Michael B. Jordan won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his dual roles as twins Stack and Smoke in “Sinners,” directed by Oakland filmmaker Ryan Coogler.
The victory was widely seen as an upset, as Timothée Chalamet had long been considered the frontrunner for his performance in “Marty Supreme” until the competition tightened in the final weeks leading up to the ceremony.
Accepting the award, Jordan expressed gratitude and reflected on the moment. “God is good,” he said during his speech. He also thanked Coogler for his creative vision and for “betting on the culture.”
Jordan praised the director for giving him the opportunity to bring the roles to life. “You’re an amazing, amazing person,” he said to Coogler. “I’m so honored to call you a collaborator and a friend, and you gave me an opportunity and space for me to be seen. Love you too, bro. Love you to death.”
“Sinners” had received a record 16 nominations, and won a total of four Oscars tonight, including Original Screenplay for Coogler and Cinematography for Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who became the first woman to win the category in Academy Awards history. She’s also the first person of African American or Filipino descent to win for cinematography.
The vampire film set in 1932 in the Mississippi Delta, explores Black culture and survival in the Jim Crow South. The film was written, and directed by Ryan Coogler, and produced by Coogler, his wife Zinzi Coogler, and his longtime collaborator Sev Ohanian.
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The partnership between Jordan and the Oakland-born Coogler began in 2013 with Coogler’s first feature film, “Fruitvale Station,” in which Jordan in the lead role as Oscar Grant, the young man shot and killed by a BART police officer in 2009. The two went on to collaborate on the “Black Panther” films, and then “Sinners.”
Jordan becomes only the sixth Black actor to win an Oscar for a leading role, joining Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, and Will Smith. Halle Berry remains the only Black woman to have ever won for best actress. Jordan mentioned all of them in his acceptance speech.
Earlier in the evening, the audience erupted when “Sinners” was announced as the winner for Original Screenplay. This is only the second time in Oscar history a Black writer has won the category, after Jordan Peele for his 2017 film “Get Out.”
“Please sit down because I’m very nervous, and they’re gonna play me off,” Coogler told the crowd, including his parents who were in the audience. “I grew up in Oakland and Richmond, California and we can talk a lot.”
Later on, there were lots of cheers and shouts of “I love you” from the audience for Arkapaw when she was named the winner in Cinematography for “Sinners.” Arkapaw, who like Coogler grew up in the East Bay, was the first woman, first Black person, and first Filipino in Oscars history to have won for Cinematography. She was also the first woman of color ever nominated in the category.
She called Coogler an “honorable person” during her acceptance speech, saying,”that’s the kind of guy that I get to make films with.”
She also thanked all the women in the room. “I felt so much love from all the women on this whole campaign, and gotten to meet so many people,” she said. “And I just feel like moments like this happen because of you guys. And I want to thank you for that.”
When Ludwig Göransson received the Oscar for original score, he called Coogler one of the “greatest storytellers of our time.” This was the second time he won the Oscar in this category for a collaboration with Coogler; the first win came in 2019 for “Black Panther.”
