Jordan Peele made history on Sunday night ( 4 March) when he became the first black winner of the Best Original Screenplay Oscar at the 90th Academy Awards with his directorial debut Get Out. It was the impactful horror film's only win of the night.

Peele beat stiff competition from Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor for Best Picture winner The Shape of Water, Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird, Emily Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani for The Big Sick and Martin McDonagh for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

He was only the fourth African American to be nominated following in the trailblazing footsteps of Suzanne de Passe, Spike Lee and John Singleton.

"I stopped writing this movie about 20 times because I thought it was impossible," Peele said in his acceptance speech.

"I kept coming back to it because I knew if someone let me make this movie, people would hear it and people would see it. To everybody who went and saw this movie, everybody who bought a ticket, who told somebody to buy a ticket — thank you!"

Get Out is a horror satire about a young black man (Daniel Kaluuya) meeting his white girlfriend's parents for the first time at their country home, only to be disturbed by their strange behaviour.

The film was a smash hit, making $255 million worldwide from a budget of just $4.5 million.

Peele was also nominated for Best Director (he was only the fifth black man to be nominated in the show's 90-year history) and as a producer in the Best Picture category. Breakout star Kaluuya was nominated for Best Actor.

Backstage at the Oscars, Peele looked out at the assembled reporters and joked: "Am I being auctioned off right now?," in reference to the film.

"I almost never became a director," he added. "There was such a shortage of role models. I'm so proud to be a part of a time at the beginning of a movement where I feel like the best films in every genre are being brought to me by my fellow black directors."

Jordan Peele
Jordan Peele with his Oscar. Getty Images
Oscars