Michael B. Jordan won his first Oscar on Sunday, for playing the twins Smoke and Stack in “Sinners,” Ryan Coogler’s blockbuster vampire allegory about race in America. It was also Jordan’s first Oscar nomination.
Jordan triumphed over Timothée Chalamet for “Marty Supreme,” Ethan Hawke for “Blue Moon,” Wagner Moura for “The Secret Agent” and Leonardo DiCaprio for “One Battle After Another.” The win makes him the sixth Black man ever to prevail in the category after Will Smith in 2022, Forest Whitaker in 2007, Jamie Foxx in 2005, Denzel Washington in 2002 and Sidney Poitier in 1964.
The odds didn’t seem to be in Jordan’s favor at first; Moura and Chalamet took home best actor trophies at the Golden Globes (which splits winners into drama and comedy categories), and Chalamet won the Critic’s Choice Award. But Jordan’s best actor win this month at the Actor Awards, formerly the Screen Actors Guild Awards, seemed to have reset his prospects.
With 16 nominations, “Sinners” now holds the record as the most Oscar-nominated film of all time. It was contending in many of the major categories — best film, best director, best actor, and best supporting actor and actress — as well as several of the technical categories, including best cinematography and the academy’s newest category, best casting.
Before Jordan’s win, the movie had won three of them — for original screenplay, original score and cinematography — with the best picture award still to be announced.
Maya Salam is an editor and reporter, focusing primarily on pop culture across genres.
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