‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’: Will the Marvel Project Get an Oscar?

The award season will reach its peak this Sunday because the 95th Academy Awards Ceremony will determine the best movies of 2022. Fans and bookmakers prepare their predictions for the exciting night, and among the nominated projects is a Marvel movie – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The emotional farewell of the late Chadwick Boseman marked this popular movie. Still, it also introduced us to many great performances and storylines that made Hollywood reconsider inducting a superhero movie among the various “serious” movies.

However, Black Panther upheld its good reputation among the critics and members of the Academy and gained five nominations, which included actor performances and technical categories. In this article, we will speculate a bit and determine whether Wakanda Forever can win more awards than its predecessor and if this popular Marvel project has any chance among the great competition. If you are interested in this topic, stay with us until the end.

Black Panther 2 awards before the Oscars

The award season is frequent in all parts of the world, but one of the most notable ones is set in the United States of America. There is a date when the official “award season” starts in the U.S., and the whole period starts with the Golden Globe Awards, which start in January. “The Globes” are followed by the Grammys Ceremony, which rewards the best musical artists of the previous year. Grammys are held in February, followed by the Directors Guild of America Awards (DGA), British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA), Annie Awards, Producers Guild of America Awards (PGA), Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAGA), and finally, Academy Awards, known as Oscars, and most prestigious award for artistic and technical merits in the film industry.

Of course, Wakanda Forever was a highly expected movie, especially after the success of Black Panther in 2018, and because we prematurely lost the incredible Chadwick Boseman, whose performance inspired many people. Black Panther was always different from the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the hype and excitement of the first black superhero in Marvel Comics portrayed on the big screen was “through the roof.” It did help that Ryan Coogler did an amazing job directing the movie, and the rest of the cast and crew bought into the project from the start.

Black Panther was nominated for multiple awards, including Best Original Score, Best Picture, Best Original Song, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design which was an incredible success for one Marvel project.

Since the start of the Marvel Cinematic Universe project, Marvel films were always nominated in some shape or form in the “technical” categories like editing and sound. Still, the fact that Black Panther was nominated for Best Picture and Best Song was incredible. The movie didn’t win the awards for Best Picture or Best Song. Still, the Original Score, Production, and Costume Design were huge wins for Marvel Cinematic Universe, which showed that the Academy might value the “superhero” genre more in the future.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever followed the similar success of its predecessor and gained attention with award nominations that put the movie among the “elite.” There have been many awards and nominations in the last few months for Wakanda Forever, so that we will list the important ones for the final Oscar run. Let’s take a look at the awards and nominations of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever:

Of course, Wakanda Forever won many awards and accolades from other “smaller” guilds and academies in the film industry. Still, these five awards are important for the last and final film accolade – The Oscars.

As you can see from the table, the Best Supporting Actress award is one of the most important categories. Still, the backstage work on the movie is highly respected in Hollywood, hence why Wakanda Forever is among the great competitors for the most prestigious film awards in the industry. However, as we mentioned a few times, competition is tight, so let’s speculate – will Black Panther: Wakanda Forever win any Oscars tonight?

Will Black Panther 2 win at least one Oscar?

If we look into nominations and each category, only a few seem “sure and concrete,” but Wakanda Forever faces great competitors in each nominated category, and those are:

If we look into the categories and nominated candidates, and previous awards and nominations for Wakanda Forever, the Best Supporting Actress and Costume Design is the most likely win for Black Panther. Some will argue that the Original Song might surprise everyone by winning over RRR’s “Naatu Naatu” and Top Gun’s “Hold My Hand”; however, that’s not very likely.

Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” won many awards during the awards season, but it seems it failed in important ones, like Critics Choice Awards and Golden Globes, which some competitors won (Naatu Naatu). People will argue that Rihanna’s recent performance at the Superbowl and Chadwick Boseman’s passing will steer the Academy to vote for the Black Panther song; however, the song isn’t strong enough to prevail over “Naatu Naatu” and “Hold My Hand,” since it sounds quite generic. It also helps that both songs fared better among the guilds and critics in the last few months than “Lift Me Up,” so no, I don’t think Black Panther 2 will win the Academy Award for Original Song.

The Best Supporting Actress category is the tensest award this year because every actress won an award before the Oscars. For example, Angela Bassett has won Critics Choice Awards and Golden Globes for her portrayal of Queen Ramonda but failed to get BAFTA and SAG Awards, the latter being more important. Why? Historically, acting categories in SAGAs indicated the Oscars acting ones, and unfortunately for Bassett, Jamie Lee Curtis got the SAG Award for Best Supporting Actress. 

I would argue that Bassett has a huge chance of winning the award for her performance and prestigious acting career in Hollywood, but the last few weeks of guild and actor award shows indicate otherwise. This win would be historic for Marvel since Bassett will be the first actor to win a major award for a performance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe project.

Costume Design is almost a lock for Wakanda Forever since it has arguably unique designs and works on its costumes, and Ruth E. Carter historically won in 2018 for her work on the first Black Panther. However, this year, Carter didn’t win the award in the Costume Designers Guild, which usually indicates the winners of the Oscars in the Best Costume Design category. Despite that, Wakanda Forever does have a strong case of winning the Oscar for Best Costume Design, despite having the movie Elvis in the same category. In the end, it will be really close.

Best Makeup and Styling is another nomination for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but it seems that Camille Friend and Joel Harlow will miss out on this award. Films Elvis and The Whale are favorites in this category since their characters underwent a massive transformation, while Wakanda Forever didn’t have that severe makeup and hair styling. 

Best Visual Effects is another “stacked” category, and unfortunately for Wakanda Forever and Marvel, there was another visually stunning movie – Avatar: The Way of Water. Most bookmakers are betting on Avatar and James Cameroon to win this award, and frankly, I agree – the movie’s whole “thing” focused on visual effects, which will prevail in this case. 

If I had to speculate what will happen tonight at the Oscars, I would say that Supporting Actress and Costume Design categories will be the awards that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever “takes home.” Previous awards like Critics’ Choice Awards and Golden Globes steer these two categories in favor of Marvel getting more Oscars in their “award cabinet.”

Bookmakers of Vegas Insider put Angela Bassett for Best Supporting Actress as the favorite to win the Oscars. Costume Design seems like another category where Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will win an Oscar and cement the Black Panther movies as the most successful ones in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.