--- title: The Oscars Can’t Measure the Power of Black Storytelling description: The Oscars rivalry between Sinners and One Battle After Another shows how Hollywood still struggles to recognize the full power of Black storytelling, writes Taylor Crumpton. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/03/16/oscars-best-picture-sinners-one-battle-after-another/ author: Taylor Crumpton article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-03-16T21:46:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-19T07:44:51.552Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Oscars Can’t Measure the Power of Black Storytelling og:description: The Oscars rivalry between Sinners and One Battle After Another shows how Hollywood still struggles to recognize the full power of Black storytelling, writes Taylor Crumpton. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/03/16/oscars-best-picture-sinners-one-battle-after-another/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf3e18d3d9c04ce64/69b878af2b24558635136eef/michael-b-jordan-oscars.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: michael-b-jordan-oscars.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Oscars Can’t Measure the Power of Black Storytelling twitter:description: The Oscars rivalry between Sinners and One Battle After Another shows how Hollywood still struggles to recognize the full power of Black storytelling, writes Taylor Crumpton. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf3e18d3d9c04ce64/69b878af2b24558635136eef/michael-b-jordan-oscars.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  IDEASTime ideas # The Oscars Can’t Measure the Power of Black Storytelling ## Video: Michael B. Jordan wins his first Oscar in a tight race [Watch (HLS stream): Michael B. Jordan wins his first Oscar in a tight race](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/c6n2FS7v.m3u8) (1:55)  _Published 2026-03-16. Michael B Jordan won the best actor Oscar for Sinners at the 98th Academy Awards._ by [Taylor Crumpton](https://time.com/author/taylor-crumpton/) ## Taylor Crumpton Mar 16, 2026 9:46 PM UTC by [Taylor Crumpton](https://time.com/author/taylor-crumpton/) ## Taylor Crumpton Mar 16, 2026 9:46 PM UTC At this year’s Oscars, the competition between [One Battle After Another](https://time.com/7318569/one-battle-after-another-review-paul-thomas-anderson/) and [Sinners](https://time.com/7278537/sinners-review-ryan-coogler/) was [framed](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/features/oscars-sinners-one-battle-after-another-michael-b-jordan-b2939133.html) as a typical awards-season rivalry. But the tension surrounding the two films reflected something deeper than box office numbers or critical acclaim. It exposed an ongoing cultural debate about who is permitted to tell stories about the Black experience, and whose voices are deemed [worthy of recognition](https://time.com/article/2026/03/15/oscars-2026-review-conan-obrien-one-battle-after-another/) when they do. On one side was [Paul Thomas Anderson](https://time.com/6122813/paul-thomas-anderson-movies-ranked/), one of Hollywood’s most celebrated filmmakers, attempting to explore questions of race, fatherhood, and identity through the lens of raising biracial children in an increasingly polarized America. On the other was [Ryan Coogler](https://time.com/collections/time-person-of-the-year-2018/7376301/ryan-coogler-time-person-of-the-year-2018-runner-up/), a son of Oakland, Calif.—long a center of radical Black thought—whose films grapple with Blackness, masculinity, family, and, most recently, ancestral memory. But the rivalry between _Sinners_ and _One Battle After Another_ was never simply about filmmaking. It reflected a deeper truth about how Black storytelling is judged in American culture. Black artists are often required to balance excellence with humility, navigating institutions that have historically demanded twice the labor for half the recognition. In that context, awards can feel less like validation and more like permission. One could argue that Anderson carefully voices his political views within [Hollywood’s boundaries](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/paul-thomas-anderson-hit-with-backlash-for-ducking-political-question-at-oscars/). When Anderson was asked about politics at the [British Academy Film Awards ceremony](https://www.vulture.com/article/paul-thomas-anderson-perfidia-character-complicated.html), his [response](https://www.facebook.com/GoldDerby/videos/931384999477014/) was “I’m not a politician, you know, but I’m a filmmaker, and try to do it through the work.” Coogler’s work, in contrast, does not exist outside the lived realities of Black life in America. The stories he tells, and the audiences who see themselves reflected in them, collapse the distance between cinema and reality. The same ethos shaped Michael B. Jordan’s Best Actor win for portraying the twins Smoke and Stack Moore in _Sinners_. When Jordan took the Oscars stage, his speech was not about personal ambition. Instead, he invoked and honored the names of [Black Oscar winners](https://www.ebony.com/michael-b-jordan-oscar-win-sinners/) who came before him: [Sidney Poitier](https://time.com/5647667/sidney-poitier-dies/), [Denzel Washington](https://time.com/article/2026/03/13/oscars-recap-2026/), [Halle Berry](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llgL7mGYVTI), [Jamie Foxx](https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1972656%5F1972696%5F1973230,00.html), [Forest Whitaker](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-fGCHGTaGE), and [Will Smith](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CX7jmZvytA). It was an act of reverence. The contrast with fellow nominee Timothée Chalamet’s awards-season rhetoric was striking. Throughout the [press cycle](https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/a/cmplxtara-mahadevan/timothee-chalamet-oscar-greatness-clarifies) for _Marty Supreme_, Chalamet spoke openly about pursuing greatness and surpassing the legends who came before him, even [denigrating other art forms in the process](https://time.com/7383265/timothee-chalamet-ballet-opera/). That kind of confidence and arrogance is often celebrated in Hollywood. **Read more:** [Ballet Isn’t Dead, But Timothée Chalamet Might Have a Point](https://time.com/7383265/timothee-chalamet-ballet-opera/) But for Black Americans, the calculus is different. Black people in the United States have long been taught that humility is a survival strategy. To present oneself too boldly risks backlash; to remain modest offers a measure of professional safety. The same behavior that reads as ambition in a white professional can be interpreted as arrogance in a Black professional. If Jordan spoke about himself in the same way that Chalamet does, he would likely be met with disdain. The Oscars have long reflected these tensions. Even though Chalamet could not utter an ounce of respect to [opera and ballet](https://time.com/7383265/timothee-chalamet-ballet-opera/), when [Misty Danielle Copeland](https://time.com/6270676/watch-misty-copeland-wants-to-bring-the-power-of-ballet-to-a-new-generation/), an [award-winning ballerina](https://mistycopeland.com/about-2/) took the stage at the Oscars to dance to the closing bars to [“I Lied To You,”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%5F1WIhcc058o) the original song from _Sinners_, she [honored the art form](https://youtu.be/%5F1WIhcc058o?si=DZj-aZuA0-OcKpRS&t=157) that Chalamet so blithely pushed aside. Moments of celebration can reveal the underlying inequities. During the ceremony, several first-time winners—many of them immigrants or people of color—were cut off mid-speech as the broadcast rushed to stay on schedule, such as [songwriter](https://ew.com/kpop-demon-hunters-oscar-winners-speak-out-cut-off-ceremony-11926748) Yu-Han Lee and co-composer [Mark Sonnenblick](https://ew.com/kpop-demon-hunters-oscar-winners-speak-out-cut-off-ceremony-11926748) from _Kpop Demon Hunters_, and filmmaker [Alexandre Singh](https://www.eonline.com/news/1429746/oscars-producer-on-cutting-kpop-demon-hunters-speech) of _Two People Exchanging Saliva_. For those individuals, that brief moment on stage was more than an industry tradition. It was an opportunity to speak to generations of young people watching at home, imagining themselves in that place. This Oscars, like many award ceremonies that have preceded it, was a gauge on the ongoing tensions within the country, and what films we feel represent America to the world. Which brings into question: Who is deserving of telling Black stories? And which voices are allowed to be heard? While Jordan’s Best Actor win signaled recognition of his performance, _Sinners_ was denied Best Picture, despite its groundbreaking portrayal of Hoodoo, an [ethnoreligion](https://hoodoosociety.com/is-hoodoo-a-religion) deeply rooted in the lived experiences of African Americans in the United States. That omission reinforced a familiar narrative: that Black cultural expression can be celebrated in fragments while still being denied full institutional validation. But for [practitioners of Hoodoo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmDvCLFM9b4&t=56s), the film’s cultural impact matters far more than an Oscar statuette. I reached out to spiritual empowerment coach and Hoodoo elder [Jeida K. Storey](https://www.instagram.com/jeidakstorey/) for her thoughts on _Sinners_ ahead of the Oscars. “ This film has already been crowned,” Storey told me. “ Its impact will reverberate throughout the world, it already has. So many people, African American folks, have come home to Hoodoo. We don’t care about the Oscars when the ancestors are involved. The work is already done.” Within the Hoodoo tradition, [spirit can accomplish what humans cannot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KneAoofSGJE&t=467s). In _Sinners_, the character Preacher Boy embodies that belief. The film portrays spirits that move through time and space—guides capable of healing the living and honoring ancestors who were denied dignity in life. In that worldview, recognition does not come from awards but from the spiritual continuum connecting past, present, and future. So when Viola Davis shouted “[You are shining, Herald, Michael B. Jordan!](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVggz%5FnkV%5F9/)” at the [2026 Actor Awards](https://actorawards.org/awards/nominees-and-recipients/32nd-annual-actor-awards), or when Jordan thanked his ancestors alongside the legends who paved the way for him, those moments carried a significance beyond Hollywood ceremony. They acknowledged a lineage. The Academy did not need to declare _Sinners_ the year’s best film. In the spiritual language that shaped the story, the film had already been anointed. And in Hoodoo tradition, an anointing carries more weight than a trophy—because while awards are temporary, ancestral recognition endures. [TIME Ideas](https://www.time.com/ideas) hosts the world's leading voices, providing commentary on events in news, society, and culture. We welcome outside contributions. 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