Michael B. Jordan Makes Oscars History With Best Actor Win For Sinners

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Published Mar 15, 2026, 10:54 PM EDT

Based in Los Angeles, Mona began her entertainment career in 2015, building experience across digital media and journalism. She has worked with major entertainment brands including iHeartMedia, E! News, Entertainment Tonight, and TMZ/TooFab, contributing to interviews, source development, and editorial production. Her writing even helped her team earn an Emmy Award at Entertainment Tonight. She has been an Entertainment & People News Reporter at ScreenRant since 2026.

Michael B. Jordan is an Oscar winner — and he made history in the process!

Jordan emerged victorious at the 98th Academy Awards Sunday night, taking home the Oscar for Best Actor for his role as the SmokeStack Twins in Ryan Coogler's Sinners. While the Oscar win was Jordan's first, and monumental for the longtime actor, it also was a history-making moment, making Jordan the first actor since Lee Marvin to win an Oscar for portraying multiple characters in the same film.

Marvin won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Actor for his dual role in the comedy-western Cat Ballou, where he played both the drunken gunslinger Kid Shelleen and his villainous silver-nosed brother Tim Strawn. His performance remains one of the Academy's most unique acting wins, as Marvin is widely recognized as the only actor to win an Oscar for playing multiple characters in a single movie. Coming more than half a century later, Jordan's portrayal of twin brothers in Sinners echoes a rare piece of Oscars history.

In Sinners, Jordan portrays twin brothers, Smoke and Stack. Smoke is the more grounded, strategic of the pair, while Stack is looser, flashier, and more impulsive, creating a dynamic that drives much of the film's tension. Jordan differentiates the twins through subtle changes in voice, posture, and attitude, allowing each brother to feel like a fully distinct character even when they share the screen. Pulling off convincing on-screen twins is no easy feat, and has long been considered technically impressive, making the win a significant milestone not only for Jordan, but for film in general.

While Jordan didn't acknowledge that bit of history during his win, he did deliver an emotional speech, thanking Coogler, his family — his father who flew in from Ghana for the event, and his mother who was sitting next to him when he won — and his cast mates.

I want to thank Warner Bros., I want to thank Mike [de Luca] and Pam [Abdy] for believing in this dream, this vision of Ryan Coogler. And betting on a culture, betting on original ideas and artistry.

Addressing Coogler directly, Jordan called the director "an amazing person."

I'm glad to call you a collaborator and a friend. You gave me the space to be seen... I love you too, bro. I love you to death.

The race for Best Actor was a tight one this year, with Timothée Chalamet expected by many to take home the trophy for his portrayal of Marty Mauser, a fictional character loosely inspired by the real-life 1950s table tennis icon and hustler, Marty Reisman, in Marty Supreme. Other nominees in the category included One Battle After Another star Leonard DiCaprio, Blue Moon star Ethan Hawke, and The Secret Agent star Wagner Moura.