Can we celebrate before we critique?

Before we debate HOW Black women were shown, can we talk about HOW MANY?

I've been thinking about this since Oscar Sunday, and I need to say it.

The conversation about Black women at this year's Oscars has mostly been about One Battle After Another. About whether those characters were portrayed with dignity. About whether Paul Thomas Anderson should have answered more directly when asked about race. Those are real conversations and they matter.

But I want to stop for a second. Because I think we almost missed something historic.

Ruth E. Carter received her fifth Oscar nomination for Costume Design for Sinners. Five nominations. That is more than any Black woman in Oscar history. Let that settle.

Autumn Durald Arkapaw won Best Cinematography... but she was also only the fourth woman ever nominated in that category. Before her win, she was already a historic nomination.

Zinzi Coogler was nominated for Best Picture as a producer on Sinners. She is the first Filipina producer ever nominated for that award and only the third Black woman nominated for Best Picture. And she and Ryan Coogler became the first Black married couple nominated at the Oscars in the same year.

Hannah Beachler received her second nomination for Production Design. She was already the first Black woman to WIN that category, years ago.

Christalyn Hampton was nominated for Documentary Short for The Devil Is Busy.

And 74 women were nominated overall this year. A new record.

I'm not saying stop the critique. I'm not saying we can't hold complexity in both hands at once. I'm saying: can we give ourselves a moment to recognize what we just witnessed? Because we were there for something unprecedented, and if we don't name it, it evaporates.

Here's what I point out intentionally: the film industry changes slowly. Painfully slowly. And then it shifts. And when it shifts, if you're not paying attention, you miss it. Oscar Sunday was a shift.

Sinners had 16 nominations with 10 for Black artists. That ties the record for the most Black nominees for a single film in Oscar history. That happened because of a team. Because Ryan Coogler spent 12 years building an ecosystem of collaborators who all leveled up together.

That's the model. That's the blueprint.

If you want to go deeper on what it actually took to build that kind of infrastructure...join my free webinar. I share the mindset shift you need to make it in today's Hollywood. Click Here to Save Your Seat.

Now go celebrate something.

Nicki