With the Academy Awards having a reputation bogged by the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, this year’s 93rd annual ceremony has us sitting at the edge of our seats as we await the winners throughout our community from actors and actresses to screenwriters and directors. The pre-show hsoted by Lil Rel Howry and Ariana DeBose got the inside scoop from tonight’s nominees with performances by Celeste, H.E.R. and Leslie Odom, Jr., who’s song is up for an Academy Award nomination tonight.
Nominations this year included Andra Day for Best Actress in The United States vs. Billie Holiday, “Fight For You” by H.E.R., Tiara Thomas and D’Mile, and Shaka King and Ryan Coogler’s Judas and the Black Messiah for Best Motion Picture.
The late actor Chadwick Boseman received a posthumous nod for Best Actor in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, as well as Viola Davis for Best Actress in the same film. Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson, the first African Americans nominated in the Best Makeup and Hairstyling category in Oscars history, won their category in tonight’s award ceremony.
‘I share this with the gift that is Lakeith Stanfield. The light that is Dominique Fishback,” Daniel Kaluuya praised of his cast and crew in Judas and the Black Messiah after his win for Judas and the Black Messiah as Best Supporting Actor. “It’s so hard to make a film and make a film like this and they made it possible. They made it happen.”
See below for a full list of every Black king and queen who reigned victorious in this year’s Oscar awards:
