After the extraordinary year that Black Panther just had, Ryan Coogler’s latest feature didn’t need any Oscar recognition to secure its status as a pop culture phenomenon, but as Michael B. Jordan said back in November, landing a Best Picture nomination is still some “amazing icing on the cake” for one of 2018’s biggest movies.
Speaking to the New York Times, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige admitted to setting his alarm to watch this morning’s nominations, and the early start was surely worth it. Among the seven nominations that Black Panther received was a prestigious Best Picture nod, making T’Challa’s solo debut the first comic book movie to earn an Academy Award nomination in this category.
In response to the news, Fegie says he feels “a sense of pride and humility and immense gratitude,” and while Coogler missed out on both the writing and directing slots, the producer has plenty of kind words to say about the filmmaker, telling NYT:
“To me, the best thing a producer can do is find a person with something to say, who has a story to tell and can tell it in a way that the world responds to. That’s what Mr. Coogler has done for us.”
Of course, it surely helped that Coogler had a team of real talent behind him, many of whom were recognized in Black Panther’s various other nominations. As well as earning a Best Picture nod, the movie is currently in the race for Best Costume Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Original Score, Original Song, and Production Design.
The last of those nominations commends the efforts of Jay Hart and Hannah Beachler, the latter of whom was the first African-American to be nominated in her category. Speaking to NYT, Feige reflected on one of his early meetings with the production designer, recalling how she immediately blew them away with her vision for the film.
“She was hired in the room,” Feige said. “I knew she’d never worked on a film this large before and had concerns about that, but we wanted to give her a chance to come in and pitch her vision for the movie. She came in and blew us away instantly. Journeys don’t get better than that.”
We’ll see how many prizes Black Panther can take home when the 91st Academy Awards airs on February 24th on ABC.
