Halle Berry laments that her 2002 Academy Award win for Best Actress wasn't the watershed moment she initially thought it was. The actress made history by becoming the first woman of color to receive the award for her starring role in Monster’s Ball and was visibly emotional on the night during her acceptance speech.

Berry took the opportunity to pay tribute to those who’d come before her, particularly Dorothy Dandridge, the first woman of color ever to be nominated for the award. Berry had received many plaudits just three years early for portraying the Hollywood icon in the film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.

She also famously remarked: "This moment is so much bigger than me. It’s for every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened."

Sadly in the 20 years that have now followed, not one woman of color has been recognized for the honor since. There have been six nominees in that time Gabourey Sibide, Quvenzhane Wallis, Ruth Negga, Cynthia Erivo, Andra Day and Viola Davis, who was nominated twice in 2011 for The Help and 2020 for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, but they all came up short on the night.

Berry recently spoke to The New York Times and lamented how looking back, her win did not open the door for other women of color at all. She opened up about the situation stating, "The fact that there's no one standing next to me is heartbreaking."

"We can’t always judge success or progress by how many awards we have," she added. "Awards are the icing on the cake ... but does that mean that if we don’t get the exceptionally excellent nod, that we were not great, and we’re not successful, and we’re not changing the world with our art, and our opportunities aren’t growing?"

Women of color have fared significantly better in the Best Supporting Actress category, though, with a combined seven wins since 2002, including at this year's awards where Ariana DeBose was recognized for her role in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story. Considering only Whoopi Goldberg and Hattie McDaniel had collected the award in the 74 shows prior, it has shown a marked improvement for representation.

Representation at the Academy Awards has been a hotly contested topic over the past several years. Will and Jada Pinkett Smith famously boycotted the 2016 awards as a form of protest against the lack of black representation in the major award categories, claiming the ceremony was 'so white'.

That boycott recently hit the news again recently, though, after the Smiths made a splash at this year's ceremony with Will going up on stage and hitting presenter Chris Rock over a joke the pair took offense to. Rock was also the host in 2016, and he called out Jada at the time by joking, "Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna's panties. I wasn't invited."

In the past six years, diversity has at least certainly improved with films like Moonlight and Parasite winning Best Picture, Jordan Peele winning Best Original Screenplay, and Chloe Zhao winning Best Director to name a few notable honors.