Regina King won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress on Sunday night, overcoming two significant obstacles in the process.
King in her speech paid tribute to James Baldwin, the author of the novel If Beale Street Could Talk is based on. She also thanked her mother for teaching her that God "has always been leaning in my direction."
Although King was the frontrunner for much of this awards season, she was mysteriously snubbed at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. At the time, Oscars pundits wondered if this ruled out her chance of winning at the Academy Awards considering every single Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner in the past 10 years has been nominated at the SAGs.
The last actress to win the Best Supporting Actress Oscar while not being nominated at the SAGs was Marcia Gay Harden, who in 2001 won for Pollock despite no SAG nom. But this is fairly rare, and in fact, the two awards shows have chosen the same winner every other year this decade.
King was also snubbed at the British Academy Film Awards; the last actress to win the Oscar without earning a BAFTA nomination was Melissa Leo in 2011. But, King overcame all of this to earn a well-deserved victory Sunday.