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.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
UT with dual power structure 'worst form of govt', says Omar Abdullah
Srinagar (PTI): Terming the current administrative structure in Jammu and Kashmir the “worst form of government”, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has called for an urgent shift toward full statehood while acknowledging that significant progress has been made in narrowing differences with the Centre over the transaction of business rules.
The chief minister also hit out at vested interests making efforts to create a political wedge between Jammu and Srinagar, saying “they have failed and they will continue to fail”, and highlighted the restoration of the traditional biannual shift of the capital known as ‘Darbar Move’ as a vital bridge in narrowing the emotional divide between the two regions.
Speaking with PTI, Abdullah argued that the logic behind treating a territory with 90 elected legislators on par with smaller regions like Puducherry, which has only 30, remains incomprehensible, and reiterated his earlier stand that a dual power system where two power structures exist is a "recipe for disaster”.
“Can you not see the difference between a tiny one with 30 MLAs and one with 90 MLAs? And you still believe that this current system is beneficial to Jammu and Kashmir after everything that happened last year?” the chief minister asked while referring to the Pahalgham tragedy, pointing out that keeping elected representatives out of the law and order situation was doing no good.
He specifically noted that the size and scale of Jammu and Kashmir demand a governance model where the elected representatives are fully responsible for administration.
“I continue to maintain that view. I continue to believe that a system of Union territory with an assembly is by far the worst form of government that you can come up with,” Abdullah told PTI here recently.
The chief minister highlighted that several key institutions, including universities, the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, and the Power Development Corporation, should have automatically come under the domain of the elected government.
“I am not even arguing on the central services, law and order, and police. As a Union territory, those are automatically within the domain of the unelected government. But these were institutions that were previously the responsibility of the elected government. And they should be,” Abdullah said.
Despite these friction points, Abdullah expressed optimism, stating that his government and the Government of India are close to reaching an agreement on the rules of business and that a formal proposal for the appointment of a new advocate general has finally been dispatched to the appropriate authorities.
“Again, as I said, we have made significant progress on these issues,” he said.
On the long-standing issue of summary dismissals of government employees without judicial inquiry, Abdullah described the process as arbitrary, opaque and unlikely to withstand judicial scrutiny.
This practice did not originate with the current lieutenant governor's administration but was initiated during the previous BJP-PDP coalition government, he said.
“Look, everyone has the right to prove their innocence. For some reason, these employees were not given that opportunity. And I have no doubt that going ahead, many of these people will return to government service on the back of relief from the court.
“We will not be able to defend the dismissal of these employees in the courts. It will happen, you mark my words, because the process is arbitrary. The process is opaque. There is no clarity and transparency in the process. Ultimately, we will not be able to bear up to judicial scrutiny," he said.
Referring to the promises made by his party, the National Conference, Abdullah detailed the operationalisation of his poll promises, including 200 units of free electricity and six free cooking gas cylinders for the poorest households, underlining that power subsidy is being provided to the poorest of the poor.
He argued that anyone above the poverty line should pay market rates for electricity to ensure that state resources are prioritised for the most vulnerable.
“Rich people shouldn't even be getting subsidised electricity. If I could, though obviously I can't do it in a single stroke, I would like to remove subsidised electricity from all these rich people.
“Anybody above BPL (Below Poverty Line) should not be paying subsidised rates for electricity. They should pay the market rate,” he said.
Beyond direct welfare, Abdullah highlighted the restoration of the ‘Darbar Move’ and the introduction of free education and bus travel for women as key milestones in his 20-month-old administration.
Speaking on the composite culture of J-K, Abdullah said the traditional biannual shift of the capital has allowed a new generation of employees from Jammu, who had never worked in the Valley before, to bond with their Kashmiri counterparts.
“The distance between Jammu and Kashmir has reduced to a great extent,” Abdullah said, adding that the two regions historically come together during times of adversity, whether after natural disasters or security crises.
Replying to a query on Kashmiri Pandits who migrated to various camps in Jammu, Abdullah said the question needs to be asked of the BJP as to why they are still in camps.
“Please ask the BJP how many more elections do they want to exploit their (Kashmiri Pandits’) votes before actually doing something to bring them back,” Abdullah said.
Terming the migration “deeply unfortunate”, Abdullah said, “We want those who left in the late 80s, early 90s, to come back. I have always maintained that they left because their sense of security was snatched away. They will come back only when that sense of security is restored. And we have not been able to do that so far.”
Crediting former prime minister Manmohan Singh for building the Jagti township in Jammu for migrants and creating a job quota for them, Abdullah said that nothing more has been done for the community since then.
To a question on dynastic politics following the recent defeat of M K Stalin in Tamil Nadu, Abdullah dismissed the idea that the defeat of established leaders is a verdict on their lineage, and argued that belonging to a political family only "opens a door" but does not guarantee a seat at the table.
“What keeps it open is your own performance,” Abdullah said, pointing out that even non-dynastic leaders like Mamata Banerjee faced electoral setbacks.
He also dismissed rumours of an imminent Cabinet reshuffle in J-K as “absolute lies”.
