Michael B Jordan has won the best actor Oscar for Sinners at the 98th Academy Awards.
This is Jordan’s first Oscar, for which he triumphed over a strong field including Timothée Chalamet for Marty Supreme, Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon and Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another.
“God is good,” said Jordan on stage. “God is good.” He then addressed his mother, with whom he had been sitting in the stalls, and shouted out to the rest of his family, sitting elsewhere.
Of Coogler, with whom Jordan has collaborated five times, he said he was “so honoured to to call you a collaborator and a friend and a give me an opportunity and space for me to be seen. I love you too, bro.”
Jordan, 39, joins a distinguished list of black actors who have won the best actor award; he is the sixth in a list that includes Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland in 2007, Denzel Washington for Training Day in 2002 and Sidney Poitier for Lilies of the Field in 1964.
He cited the men who had come before him, which also includes Will Smith and Jamie Foxx, and thanked “everybody in this room and everybody at home for supporting my career. I know you guys want me to do well, and and I wanna do that because you guys bet on me. So thank you for keeping on betting on me.”
Jordan concluded with the promise he would “keep stepping up and keep being the best version of myself I can be”.
In Sinners, written and directed by Ryan Coogler, Jordan plays the double role of identical twin brothers Elijah “Smoke” and Elias “Stack” Moore; Jordan has become the first actor to win the Oscar for playing twins.
Jordan has had a strong awards season, with nominations for the Baftas, Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice, and triumphing at the Actor awards on 1 March. This victory, shortly before Oscar voting closed, was felt by many to have leant the actor crucial momentum in the final stage of the race.
