Ruth E. Carter makes history becoming the first Black woman to win two Oscars
At the 95th Academy Awards, American costume designer Ruth E. Carter made history becoming the first Black woman to win two Oscars.
Four years after winning Best Costume Design for Marvel’s “Black Panther”, on Sunday she took home her second award in the category for its sequel, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”.
As lead costume designer, Carter played an influential role in making “Black Panther” a cultural phenomenon with her garments helping to bring the fictional country of Wakanda to life.
“I pulled myself up from my bootstraps. I started in a single parent household. I wanted to be a costume designer. I studied, I scraped, I dealt with adversity in an industry that sometimes didn’t look like me. And I endured,” she said.
“So I feel that this win opens the door for other young costume designers that may not think this industry is for them and hopefully they’ll see me and see my story and they’ll think that they can win an Oscar too.”
But the madcap multiverse adventure, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” dominated this year’s Oscars, winning seven awards including Best Picture.
And it also made history with Malaysian actor, Michelle Yeoh, become the first ever Asian woman to win Best Actress.
“For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities. This is proof that dreams – dream big – and dreams do come true. And ladies, don’t let anybody tell you you’re ever past your prime. Never give up,” she said.
In addition to Best Picture and Best Actress, the film also won Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Editing, and Best Original Screenplay.
The film tells the story of a Chinese immigrant who gets unwillingly embroiled in an epic adventure where she must connect different versions of herself in the parallel universe to stop someone who plans to harm the multiverse.
“I think one of the things that I realised growing up is that one of the best things that we can do for each other is shelter each other from the chaos of this crazy world we live in,” said co-director Daniel Kwan.
The Academy Award for Best Actor went to Brendan Fraser for his comeback role in “The Whale” in which he plays Charlie, an overweight reclusive gay English teacher who tries to restore his relationship with his teenage daughter.
The other film which also won a slew of awards, including best international feature, was the German language World War II epic “All Quiet on the Western Front”, which took four awards.