Regina King has won the best supporting actress Oscar at the 91st Academy Awards for her role in If Beale Street Could Talk.

It was King’s first Oscar nomination, and she triumphed in a field containing Amy Adams, who played Dick Cheney’s wife Lynne in Vice, and Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone who played Sarah Churchill and Abigail Masham, respectively, in The Favourite. King was the strong favourite for the award, having taken the Golden Globe for best supporting actress. However, she lost the Bafta to Weisz, and was surprisingly not even nominated for the Screen Actors Guild award.

Adapted from James Baldwin’s 1974 novel, If Beale Street Could Talk was director Barry Jenkins’ follow-up to the Oscar-winning Moonlight, and King was cast as Sharon Rivers, the mother of lead character Tish (played by KiKi Layne).

Prior to If Beale Street Could Talk, King was probably best known for her TV work, which included an award-winning role on the series American Crime, and an Emmy-nominated spell on The Leftovers.

In her speech, King paid tribute to Baldwin, calling him “one of the greatest artists of our time”. Jenkins, she said, “nurtured” Baldwin’s baby, “nurturing her and supporting her with so much love and support”.

It was therefore, she continued, appropriate for her to be standing on stage “as an example of what it looks like when support and love is poured into someone”.

King then addressed her mother, who had accompanied her to the event, saying she loved her and thanking her for teaching her about God’s abiding faith in her.

“God is good all the time,” she concluded.