where the genre currently stands. This year’s results point to a continued appetite for ambitious, filmmaker-driven horror that treats genre as a jumping-off point for addressing what’s really happening in society, in our hearts, minds and culture. Sinners fits squarely within that space, a film that marries studio resources with personal authorship and emerges as one of the year’s defining horror successes.
The only category in which Coogler’s film was defeated came in Supporting Actress, where Amy Madigan won for Zach Cregger’s Weapons. That film was the only other multiple winner of the night, also taking Best Kill for its chaotic climax, a sequence that instantly secured its place among the year’s most talked-about horror set pieces (no spoilers!), beating off strong competition from Final Destination: Bloodlines’s multiple deaths, and earning recognition for the pure, crowd-pleasing shock of its over-the-top finale.
Elsewhere, Emilie Blichfeldt’s The Ugly Stepsister won Best Horror Film Not in the English Language, while Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later secured Best British or Irish Horror Film, reaffirming the continued cultural weight of the revitalised franchise. Sally Hawkins was awarded Best Female Lead Actor for Bring Her Back, recognition for a performance that anchored one of the year’s most emotionally bruising horror films.
The breadth of winners reflects a strong year for horror cinema across styles and scales. Studio productions sit comfortably alongside international work and formally adventurous independent filmmaking, suggesting a genre in unusually robust health. As I (full disclosure – a Golden Claw committee member) noted in the announcement, the success of Sinners reflects “exactly the kind of handsomely-mounted fresh genre moviemaking that audiences have been crying out for,” particularly at a moment when much mainstream filmmaking risks creative stagnation.
Founded by UK and Irish critics to foreground genre cinema often overlooked by traditional awards bodies, the Golden Claws continue to function as both celebration and corrective, highlighting horror’s continued ability to engage with social anxieties while remaining unapologetically entertaining. This year’s winners make a clear argument: horror remains one of cinema’s most flexible and vital forms, capable of prestige craft, visceral spectacle, and cultural reflection all at once.
UK & IRELAND HORROR CRITICS GROUP ANNOUNCES THE WINNERS OF THE 2026 GOLDEN CLAW AWARDS
SINNERS SCORES DRAMATIC VICTORY – 7 AWARDS FROM 11 NOMINATIONS ACROSS 8 CATEGORIES
The UK & Ireland Horror Critics Group has announced the winners of the 2026 Golden Claw Awards, celebrating the very best in horror cinema released in the UK over the past year.
This year’s winners reflect a huge show of support for Ryan Coogler’s Southern-set Vampire Blues film Sinners, which scored 7 awards from its 11 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director (Ryan Coogler), Best Male Or Non-Binary Lead Actor (Michael B. Jordan), Best Male Or Non-Binary Supporting Actor (Jack O’Connell), and a clean sweep of every single behind the camera category.
In fact, Sinners could only have scored 8 wins at most, as it had multiple nominations in each of the supporting acting categories, leading its cast to battle against each other for victory in the awards just as they do in the film. The only category in which it was beaten by any other film was for Best Female Actor In A Supporting Role, which went to Amy Madigan for Weapons.
Zach Cregger’s Weapons was the only other film to score multiple awards, taking home two awards for Amy Madigan (Best Female Actor In A Supporting Role) as Aunt Gladys, and Best Kill (for – SPOILER ALERT – the film’s climactic scene, in which a wave of children are magically weaponized and sent out to kill Madigan’s character).
The other successful films were Emilie Blichfeldt’s The Ugly Stepsister, which won for Best Horror Film Not In The English Language, Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later, which won Best British or Irish Horror Film, and Bring Her Back with that film’s Sally Hawkins taking home the award for Best Female Lead Actor.
FULL LIST OF WINNERS (AND NOMINEES) FOR THE 2026 GOLDEN CLAW AWARDS:
Best Film
Winner: Sinners
Other Nominees: 28 Years Later, Bring Her Back, The Ugly Stepsister, Weapons
Best British or Irish Horror Film
Winner: 28 Years Later
Other nominees: Fréwaka, Get Away, Hallow Road, Sister Midnight
Best Horror Film Not in the English Language
Winner: The Ugly Stepsister
Nominees: Alpha, Best Wishes To You, Fréwaka, Sister Midnight
Female Lead Actor
Winner: Sally Hawkins – Bring Her Back
Other Nominees: Lea Myren – The Ugly Stepsister, Cassandra Naud – Influencers, Rosamund Pike – Hallow Road, Sophie Thatcher – Companion
Male Or Non-Binary Lead Actor
Winner: Michael B. Jordan – Sinners
Other Nominees: Jai Courtney – Dangerous Animals, Cooper Hoffman – The Long Walk, Oscar Isaac – Frankenstein, Alfie Williams – 28 Years Later
Female Supporting Actor
Winner: Amy Madigan – Weapons
Other Nominees: Jodie Comer – 28 Years Later, Mia Goth – Frankenstein, Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners, Hailee Steinfeld – Sinners
Male or Non-Binary Supporting Actor
Winner: Jack O’Connell – Sinners
Other Nominees: Miles Caton – Sinners, Ralph Fiennes – 28 Years Later, David Jonsson – The Long Walk, Delroy Lindo – Sinners
Director
Winner: Ryan Coogler – Sinners
Other Nominees: Emilie Blichfeldt – The Ugly Stepsister, Danny Boyle – 28 Years Later, Zach Cregger – Weapons, Danny Philippou & Michael Philippou – Bring Her Back
Screenplay
Winner: Ryan Coogler – Sinners
Other Nominees: Emilie Blichfeldt – The Ugly Stepsister, Zach Cregger – Weapons, Alex Garland – 28 Years Later, Danny Philippou & Bill Hinzman – Bring Her Back
Cinematography
Winner: Autumn Durald Arkapaw – Sinners
Other Nominees: Anthony Dod Mantle – 28 Years Later, Aaron McLisky – Bring Her Back, Larkin Seiple – Weapons, Marcel Zyskind – The Ugly Stepsister
Original Score
Winner: Ludwig Göransson – Sinners
Other Nominees: Alexandre Desplat – Frankenstein, Robin Carolan – Nosferatu, Jerskin Fendrix – Bugonia, Young Fathers – 28 Years Later, Marcelo Zarvos – K-Pop Demon Hunters
Best Kill
Winner: Weapons – Wave of Children (Finale)
Nominees: Bring Her Back – Car and puddle, Final Destination Bloodlines – Garbage van, Final Destination Bloodlines – MRI scanner, The Monkey – Swimming pool
Background:
Founded in 2022, the Golden Claw Awards exist to champion horror as a vital, expressive, and culturally significant form of cinema. The awards celebrate outstanding films, performances, and technical craft across the genre. The Golden Claws are presented in partnership with NightTide Magazine, The Hollywood News, Ghouls Magazine, and The Top 100 Films Of All Time podcast, and are designed to amplify the perspectives of UK and Irish horror critics.
All horror film critics based in the UK or Ireland were eligible to vote. The UK & Ireland Horror Critics Group, and the Golden Claw Awards, can be followed on Bluesky and at horrorcritics.group.
The Group’s current standing committee is Tim Coleman, Kat Hughes, Mo Moshaty, Andrew Pope, and Zoë Rose Smith.
Quotes:
Announcing the winners, Mo Moshaty commented:
“This year’s Golden Claws winners each remind us that horror remains one of our sharpest social mirrors, reflecting grief, identity, and the expectations placed on women with an honesty few other genres seem willing to approach.”
Andrew Pope added:
“I’m delighted that Sinners took home so many awards – it’s exactly the kind of handsomely-mounted fresh genre moviemaking that audiences have been crying out for as they drown in reheated IP. And a particularly congratulations to the winners and nominees alike in the two Supporting Actor categories. Those awards were highly contested this year, and both came right down to the wire – a testament to the breadth of quality in our cinemas.”
Earlier, announcing the nominees, Kat Hughes commented:
“Whilst it has been fantastic to see more traditional awards bodies finally start to embrace the genre of horror, the Golden Claws continue to strive to push genre cinema to the forefront of everyone’s consciousness. This year’s nominees champion a diverse range of films and are a testament to just how strong the last twelve months in horror cinema has been.”
Zoë Rose Smith added:
“We continue to live in a world where horror is our escape from the atrocities we’re seeing all around us. It’s a way for us to connect with one another, and find safety in community. This year’s awards demonstrate how pertinent the genre is, whilst delivering on the gore, catharsis, scares and relevance we seek from fear.”
Tim Coleman noted:
“Horror has always been a vibrant – and much needed – voice in the cinematic landscape, and in our current uncertain times we need it more than ever. It is such a joy to once again celebrate the best the genre has to offer with the Golden Claws.”
Whitlock&Pope 