Five talented nominees were in the running for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 2026 Oscars, but only one took home the coveted prize at the 98th Academy Awards.
Michael B. Jordan ultimately won the honor for Sinners during the Sunday, March 15, ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
“Man, God is good. Mama, what’s up? You know how I feel about my mother,” Jordan, 39, said in his acceptance speech. “Pops, where you at? My dad flew in from Ghana to be here. My brother and sister are here too.”
The actor also took time to express gratitude to the actors who “came before me” and gave him the opportunity for his dreams to come true.
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“Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, Will Smith and to be amongst those giants, those greats, amongst my ancestors, amongst my guys,” he said. “Thank you everybody in this room and everybody at home for supporting me over my career. I feel it. I know you guys want me to do well, and I want to do that because you guys bet on me, so thank you for betting on me. And I’m going to keep stepping up, and I’m going to keep being the best version of myself I can be.”
The other nominees in the Best Actor category were Timothée Chalamet for Marty Supreme, Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another, Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon and Wagner Moura for The Secret Agent.
Prior to the awards show, DiCaprio, 51, was the only Oscar winner among this year’s Best Actor contenders. With eight nominations throughout his career, he previously won an Academy Award for Best Actor for The Revenant in 2016.
Of the remaining nominees, Hawke, 55, has the most Oscar nods during his career, with a total of five. He was previously up for Best Supporting Actor for Training Day in 2002 and Boyhood in 2015 as well as Best Adapted Screenplay for Before Sunset in 2005 and Before Midnight in 2014.
As for Chalamet, 30, he has been nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Call Me by Your Name in 2018 and A Complete Unknown in 2025 and Best Picture for Marty Supreme this year.
For Jordan and Moura, 49, this year marked their first-ever Oscar nods.
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Heading into the 2026 Academy Awards, the race for Best Actor was tight. Chalamet won accolades for his performance in Marty Supreme at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards in January.
In his Golden Globes acceptance speech, Chalamet acknowledged, “I’m in a category with many greats,” referring to DiCaprio, Hawke, Jay Kelly’s George Clooney, Bugonia’s Jesse Plemons and No Other Choice’s Lee Byung-Hun.
“My dad instilled a spirit of gratitude in me growing up, ‘Always be grateful for what you have.’ It’s allowed me to leave this ceremony in the past empty-handed, my head held high, grateful just to be here, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say those moments didn’t make this moment that much sweeter,” he said. “For my parents, for my partner, I love you. Thank you so much.”
Meanwhile, Moura made history at the Golden Globes as the first Brazilian to earn Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for his work in The Secret Agent.
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Earlier this month, Jordan won an Actor Award for his performance in Sinners, overcoming his fellow nominees, Chalamet, DiCaprio, Hawke and Plemons.
“I wasn’t expecting this at all,” Jordan said as the audience gave him a standing ovation. “I’m so honored and privileged to be nominated in this category with people and actors and humans that I love, and I love their work and I love what they contribute to our craft.”
Jordan went on to thank his mother “for driving me back and forth to New York when we didn’t have money for the Holland Tunnel, or when we were looking for gas money and parking spaces,” recalling his early days as an actor.
He also expressed his gratitude to Sinners director Ryan Coogler “for giving me the opportunity to show what I can do and be fearless and create a safe space where we could find truth.”
