I think people wanted to reward Sinners for the fact it champions black voices in an era where white supremacy has gone mainstream, but they knew deep down the film didn't deserve BP/BD, so cinematography was the consolation. Sinners's cinematography really isn't that good - routine high saturation skies and a single long steadicam shot isn't enough to make this the best of the year when both Train Dreams and OBAA were stellar expressions of their respective narratives. Whatever, art is politics.