Jordan Peele, writer and director of the film Get Out, made history last night at the 90th annual Oscar ceremony. He took home the prize of Best Original Screenplay for his work on the film, making him the first ever black screenwriter to take home the award.
Peele was only the fourth black writer to be nominated for Best Original Screenplay, joining the ranks of Spike Lee, John Singleton and Suzzane de Passe. Three times before the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay went to black writers, for 2009's Precious, 2014's 12 Years a Slave and last year's Moonlight.
But, the historic win for Peele shows that Hollywood is willing to take a chance on the original work of black filmmakers and it pays off. The racially charged thriller by Peele made $255 million at the box office.
After the winner was announced, Peele got up and hugged his star, Daniel Kaluuya, who was nominated for Best Actor last night. As he took the stage, Peele thanked those who got him there.
"I stopped writing this movie about 20 times because I thought it was impossible," Peele told the packed house at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. "I thought it wasn't going to work. I thought nobody was going to make this movie. But I kept coming back to it because I knew if someone let me make this movie, that people would hear it and people would see it."
He went on to thank those who "went and saw this movie, to everybody who bought a ticket."
Peele's award was the only one for Get Out, as it lost in the other three categories it was nominated for: Best Actor, Best Director, Best Picture.
Check out his speech below.
Peele's former costar, Keegan Michael Key, was excited to say the least about his friend's win.
Great moment here when Jordan Peele wins for Get Out ! pic.twitter.com/cRTkdTNczZ
— Ben Winston (@benwinston) March 5, 2018
Key tweeted out "congrats to my partner in laughs @jordanpeele on his first oscar #oscarssopeele."
What did you think of Peele's win?
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