Whereas 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 properly. That was particularly the case for Angela Bassett, who was lengthy thought-about the frontrunner within the Greatest Supporting Actress race for her efficiency in Black Panther: Wakanda Perpetually. The award in the end went to Every part In all places All at As soon as’s Jamie Lee Curtis. With the digital camera on her because the winner was introduced, Bassett appeared visibly upset, as viewers identified (and she or he’s allowed to be!). Each comforting and pissed off reactions got here pouring in on-line.
Curtis has had a improbable 12 months, and the Supporting Actress class was flush with expertise: Stephanie Hsu (Every part In all places), Hong Chau (The Whale), and Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) rounded out the nominees. However past the scope of this singular award, Bassett’s loss was a sore reminder that the Academy continues to miss the contributions of Black girls in cinema. Final night time, 95 years into the Oscars’ historical past, marked the primary time a Black girl gained her second Academy Award (Wakanda Perpetually’s costume designer Ruth E. Carter). Halle Berry stays the one Black girl to win Greatest Actress—greater than 20 years in the past. There have been additionally disappointing cases earlier than the ceremony, as Viola Davis and Danielle Deadwyler had been snubbed from the Greatest Actress nominations (however received shoutouts in Jimmy Kimmel’s Oscar monologue as a comfort prize). That applies to administrators too, as The Lady King’s Gina Prince-Bythewood was not nominated within the Greatest Director class.
As for Bassett, consider it or not, the esteemed actress has by no means gained an Oscar and was final nominated for 1993’s What’s Love Acquired to Do with It. She does, nonetheless, have two Golden Globes, a Display screen Actors Guild Award, and 7 Emmys nominations. Bassett, 64, has an distinctive repertoire (we see you, How Stella Acquired Her Groove Again and Vampire in Brooklyn) that we hope she solely continues so as to add to. We won’t get to all of them, however relating to her Oscar-worthy performances, let’s begin with this handful of movies.
