Netflix Celebrates Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Historic Oscar Win

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom made Oscars history on Sunday night and Netflix was in the mood to celebrate. The film took home the award for Best Hair and Makeup with Mia Neal, Sergio Lopez-Rivera, and Jamie Wilson playing a huge role on the team. This is the first time a Black person won the award for this kind of work. Netflix expects to bring home some more hardware tonight with Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman also nominated. One cannot stress enough how great the costume work in the period piece was on-screen. You immediately believe Davis as the star presence of Ma and Boseman’s energy as Levee. It might be sad to consider as the movie has to contend with such tragedy surrounding it. But, what a win for the creative team with more to come late this evening.

The company wrote, “Congrats to Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson! The two just became the first Black women to win the Oscar® for Best Makeup & Hairstyling for their work on MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM, alongside Sergio Lopez-Rivera.”

“The nomination is validation that hairstyling is an art form, a craft, and a skill,” Wilson said. “It shows every Black woman or man doing hair that we can achieve, and importantly that our talent and skill is equal and exceptional.”

Netflix describes the award-winning film:

“Tensions and temperatures rise over the course of an afternoon recording session in 1920s Chicago as a band of musicians await trailblazing performer, the legendary ‘Mother of the Blues,’ Ma Rainey (Academy Award winner Viola Davis). Late to the session, the fearless, fiery Ma engages in a battle of wills with her white manager and producer over control of her music. As the band waits in the studio’s claustrophobic rehearsal room, ambitious trumpeter Levee (Chadwick Boseman) — who has an eye for Ma’s girlfriend and is determined to stake his own claim on the music industry — spurs his fellow musicians into an eruption of stories revealing truths that will forever change the course of their lives.”

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