Friday, March 29, 2024

The 2019 Oscars Broke Boundaries, Especially for Black Women

*Over the past couple of years, the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite began seeming truer than ever. It was around this time that similar movements began increasingly and unstoppably pushing for inclusion and diversity in Hollywood. They didn’t just want a change for the nominees, but they wanted inclusion both on-screen and behind the scenes.

Still Overwhelmingly White

The Oscars are still considered to be an event for the white male, but all the hard work of the Black community has finally begun to pay off. This is probably because of the fact that the Academy has started including more and more Black men and women to their voting systems since 2017.

The results of this change were quite evident in the 2019 Oscars, where the Black community in Hollywood had managed to conquer a number of milestones. Many prominent members of the Black community in Hollywood bagged the gold figurine, and it was clear that something was different this time.

All of these milestones are worth celebrating, but it is hard to forget how absurdly long it has taken the Academy to reach this far. Quite a shame.

Most of the Milestones Were Achieved by Black Panther

The women-led production and Black-focused team of Black Panther were set to break all records and for obvious reasons. Many people had even noted on Twitter that categories such as best costume and best production design had been won by Black women – Hannah Beachler and Ruth E. Carter.

These women had managed to become only the 2nd and 3rd Black women to have won Oscars for non-acting roles. What’s more? They were the first black women to have won such Oscars after about 30 years! The predecessor to these women – Irene Cara – won her Academy Award for writing the song, ‘What A Feeling’ for the movie ‘Flashdance,’ all the way back in 1984!

These women, combined with Regina King, who won her award for the Best Supporting Actress for her role in ‘If Beale Street Could Talk,’ represented 3 wins by Black women. Believe it or not, this is the first time such an incident has ever happened.

Beachler also managed to become the first Black woman to have even been nominated for the category of production design. This meant that she had achieved a triple milestone! We couldn’t be more proud of our Black community in the Oscars — #OscarsSoBlack.

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