Michael B Jordan wins best actor for ‘Sinners', taking home his first Oscar
Los Angeles (AP): Michael B Jordan has been building toward a performance like “Sinners” for over 20 years. Now he has the best actor Oscar as his reward.
Jordan got one trophy for playing identical twins Smoke and Stack in the blues-seeped supernatural horror film set in 1930s Mississippi that earned a record 16 Academy Award nominations.
Last year's winner, Adrien Brody, announced Jordan's name Sunday night, setting off a wild celebration inside the Dolby Theatre. Teyana Taylor, a supporting actress nominee, joined the standing ovation, mouthing, “Yes!”
“Whew, man,” Jordan said, clutching the trophy.
Jordan is the sixth Black man to win the best actor trophy. He joins Will Smith (“King Richard”, 2020), Forest Whitaker (“The Last King of Scotland”, 2006), Jamie Foxx (“Ray”, 2004), Denzel Washington (“Training Day”, 2001) and Sidney Poitier (“Lillies of the Field”), who was the first in 1963.
“I stand here because of the people that came before me — Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, Will Smith,” he said, “and to be up amongst those giants, amongst those greats, amongst my ancestors, amongst my guys, thank you everybody in this room and everybody at home supporting me over my career.”
Jordan added, “I know you guys wanted me to do well and I want to do that because you guys bet on me, so thank you for keep betting on me. 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 were Timothee Chalamet in “Marty Supreme”, Leonardo DiCaprio for “One Battle After Another”, Ethan Hawke of “Blue Moon” and Wagner Moura in “The Secret Agent”.
Chalamet had been the early Oscar favourite after wins at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards. But Jordan surprised himself by winning at the Actor Awards, giving him momentum in the final days of Oscar voting.
“Sinners” reunited Jordan and writer-producer-director Ryan Coogler. They go back to their first collaboration in 2013.
“You're an amazing person,” Jordan told Coogler from the stage. “You gave me the opportunity and space to be seen.”
Jordan's breakthrough film role came in Coogler's “Fruitvale Station” for which he received critical praise playing a real-life man who was killed by police. It was Coogler's directorial debut, and they followed with “Creed”, “Black Panther” and now “Sinners”.
Jordan's initial acting success came in television. He had a small yet pivotal role in “The Wire” in 2002, followed by the daytime drama “All My Children”, in which he replaced Chadwick Boseman, and “Friday Night Lights”.
He and Boseman later acted together in “Black Panther” and were close friends until Boseman's death from colon cancer in 2020. Jordan dedicated his acting award from this year's NAACP Image Awards to Boseman.
Jordan, a 39-year-old who also produces and directs, was born in Santa Ana, California, and grew up in Newark, New Jersey.
In a pop-culture moment, he was named People magazine's “Sexiest Man Alive” in 2020.
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Neutrality of polls can't be assured if EC dependent on contestants: Justice Nagarathna
New Delhi (PTI): Supreme Court judge Justice BV Nagarathna, while highlighting that the Election Commission is the primary institution entrusted with maintaining the integrity of polls, has said if those who conduct elections are dependent on those who contest them, the neutrality of the process cannot be assured.
The apex court judge raised a critical concern regarding the structural independence of those tasked with overseeing the ballot while delivering the Rajendra Prasad Memorial Lecture at the Chanakya Law University in Patna on Saturday.
Citing a 1995 verdict where the Supreme Court recognised the Election Commission as a constitutional authority of high significance, entrusted with ensuring the integrity of elections, she said, "The concern, once again, was structural: if those who conduct elections are dependent on those who contest them, the neutrality of the process cannot be assured."
Justice Nagarathna said elections are not merely periodic events but a mechanism through which political authority is constituted.
"Our constitutional democracy has amply demonstrated smooth changes in government due to elections being held on a timely basis. Control over that process is, in effect, control over the conditions of political competition itself," she said.
The Supreme Court judge said power is not exercised only through formal institutions but also through the processes that sustain them, including elections, public finance, and regulation.
"A constitutional structure that seeks to restrain power must therefore go beyond its classical forms and address these fourth-branch institutions. A set of institutions, while not always fitting within the classical tripartite scheme, is nonetheless central to the maintenance of constitutional order," she said.
Justice Nagarathna said the unmistakable lesson of history is that constitutional collapse occurs through the disabling of its structure, and the violation of rights merely follows.
"The dismantling of structure, in turn, occurs when institutions stop checking each other. At that moment, elections may continue, courts may function, laws may be enacted by Parliament, and yet, power is effectively not restrained because the structural discipline no longer exists," she said.
The apex court judge also urged the Centre to view states as "coordinates and not subordinates" and asserted that the separation of powers was a "constitutional arrangement of co-equals."
Justice Nagarathna also called for keeping aside "inter-party differences" in the matter of "Centre-state relations", underscoring that governance must not depend on "which party may be ruling the Centre and which other party may be ruling at the state level".
