Even if you tuned into the Oscars for only a minute or two last night, odds are you saw something political charged. Here’s our list of 6 moments that brought awareness back to the big screen:
1: Leo used his time in the limelight to yell at climate polluters
After a ton of nominations, Leo finally took home his first Oscar. Even after so much controversy surrounding Leo and his lack of Academy recognition, rather than do the standard thanking of friends / family / loved ones, Leo took the opportunity to remind us all the planet is dying, and that it’s our responsibility to fix that.
Leo let us know that “Climate change is real, and it’s happening right now, it is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating. We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters or the big corporations, but who speak for all of humanity, for the indigenous people of the world…and for those people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed.”
I would have put a lovely video of Leo’s moving moment in this article, but the Academy has done that incredibly annoying thing of making their videos only available to people who live in the US. Don’t hate me.
2: Gollum hates Donald Trump
My favourite computer person, Andy Serkis, also used his time on stage to let his political views be known. Serkis was presenting the Oscar for best visual effects, but before opening that red envelope to announce the winner, he let this one slip:
“If you were to put on a motion capture suit right now, you could play a planet threatening monster, to Donald Trump and – actually, that’s not very diverse, but anyway.” Very subtle m8.
3:Academy prez acknowledges that Hollywood needs to do better
For what I believe is a first in the the Oscar’s history, last night the President of the Academy, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, popped onto the stage to help the Academy address the recent outrage over #OscarsSoWhite. She had a lot of great things to say, including:
“Our audiences are global, and rich in diversity, and every facet of our industry should be as well. Everyone in the Hollywood community has a role to play in bringing about the change the industry needs, so we can accurately reflect the world today”
Well said Cheryl, we’ll see if the Academy can deliver on these commitments this year.
4: Joe Biden asks everyone watching to recite the pledge against sexual assault
As soon as American Vice President Joe Biden walked on stage, a standing ovation erupted from all our favourite film stars in the audience. As soon as Joe could get the excited crowd to get back into their seats, he brought everyone’s attention away from the glamour of Hollywood, to have a very serious conversation about sexual assault. He asked everyone attending, and watching from home to join him in taking the pledge against sexual assault.
Biden let us know that “Too many women and men, on and off college campuses, are still victims of sexual abuse,” Biden continued. “Let’s change the culture so that no abused woman or man ever feels like they have to ask themselves, ‘What did I do?’ They did nothing wrong.”
Biden’s presentation was followed by the most moving performance of the night. Lady Gaga.
5: Lady Gaga’s moving performance of “Till it Happens to You”
That moment at 2:32. Shivers. Every. Damn. Time.
Straight after VP Biden got off the stage, Gaga took centre stage with what was honestly the most moving moment of the whole awards night. During the performance of “Till it happens to you” (a track about how people deal with sexual assault) Gaga was joined on stage by survivors of sexual assault with messages of hope written on their arms. If you only watch one video from this list, make it this one.
6: Sam Smith Dedicated his Oscar to the LGBTI community.
A visibly shaking Sam Smith nervously accepted his Oscar for Best Original Song. The 23 year old noted in his acceptance speech that he had recently read an interview with Sir Ian McKellen, where Sir Ian mentioned that an openly gay man had never before won an Oscar, so Sam dedicated his win to whole of the LGBTI community. A beautiful thing to do, even if he wasn’t completely on the money… There have actually been a handful of LGBTI people to take Oscars home. But the sentiment was still there, it was still touching, Sam Smith is still great and “Money on my Mind” is STILL an absolute banger.
Of course it wasn’t all good news. There was controversy surrounding some pretty dicey race jokes, but certainly in my mind, the good FAR outweighed the bad.
The post Hollywood’s Political Awakening AKA: The Top 6 Politically Charged Moments From The 2016 Oscars appeared first on FYA.