Ruth Carter: First Black Woman To Win Two Oscars

Costume designer Ruth E. Carter recently made history by becoming the first African woman to win two Oscars. Carter won a second Oscar for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” for her costume design. She took home the 2023 Oscar for best costume design. In 2019, she became the first Black woman to get the award for her work on the first “Black Panther” film.

In her acceptance speech, Carter thanked the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for “recognizing this superhero who is a Black woman”. The well-known costume designer has previously received Oscar nods for her work on Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X” and Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad.”

Only four other Black Oscar winners—actors Mahershala Ali and Denzel Washington, as well as sound mixers Willie D. Burton and Russell Williams II—have won numerous awards in prestigious categories.

In honor of the Black people she has dressed in her work, the Costume maker accepted her prize while wearing a stunning goldenrod gown. Addressing to the media, Carter said “She endures, she loves, and she overcomes” as she dedicated her victory to her late mother. She remarked, “Of these strong black women, “She is every woman in this film. She is my mother.” Carter then informed the audience that her mother passed away earlier this week at the age of 101.

“This film prepared me for this moment,” she said, and then referenced the late “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman, who died in 2020, and asked him to “please take care of mom.”

Carter topped Catherine Martin, whose work on Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” earned her the BAFTA and Costume Designers Guild awards. She also beat Mary Zophres for “Babylon,” Jenny Beaven for “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” and Shirley Kurata for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which unexpectedly took home the Sci-Fi Fantasy award at the CDGA.