LOS ANGELES, March 16 (Reuters) - While "The Color

Purple" actor Danielle Brooks didn't take home the Oscar for

best supporting actress at the Oscars last weekend, she and cast

members took home the NAACP Image award on Saturday for

outstanding motion picture.

On the red carpet, Brooks told Reuters that out of all her

accolades, she's most grateful to the NAACP awards for

acknowledging "The Color Purple" team with several nominations.

"If nobody gonna see us, I'm glad that our people see us,"

she said, referencing the film's lack of nominations throughout

the 2024 awards season.

While Hollywood has made progress on diversifying talent and

storytelling since the 2015 outcry of #OscarsSoWhite - when all

20 acting nominations went to white actors - the pace of change

still has not leveled the playing field for some.

Most recently, indigenous actor Lily Gladstone lost to Emma

Stone for the best actress Oscar despite Gladstone being the

awards frontrunner, having won the Golden Globe and Screen

Actors Guild award for her role in "Killers of the Flower Moon."

The Image Awards organized by the National Association for

the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) are considered the top

entertainment honors focused on Black actors.

Brooks wasn't the only one relishing the celebrations.

Fellow cast members Fantasia Barrino and Taraji P. Henson also

took home awards.

Barrino took home outstanding actress and Henson won

outstanding supporting actress for their roles in the musical

adaptation of the 1985 film.

These historical wins come after the original 1985

adaptation of the Alice Walker novel was met with controversy by

many Black-led organizations, including the NAACP.

For many within the Hollywood branch of the Black civil

rights organization, Steven Spielberg's movie adaptation of "The

Color Purple" was seen as degrading to Black men.

The film follows the story of two Black American teenage

sisters, Celie and Nettie, in the American South during the

early 1900s.

Celie embarks on a journey to find her freedom and must

overcome years of abuse, after she and Nettie are separated by

the men in their lives.

The original film starring Whoopi Goldberg gained eleven

Oscar nominations, but it failed to win a single one.

Similarly, the 2023 musical adaptation directed by Ghanaian

filmmaker Blitz Bazawule didn't have any major cast members take

home Hollywood's biggest prize.

Other Image winners include poet and activist Amanda Gorman,

who one the chairman award; R&B singer Usher, who won the

entertainer of the year award; and "Rustin" actor Colman

Domingo, who won the outstanding actor award.

For many Black actors, this year's nominations served as

inspiration for their own careers to flourish.

As "Ghosts" actor Danielle Pinnock told Reuters: "We would

not be able to play all these roles without all the people that

paved the way for us, you know?"