Best moments from the Oscars acceptance speeches

George Back
·Producer, Yahoo Entertainment

Inspirational acceptance speeches filled the 90th Academy Awards, as winners continued this award season’s inclusive dialogue.

Best Actress winner Frances McDormand asked all the female nominees to stand up during her acceptance speech. She told the audience, “We all have stories to tell and projects we need financed.”

McDormand ended her speech by saying, “I have two words to leave with you tonight, ladies and gentlemen: inclusion rider.”

Speaking from the perspective of an immigrant, The Shape of Water director Guillermo del Toro talked about bringing cultures together. “The greatest thing that our art does and our industry does is erase the line in the sand,” he said. “We should continue doing that, when the world tells us to make it deeper.”

Del Toro’s sentiments were echoed by the creators of Coco, who were happy not only to win an Oscar but that their movie represented a different culture. “With Coco we tried to take a step forward toward a world where all children can see characters in movies that look and talk and live like they do,” said director Lee Unkrich. “Marginalized people deserve to feel like they belong. Representation matters.”

There were many wonderful speeches throughout the show. Some of the other highlights were Sam Rockwell dedicating his Oscar to his late friend Philip Seymour Hoffman and The Silent Child writer Rachel Shenton signing her speech. But my personal favorite was when Allison Janney joked, “I did it all by myself.”

See some of the most empowering female speeches from recent Oscars:


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