While the 2023 Academy Awards delivered heartwarming wins for actors like Ke Huy Quan, Michelle Yeoh, and Brendan Fraser, it came with some upsets as well. That was especially the case for Angela Bassett, who was long considered the frontrunner in the Best Supporting Actress race for her performance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The award ultimately went to Everything Everywhere All at Once's Jamie Lee Curtis. With the camera on her as the winner was announced, Bassett looked visibly disappointed, as viewers pointed out (and she's allowed to be!). Both comforting and frustrated reactions came pouring in online.

Curtis has had a fantastic year, and the Supporting Actress category was flush with talent: Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere), Hong Chau (The Whale), and Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) rounded out the nominees. But beyond the scope of this singular award, Bassett's loss was a sore reminder that the Academy continues to overlook the contributions of Black women in cinema. Last night, 95 years into the Oscars' history, marked the first time a Black woman won her second Academy Award (Wakanda Forever's costume designer Ruth E. Carter). Halle Berry remains the only Black woman to win Best Actress—more than 20 years ago. There were also disappointing instances before the ceremony, as Viola Davis and Danielle Deadwyler were snubbed from the Best Actress nominations (but got shoutouts in Jimmy Kimmel's Oscar monologue as a consolation prize). That applies to directors too, as The Woman King's Gina Prince-Bythewood was not nominated in the Best Director category.

As for Bassett, believe it or not, the esteemed actress has never won an Oscar and was last nominated for 1993's What's Love Got to Do with It. She does, however, have two Golden Globes, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and seven Emmy nominations. Bassett, 64, has an exceptional repertoire (we see you, How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Vampire in Brooklyn) that we hope she only continues to add to. We can't get to them all, but when it comes to her Oscar-worthy performances, let's start with this handful of films.

In one of her most iconic roles, Bassett transformed into Tina Turner for Brian Gibson's biographical drama on the music legend. Telling the story of Turner's rise to superstardom and surviving abuse by her husband, Ike Turner (Laurence Fishburne), Bassett displayed both her onstage charisma on the mic and dramatic acting chops in the film's heaviest moments. She earned a Best Lead Actress nomination for the role, though Holly Hunter ended up winning for her performance in Jane Campion's The Piano. But Bassett said gracefully, “I don’t walk away thinking I’ve been robbed.”

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Bassett stars as the regal Queen Ramonda, mother to Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa and Letitia Wright's Shuri in both Black Panther installments. But she gets more of the spotlight in the sequel as a grieving mother trying to hold her country together. Her booming speech, and delivery of the line “Have I not given everything?” hits extra hard now. Despite her Oscar snub, she received a Golden Globe and NAACP Award for her performance.

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You already know the scene. In Forest Whitaker's adaptation of Terry McMillan's novel, Bassett shared the screen with Whitney Houston, Loretta Devine, and Lela Rochon. Bassett plays Bernie, the owner of a catering business whose husband leaves her for his white coworker, leading her to raid his closet, throw his belongings in his car, and set them all on fire in a dramatic act of revenge. Apparently she even improvised her monologue.

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Denzel Washington earned a Best Actor nod for his portrayal as the titular icon in this Spike Lee film, but Bassett doesn't get enough credit for holding her own opposite him as Dr. Betty Shabazz, the civil rights activist and Malcolm X's wife. “We were all so enormously attached to the making of it. We were so respectful in that moment,” she recalled of filming. “We carried the spirit of that time and of that movement with us.”

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Keke Palmer might've been the young star of this spelling bee story, but Bassett adds a strong and stern but supportive presence as Akeelah's mother Tanya. (When she says you're doing chores for the next three months, you say yes ma'am!) Behind the scenes, Bassett was coaching Palmer, too. “I remember how you helped me to just focus in [on a scene], and not only focus in but to attach it to something that was real for me,” she told Bassett in a recent reunion.

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This Kathryn Bigelow film was an infamous box office bomb, probably because it was so ahead of it's time: Ralph Fiennes stars as Lenny Nero, who trafficks in illegal POV videos that put the user in the experience. Bassett, playing Lornette “Mace” Mason, is a perfect foil for Lenny's sleaze, playing a stone cold badass who gets embroiled with Lenny as the thriller unfolds on New Year's Eve, 1999. At the Saturn Awards, Bassett won Best Actress and Bigelow won Best Director—making this one well worth your time.

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Edie Falco was widely recognized as the standout in this ensemble film by John Sayles, but Bassett also makes an impression. She stars as Desiree, an actress who returns to her Florida hometown as it battles gentrification, to reunite with her mother and bring home her new man. According to the British Film Institute, it’s “one of the best” films in Bassett’s oeuvre.

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I know, I know; rom-coms usually don't stand a chance in the Oscars race, but Bassett’s portrayal as Stella is too good to go unmentioned. Here, she plays a successful 40-something single mother who goes on a girls’ trip to Jamaica and ends up falling for a man nearly half her age. Bassett’s chemistry with then-newcomer Taye Diggs is exceptional, as is her dynamic with Whoopi Goldberg and Regina King. Let’s also take a moment to appreciate how she rocked that wardrobe by costume designer Ruth E. Carter.

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