“We all face a moral choice,” one winner told the worldwide audience. “But luckily, even a nobody is more powerful than you think”
Attendees at Hollywood’s biggest night continued to use their platforms to condemn government overreach that has resulted in the killings of U.S. citizens and immigrant neighbors and disrupted lives, communities, and local economies. One of the most pointed moments came from Best Documentary Feature Film winner David Borenstein, who said that his documentary film, “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” is about “how you lose your country. And what we saw when working with this footage is that you lose it through countless, small, little acts of complicity.”
“When we act complicit … when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities,” Borenstein continued. “When we don’t say anything when oligarchs take over the media and control how we can produce it and consume it. We all face a moral choice. But luckily, even a nobody is more powerful than you think.” The documentary is “a primary school teacher’s record of the indoctrination of his pupils to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” The Guardian noted.
Hamnet costume designer Malgosia Turzanska is wearing the most fabulous dress covered in safety pins.She's also wearing a small badge saying 'Ice Out!' Photograph: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP in The Guardianwww.theguardian.com/film/live/20…
Both inside and outside Hollywood’s Dolby Theater, attendees also continued to wear pins condemning the out-of-control ICE agency, which confirmed this past weekend that yet another immigrant died while in its custody. Mohammad Nazeer Paktyawal, an Afghan refugee who served alongside American troops and was a dad of six, had been detained for less than a day. “The administration is on track for the deadliest year in ICE detention in more than two decades,” the Independent reports.
Malgosia Turzanska, a costume designer who was nominated this year for “Hamnet,” wore an “ICE OUT” pin on an original gown emblazoned with safety pins. The Polish-American designer is herself an immigrant, obtaining her American citizenship in 2017. “Singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles appeared on the carpet wearing the ‘ICE OUT’ pins the stars have been wearing all season,” the Daily Beast reported, “just a month after performing an original song at an anti-ICE protest in New York City.”
The night before the ceremony, a massive “ICE OUT” projection on a building near the Dolby Theater also demanded the federal government withdraw its masked and deadly forces from American communities including Charlotte, Portland, and Chicago. “History will remember,” the projection said. “ICE won’t quit and neither can we.”
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The messaging should strike a chord for both attendees and viewers at home, considering that many seats inside the theater would have been empty if it weren’t for the contributions of filmmakers and artists with immigrant ties.
“This year, more than one-third of the nominations (6) for Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners’ went to immigrants,” including veteran actor Delroy Lindo, the American Immigration Council (AIC) said in a report. Lindo, who has entertained American audiences in movies like “Get Shorty,” “Crooklyn,” and “Heist,” was born in England and lived for some time in Canada before settling down with his family in the U.S. at the age of 16.
Other nominations for “Sinners” included Best Cinematography, which “went to the child of an immigrant, Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who has discussed how her Filipino background helped shape her vision,” AIC continued. Sunday night, Arkapaw became the first woman to win the Oscar for cinematography. “During her speech, Arkapaw asked for all the women in the audience to stand, saying, ‘I don’t get here without you guys,’” The Los Angeles Times reported.
“Sinners” also got another win when composer Ludwig Göransson took home his third Oscar for Best Original Score. Göransson, a Swedish immigrant, previously won for 2019’s “Black Panther” and 2024’s “Oppenheimer.” And, there wouldn’t have been much of a Best Original Song category without immigrants: three of the five nominated songs were performed or written by immigrants, AIC said.
“Among the four nominations that went to Americans for the British film ‘Hamnet,’ all are immigrants,” the report continued. “Chloé Zhao, a Chinese-American filmmaker, was nominated for best picture, best director, and best adapted screenplay, which is shared with U.K.-author Maggie O’Farrell.” In 2021, Zhao became only the second woman in Oscars history to be named Best Director, winning for “Nomadland.”
“Of the 10 films that received the most nominations (a combined 80), 28.8% went to either immigrants (15) or the children of immigrants (8),” the report said. “Given that immigrants comprise 11.2% of the workforce in the U.S. film industry, according to the American Immigration Council analysis of the 2024 American Community Survey, this year’s Oscars represent an especially strong showing.”
Sunday night’s Oscars closed out an award season that has been permeated with outrage over the federal government’s abuses of power. Attendees at shows including the Golden Globe, SAG Actor, and Grammy Awards wore “ICE OUT” pins. At the latter, Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny received a standing ovation after opening his Best Música Urbana Album acceptance speech “with powerful words” directed at ICE, as People reported.
“Before I say thanks to God, I’m gonna say ICE out. We’re not savage. We’re not animals. We’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans,” he said. “The hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that’s more powerful is love. We don’t hate them – we love our people, we love our family. And that’s the way to do it.”
British singer-songwriter Olivia Dean “made a point to recognize her background and her family history with immigration,” Rolling Stone reported at the time. “I want to say I’m up here as a granddaughter of an immigrant. I wouldn’t be here,” she said during her speech accepting the award for Best New Artist. “I’m a product of bravery, and I think those people deserve to be celebrated.”
Other moments of celebration from Sunday’s Academy Awards included wins for Netflix’s “Kpop Demon Hunters” sensation, including Best Original Song and Best Animated Feature. “Co-director and writer Maggie Kang and producer Michelle Wong became the first people of South Korean descent to ever win in the animated feature category,” NBC News reported. “They accepted the award with co-director Chris Appelhans.”
“To all the fans who got us here and for all of those who look like me, sorry that it took us so long to see us in a movie like this,” Kang said. “But it is here, and that means that the next generations don’t have to go longing. This is for Korea and for Koreans everywhere.”
