Michael B. Jordan wins 2026 Best Actor Oscar for Sinners

At the 98th Academy Awards, Michael B. Jordan won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in Sinners. He portrayed twin brothers Elijah "Smoke" Moore and Elias "Stack" Moore, who return to their Mississippi hometown to confront a dangerous new threat.

The category also featured Wagner Moura (Armando Solimões in The Secret Agent), five-time nominee Ethan Hawke (Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon), four-time nominee Timothée Chalamet (Marty Mauser in Marty Supreme), and seven-time nominee Leonardo DiCaprio (Bob Ferguson in One Battle After Another).

DiCaprio remains the only one of the group to have previously won Best Actor, for The Revenant in 2015, while Chalamet—nominated for films including Call Me By Your Name and A Complete Unknown—has not yet taken home the trophy. Director Ryan Coogler initially envisioned a Cain-and-Abel dynamic for Smoke and Stack but reshaped them into brothers closer than typical cinematic twins; Smoke tilts toward violence while Stack leans toward empathy.

United States, Mississippi

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