You might have heard shouts of “Wakanda Forever!” this morning thanks to the announcement that Black Panther earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.
This historic nomination marks the first time a superhero film has been nominated in the prestigious category despite the boom in superhero films in recent years. Specifically, it also the first film based on a comic book of any genre to earn a nomination.
The film will compete against Bohemian Rhapsody, BlackKKlansman, The Favourite, Green Book, Roma, A Star is Born, and Vice. Black Panther is easily the highest grossing of all the nominees, raking in $1.3+ billion worldwide.
Overall the film earned seven nominations including Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Production Design, and Best Original Song (for “All The Stars”).
Black Panther production designer Hannah Beachler also made history as the first African American to ever be nominated for an Oscar for Best Production Design.
Despite the many nominations, Black Panther was snubbed in several key categories, most notably Best Director (Ryan Coogler) and Best Supporting Actor (Michael B. Jordan).
Marvel Studios earned an additional nomination this morning for Avengers: Infinity War in Best Visual Effects.
Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verseearned a nomination for Best Animated Feature Film and will face off against Disney’s The Incredibles 2 and Ralph Breaks the Internet.
Today’s Oscar nominations are not Marvel Studio’s first, however, as they previously earned nominations in technical categories including Best Visual Effects (8), Best Sound Editing (1) and Best Makeup and Hairstyling (1) for movies such as Iron Man, The Avengers, Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
Black Panther earned a Golden Globe nomination earlier this year in the Outstanding Motion Picture – Drama category but did not win.
The Oscars air live on ABC on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019.