Sinners fans thank team for ‘loving our melanin’ after Bafta wins

Sinners makeup artist Sian Richards shared the heartwarming messages she’s had received from fans who felt seen on screen after watching the movie.

The 2025 vampire horror was directed by Ryan Coogler and starred Michael B. Jordan, Wunmi Mosaku (who won best supporting actress) and Hailee Steinfeld.

Sian has worked in the makeup department on a host of high-profile projects, including Black Panther, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Da 5 Bloods and brought all her expertise to Sinners – with results that truly paid off.

Attending the Baftas on Sunday night, where the movie had a whopping 13 nominations, she told Metro how the Bafta-nominated look of the acclaimed film came about – and the impact it had on viewers.

Calling her first conversation with Ryan ‘one of wonderment’, she felt ‘overwhelmed’ by the ‘intricate and layered’ world he had built. She decided to put together a ‘moodboard’, knowing this would have to be an ‘accurate historical deep dive’.

She continued: ‘We’re paying homage to 1930s Mississippi Delta. I had to represent so many people properly, and this movie wasn’t stylised.

‘This was a historical representation, so I treated it like I would a proper, serious period drama because [that’s what] it was until Act Two, when all the chaos and the mayhem breaks out.’

When it came to the vampires, she ‘really wanted it to be different’ and recounted how she ‘wanted them to look like animals from Africa’.

‘”from the Serengeti” is what Ryan said when I showed him, so that they would just look like they’re feasting, so that’s pretty much all the inspiration,’ she said.

The hard work was all worth it and – while Sinners secured three Baftas including for best original screenplay – Sian said the reaction from fans has been heartening.

She explained: ‘The way the skin looked so beautiful and pure and real. I do work for the fans and also for people who don’t feel seen, and I’ve had so many messages on Instagram saying: “Thank you for loving our melanin, thank you for making us feel seen, thank you for your representation, we love you”, so that is a job well done.’

In the winners’ room after Wunmi collected her award, she told Metro what it meant to be part of a successful Black-led film like Sinners.

‘It always feels good when you walk into a room, and you’re not the only one.. It always feels good when you feel like your story, your experience, is being represented in such a way with integrity and creativity.

When Ryan described the vampires… I saw his vision so clearly, I saw what the vampires represent in my world, as an actor or as just a person, the things that really threaten to rob you of your joy, your freedom, your creativity.

‘So for me, I really, I really treasured it because I thought it was so specific, but it was so universal.’

Now, fans are looking towards the Oscars, where Sinners secured a record-breaking 16 nominations, including several of the major categories and for make-up and hairstyling.

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