On Sunday night, Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor at the 2026 Oscars for playing twins Smoke and Stack in Sinners. Jordan defeated a star-studded category that included Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothée Chalamet, Ethan Hawke, and Wagner Moura. At 39, Jordan was the second-youngest actor in the category behind Chalamet (30).
Conventional wisdom might say that actors who win Oscars would be in the prime of their careers—their 20s and 30s. This is not the case at the Oscars. In the Best Actor category, 39 is considered young, as less than a third of all Best Actor winners have been under 40. And if you’re 30, forget about it—your chances of winning are virtually zero. Why does the Academy refuse to reward young men with acting’s top trophy?
The Academy does not reward younger men
Why can’t men in their 20s win Best Actor?
The phrase “good things come to those who wait” is a saying that encourages patience and perseverance. If I could change the phrasing for the Best Actor category, it would be, “You must wait to get good things.” The average age of the Best Actor winner is around 45 years old. Whether fair or foul, the numbers don’t lie. There is an age bias against younger men at the Oscars.
It’s been a longstanding tradition to make men wait for their Oscar. The Academy prefers older, more seasoned performers. Why is that? The Academy used to primarily consist of men—particularly old white men. A 2012 Los Angeles Times report found that Oscar voters were 94% Caucasian and 77% male. The median age of Oscar voters was 62, and 14% of voters were younger than 50. Is it a generalization to say that older people would rather vote for their peers in Best Actor than the younger generation? Yes, but all the evidence supports that claim.
Adrien Brody is the only male under the age of 30 to win Best Actor. Many thought Chalamet would become the second-youngest winner in the category before losing to Jordan in 2026 and Brody in 2025. The lack of male nominees in their 20s is the bigger issue. Younger men need more bites at the apple. Since 2005, only three actors—Chalamet (22), Ryan Gosling (26), and Heath Ledger (26)—have received the Best Actor nomination at 26 or younger.
Unlike men, women under 30 have been extremely successful in Best Actress. The Academy has awarded Best Actress to 32 women in their 20s. Last year, Mikey Madison became the ninth-youngest Best Actress winner at the age of 25. This year, three men over 49 received a nomination for Best Actor, while no woman over 46 received a nomination for Best Actress. Part of the reason for that disparity between men and women is an ugly reality in Hollywood—there are more leading parts for older men than women. That is thankfully changing as Hollywood becomes more inclusive and diverse, but progress is slow.
The Academy typically makes the top male actors receive multiple nominations before winning
Start rewarding actors for their best performances
Unwritten rules suck. Well, some of them do. Why do pitchers have to throw at batters if they don’t respect the rules? Why do you have to wait to reply to an email in order to avoid appearing too eager? At the Oscars, why does the Academy frequently reward actors after multiple nominations? Why must they “pay their dues?” If an actor is good enough to win at 25, then let him win. Why should age matter?
The worst tradition at the Oscars is the makeup award. I’m not talking about the Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. I’m referring to the Oscar given to an actor who should have won for a previous performance as a way to make things right. Sometimes, Oscars are given for inferior performances later in one’s career.
Al Pacino is the poster boy for the makeup Oscar. From 1974 to 1976, Pacino was nominated for Best Actor for his roles in Serpico, The Godfather Part II, and Dog Day Afternoon. In three consecutive years, Pacino lost to Jack Lemmon in Save the Tiger, Art Carney in Harry and Tonto, and Jack in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. While you can make arguments for Pacino to win all three times, him losing to Carney for his work as Michael Corleone is one of the Academy’s most egregious decisions. Nearly 20 years later, Pacino finally won his Oscar for Scent of a Woman. If the Academy had given Pacino his rightful Oscar for The Godfather Part II, then they could have awarded Best Actor to Denzel Washington for Malcolm X instead of Pacino in Scent of a Woman.
DiCaprio also had to follow the Pacino route, accumulating three Best Actor nominations before finally winning for The Revenant, which probably isn’t in his top three performances. Henry Fonda for On Golden Pond, Paul Newman for The Color of Money, and Joaquin Phoenix for Joker—Oscar wins that came after each actor’s best performance. What’s the point of naming it the “best” if it’s not being properly awarded to the right actor?
Michael B. Jordan’s win could be a step in the right direction
Hollywood needs new stars
Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
The Academy is not perfect, nor will it ever be. There is still a diversity and race issue at hand, but expanding membership to people from different backgrounds helps the cause.
Jordan’s win for Best Actor feels like a seismic moment for the Oscars. Jordan became the sixth Black man to win Best Actor, behind Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, and Will Smith. Jordan’s speech was one of the best of the night, as he seemed genuinely touched by the moment and humbled by the honor. He might be 39, but Jordan feels like a young and fresh movie star, something Hollywood has been desperately searching for.
Chalamet, who I picked to win over Jordan, must now look to Pacino and DiCaprio for advice on how to handle Oscar heartbreak. Older Academy Awards voters probably did not appreciate Chalamet’s cockiness and swagger during the Marty Supreme promotional tour. He also proabbly didn’t appeal to the right Academy voters in his campaign. Though it didn’t affect the voting, Chalamet’s comments about ballet and theater made him the butt of many jokes. I have no doubt that Chalamet will get his Oscar one day; he’ll just have to wait a little longer than expected.
Is 39 the new 29 for Best Actor? We’ll find out in due time if Hollywood deems the younger generation worthy of Oscar glory.
P.S. Next year, I’m most likely going to be a hypocrite if Tom Cruise is in contention with Digger. Maverick needs to win Best Actor.
The Oscars
Release Date
March 19, 1953
Network
ABC, NBC
Directors
Glenn Weiss, Alan Handley, George Seaton, Hamish Hamilton, Roger Goodman, Max Miller, Trevor Newman
2026 Oscars recap
One Battle After Another took home the award for Best Picture, capping off a dominant run during awards season. Paul Thomas Anderson took home three Oscars for OBAA, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Jordan wasn’t the only one from Sinners to go home with a little gold man. Ryan Coogler won for Best Original Screenplay, Ludwig Göransson won Best Original Score, and Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman to win Best Cinematography.
Sinners
Release Date
April 18, 2025
Runtime
138 minutes
Director
Ryan Coogler
