While the 2023 Academy Awards delivered heartwarming wins for actors like Ke Huy Quan, Michelle Yeoh, and Brendan Fraser, it got here with some upsets as well. That was especially the case for Angela Bassett, who was long considered the frontrunner within the Best Supporting Actress race for her performance in Black Panther: Wakanda Endlessly. The award ultimately went to Every little thing In all places All at Once’s Jamie Lee Curtis. With the camera on her because the winner was announced, Bassett looked visibly disillusioned, as viewers identified (and he or she’s allowed to be!). Each comforting and frustrated reactions got here pouring in online.
Curtis has had a incredible yr, and the Supporting Actress category was flush with talent: Stephanie Hsu (Every little thing In all places), Hong Chau (The Whale), and Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) rounded out the nominees. But beyond the scope of this singular award, Bassett’s loss was a sore reminder that the Academy continues to overlook the contributions of Black women in cinema. Last night, 95 years into the Oscars’ history, marked the primary time a Black woman won her second Academy Award (Wakanda Endlessly’s costume designer Ruth E. Carter). Halle Berry stays the one Black woman to win Best Actress—greater than 20 years ago. There have been also disappointing instances before the ceremony, as Viola Davis and Danielle Deadwyler were snubbed from the Best Actress nominations (but got shoutouts in Jimmy Kimmel’s Oscar monologue as a consolation prize). That applies to directors too, as The Woman King’s Gina Prince-Bythewood was not nominated within the Best Director category.
As for Bassett, consider it or not, the esteemed actress has never won an Oscar and was last nominated for 1993’s What’s Love Got to Do with It. She does, nevertheless, have two Golden Globes, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and 7 Emmy nominations. Bassett, 64, has an exceptional repertoire (we see you, How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Vampire in Brooklyn) that we hope she only continues so as to add to. We won’t get to all of them, but in terms of her Oscar-worthy performances, let’s start with this handful of movies.
