Oscars 2023: Jamie Lee Curtis, Michelle Yeoh and other emotional and vengeful speeches from the gala

The Oscars are not simply a distribution of awards voted on by a series of academics, nor a showcase where stars can show off their best clothes, but they are often the ideal place to launch a protest message capable of moving and encouraging all the people who are listening to it, both from the theater itself where it is held and from home. This 95th edition would be no different, so the Dolby Theater has once again become the home where the largest film festival in the world is celebrated, leaving, of course, already iconic speeches. Let’s review the most interesting.

No matter how much something repeats itself, it loses its value. This is the case with Guillermo del Toro and his “Pinocchio by Guillermo del Toro” for best animated film, since the Mexican director has been tasked with reclaiming animation as cinema (and not as a medium) in all awards he has won; the Oscars, of course, would not have been outdone. “Animation is cinema, animation is ready to go to the next level, let’s continue the conversation, let’s help each other. I want to thank the love of my life, Kim, my children, my mother, my father who are here with me (in his heart). I’m your son and I love you”said the director.

Likewise, another of the practically sung Oscars was Ke Huy Quan’s for “All at Once Everywhere.” The Vietnamese-American actor already moved the world when he won the Golden Globe, alluding to both Steven Spielberg and his roles in ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’ and ‘The Goonies’. Huy Quan recalled his origins in a speech that ended in tears: “My journey began on a ship. I spent a year in a refugee camp. And somehow I ended up here, on the biggest stage in Hollywood. They say stories like this only happen in movies. I can’t believe I was happening to me. This is the american dream! Dreams are something you have to believe in. I almost gave up on mine. To all of you please keep your dream alive”. For his part, Brendan Fraser did the same after winning Best Actor for ‘The Whale,’ going back to his traumatic origins: “I started 30 years ago and things weren’t easy, but I had something I didn’t appreciate until I stopped having it. Thank you for this recognition. I wouldn’t have had this without the rest of the team”.

And we can’t forget Jamie Lee Curtis, who ended up passing Angela Bassett on the right and her role in ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’. The actress who plays the hilarious civil servant in ‘All at the same time everywhere’, wanted to remember all those who helped her in her long career, the one that began in 1978 with ‘Halloween’: “I know it feels like I’m here alone, but I’m not. It’s hundreds of people. It’s a lot of people… To my family, my beautiful husband, Christopher Guest; our daughters, Annie and Ruby; my sister Kelly I just won an Oscar! To all the people who have supported the genre films I’ve made all these years, the thousands and hundreds of thousands of people, we just won an Oscar together. And to my mother and father who have been nominated for Oscars in different categories: I just won an Oscar”.

Michelle Yeoh has been the leading voice when it comes to reclaiming the age issue in women: “To all the boys and girls who look like me, who are watching me tonight. This is a beacon of hope and possibility. This is proof that you can dream big, that dreams come true. And girls, don’t let anyone tell you your time is up, never give up”. The actress concluded her speech by praising her mothers and emphasizing that they were making history: “I have to dedicate it to my mother, to all the mothers in the world because they are the real superheroes and without them none of us would be here. She is 84 years old and I take it with me. She is watching it from Malaysia with my family. I take it with me this (the golden statuette) at home. Thank you for inspiring me to be here today. Thank you, thank you to the Academy, this is history.”.

Room for scratchers

Host Jimmy Kimmel made sure that the more emotional didn’t completely overshadow the more acidic, setting to work releasing some of the funniest taunts. He recalled the famous incident from the previous edition between Chris Rock and Will Smith: “If anyone in the room commits an act of violence, you’ll automatically receive the Best Actor Oscar and a 90-minute speech, promised”. Not even Damien Chazelle and company will be happy, and not only for the few nominations, but because the presenter has hurled a poisoned dart at them: “There are things a show can’t do: It can’t lose $100 million at the box office. Is there anyone from ‘Babylon’ in the room?”.

But the thing doesn’t stop there, and is that Kimmel had something for everyone. Next to receive for not attending the gala were Tom Cruise and James Cameron, no less: “The two boys who most insisted on us going to the cinema today did not come to the cinema.”. However, he took the opportunity to criticize the absence of women in the Best Director category, relating to the fact that the director of “Avatar: The Sense of Water” did not appear there: “I mean, how come the Academy doesn’t name the guy who directed ‘Avatar’? What do they think he is, a woman?”.