Oscar Rewind: 8 Black Actresses & The Roles That Deserved an Oscar

Gabourey Sidibe as Claireece “Precious” Jones in Precious

Lost to: Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side

As much as this film made me want to curl up in the fetal position and cry at the idea of such a wave of hardships occurring to one person (one young woman at that), I think Precious was definitely a film everyone needed to see. And you can thank a lot of its success and awesome-ness to Sidibe. We were happy when she was happy, we were downtrodden and miserable when she was, and we were ready to strike a mofo when she was. A newbie on the acting scene, you wouldn’t have believed Sidibe just started acting when watching Precious. Mo’Nique did win for her turn as crazy a** mother Mary Lee Johnston, and screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher won for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2009, but no gold (or whatever metal that is) for Sidibe. She will have to just be happy with the fact that for her first real time on film, she ended up going for an award versus Meryl Streep of all people!