It is that time of year again: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has unveiled its nominations for the 98th Academy Awards, ushering in with them the annual ritual of online grievance and bickering about what the Academy has gotten right or wrong.

This year’s Best Picture slate, however, is unusually impregnable. The 10 nominees are coherent, varied, and well-deserved. There are no glaring acts of political box-checking masquerading as taste and no gratuitous “important” film nominated out of partisan proclivities. And while a few respectable contenders fell just short (Eddington had its moments and Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag was a creative and clever twist on the traditional espionage thriller), it’s difficult to argue that some unseen titan was left out in lieu of a lesser work.

Here are the Best Picture nominees:

The loudest argument online involves Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, which, along with Best Picture, racked up 15 additional nominations, surpassing the long-standing record of 14 held by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2016).

The........

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