Black Panther becomes Marvel Studios’ first Oscar winner

But can it take Best Picture?

                                                           Marvel Studios

Marvel Studios’ Black Panther earned seven Oscar nominations from the 2019 Academy Awards, including one for Best Picture, a rebuke on the unspoken-but-established idea that the populist cinema didn’t have place among end-of-year prestige.

While a win in the top category would be a major (and welcome) surprise to prognosticators, Ryan Coogler’s billion-dollar blockbuster was bound to take something in the end — and that’s just what it did, making history for the company.

Announced by Melissa McCarthy and Brian Tyree Henry, Black Panther picked up Marvel’s first Oscar for Best Costume Design in a Motion Picture for the work of designer Ruth Carter (Selma, Malcolm X, Love & Basketball). Along with making Marvel history, Carter is the first black woman to ever win in the Costume Design category.

“Marvel may have created the first black superhero, but through costume design we turned him into an African king,” Carter said in her speech. “It’s been my life’s honor to create costumes. Thank you to the Academy. Thank you for honoring African royalty and the empowered way women can look and lead on screen.” She added, “Adding vibrainaum to costumes is very expensive!”