The Oscar winner, who worked with the two on “Fruitvale Station,” their first film together, praises them for their filmmaking excellence: “They keep creating projects we need to see”

If 2024 was the year of Brat, 2025 was undeniably the year of Sinners. While some joked that vampire movies are a recession factor, Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan’s fifth collaboration proved that with the right person behind the lens, vampires rightfully reign supreme.

The film goes beyond a blood-soaked period piece with a banging soundtrack; Sinners’ genre-fluid thriller tackling 1932 Mississippi-era racism, xenophobia, religious doctrine, and multicultural communication blossoms into a love letter to original storytelling signed by Coogler and Jordan with blood-red ink.

The scene in which Sammie (Miles Caton) performs in Smoke and Stack’s (Jordan, playing the twin brothers) juke joint and awakens the spirits of shamans and African tribal dancers, modern-day DJs, an electric guitarist, twerking clubgoers, a ballerina, and more, is the stuff of cinephile wet dreams alone! It’s a culmination of the relationship between Coogler and Jordan — which includes Black Panther and all three Creed films — that’s been hard at work for over a decade and shows no signs of stopping.

So, who better than Oscar winner Octavia Spencer to celebrate the duo after starring as Jordan’s Ma in 2013’s Fruitvale Station, the film that brought him and Coogler together? She honors the iconic partnership and their impact on pop culture in 2025, below.

I met Ryan and Michael when Ryan cast me to play Michael’s mother in Fruitvale Station.

What I remember about Ryan – what spoke to me about who he was as a human being – was how diverse his set was.

In my nearly 20-year career, I’d never witnessed an environment consisting of cast and crew representative of all ethnicities – Black, Asian, white, Indigenous, Latin – and all ages, and with women in key positions. I was taken with how inclusive and familial it was and found it very refreshing.

Ryans’s script had truly resonated with me. So, when I saw him work, I knew I was witnessing a burgeoning and impactful presence.

Seeing Ryan and Michael work together, I liken it to Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford, or Spielberg and Tom Hanks – people whose collaboration you treasure and never want to see end. We use the word “iconic” so commonly that it has become a cliché, but it is the most appropriate descriptor for their work.

Ryan is an auteur, a young visionary shaping the way the next generation of filmmakers will approach the creative process, compromising nothing and utilizing his creative voice to sustain artistic integrity in the landscape. The importance of being a creative, a Black creative, especially in a time when art representing underserved communities is under attack, is necessary.

I also think Michael’s voice as a director, actor, and producer has changed the cultural landscape. Together, they create projects that we not just want to see but need to see.

We clamor with such fervor to experience their work, and that is a hallmark of excellence.

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