HOLLYWOOD, Feb 25 — The 91st Academy Awards gala today was full of moving speeches and pithy jokes. Here are some of the most memorable quotes from Hollywood’s biggest night:
In bed with Oscar
“I am putting my Oscar statuette in bed with me, between me and my husband.”
— Best Actress winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite)
Opening doors
“To have an Oscar for Moonlight... gets you into other rooms. I have been wanting to stretch my legs for a very long time and this is the first time I get to stretch my legs.”
— Mahershala Ali, best supporting actor Oscar winner for Green Book, on how his first Academy Award for Moonlight created new career opportunities
Big dreams
“I think about what it would have been like to tell little bubba Rami that one day this might happen to him. And I think his curly-haired little mind would have been blown.”
— Rami Malek, best actor winner for his portrayal of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody
The power of love
“I’m an example of what it looks like when support and love is poured into someone.”
— Regina King, best supporting actress winner for If Beale Street Could Talk
One ocean
“I grew up watching foreign language films, learning so much from them, being inspired — films like Citizen Kane, Jaws. And there are no waves, there’s only the ocean. I think the nominees tonight have proven that we are part of the same ocean.”
— Alfonso Cuaron, whose Roma won three Oscars, including his second for best director
Oscars not so white
“Without April Reign, #OscarsSoWhite, and the former president of the Academy [of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences], Cheryl Isaacs, I wouldn’t be here tonight. They opened up the Academy to make the Academy look more like America, more diverse.”
— Veteran director Spike Lee, a winner for best adapted screenplay for race drama BlacKkKlansman
Wakanda forever
“Marvel may have created the first black superhero, but through costume design, we turned him into an African king.”
— Black Panther costume designer Ruth Carter, accepting her award
Driving is bad
“I’m snakebit. I mean, every time somebody is driving somebody, I lose.”
— Spike Lee, drawing a parallel between how his film Do The Right Thing was snubbed in favour of Driving Miss Daisy in 1990, and then how Green Book bested BlacKkKlansman for best picture this year
No host, no wall
“Just a quick update, in case you’re confused: there is no host tonight, there won’t be a popular movie category, and Mexico is not paying for the wall.”
— Actress-comedian Maya Rudolph poking fun at some of the controversies confronted by the Academy ahead of the Oscars, and a jab at Donald Trump for good measure
Period
“I can’t believe a film about menstruation just won an Oscar!”
— Rayka Zehtabchi, director of Period. End of Sentence. the winning best documentary short film about fighting the stigma associated with menstruation in rural India. — AFP
