Sarah started the site off today with a post about Timothée Chalamet and how he’s been cracking us up with his Marty Supreme…fruitionising, LOL. As I mentioned on Monday, Timmy hasn’t been making the rounds on the usual Oscar campaign stops, focusing instead on the hilarious marketing efforts for his movie, which keeps him visible during award season, no doubt – but it’ll be interesting to see whether or not those old ass Oscar voters respond to how he’s been supporting his film first and his Oscar hopes second. 

 

The best actor Oscar race is looking, like most of the other categories, pretty competitive. We do not have a Joaquin Phoenix this year. If there is a frontrunner for a nomination, it’s probably Leonardo DiCaprio and Timmy, if you believe the experts. Ethan Hawke has also been moving up the list, and Wagner Moura is a dark horse here, Sarah namechecked Train Dreams in the mailbag and Joel Edgerton could be making a move, and there’s also The Rock and George Clooney and Jeremy Allen White, all in the mix. Michael B Jordan too.

 

Up until just last weekend, though, he’s been pretty quiet, along with the rest of the Sinners team. But they’re coming on now – Michael B Jordan showed up at the Governors Awards last weekend and last night, a big boost to his campaign, because he received the American Cinematheque award, one of the youngest to ever receive the honour. 

Tom Cruise and Angela Bassett sent video tributes, Tessa Thompson was there; Miles Caton, Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson performed a set from Sinners; Oscar winners Octavia Spencer and Mahershala Ali gave speeches; another Oscar winner, Ben Affleck, who’s been friends with MBJ for years, talked about how he lived up to his name; and Bradley Cooper who’s about to promote his own movie, Is This Thing On?, and marveled at all that MBJ has already done…at just 38 years old. 

 

Finally, of course, it was Ryan Coogler who presented to an emotional MBJ when he finally came to the stage. What a partnership this has been – from Fruitvale Station to Black Panther to Creed to Sinners, in just 13 years. We should and will be talking about Coogler and Jordan like we’ve talked about Scorsese and De Niro. Scorsese and DiCaprio. Together and also individually they’ve achieved a level of excellence that is exhilarating. Like Ryan Coogler is under 40 too! 

To go back to the Oscar race then, Michael B Jordan has never been nominated for an Oscar. This is probably the best chance he’s had at a nomination. But it really shouldn’t be seen as one of those situations where the nomination is a win. It’d be nice if we could close out the year thinking of him as a frontrunner who can hold his own against whoever is considered a heavyweight in the category. 

Michael B. Jordan was honored at the 39th annual American Cinematheque Awards in Beverly Hills, with appearances from Ryan Coogler, Tessa Thompson, and his family.
Photo credits: John Salangsang/ Shutterstock

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