Although the 2022’s Academy Awards has faced many rescheduling issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been finally given the official date for the ceremony. Taking place on the 27th of March, the Los Angeles Dolby Theater will soon be filled with tremendous talent. This year, The Power Of The Dog leads the game with 12 Academy Award nominations, but West Side Story, Spencer, Belfast and Don’t Look Up are other repeatedly mentioned picture names on the nominees list.
Of course, The Academy Awards wouldn’t be The Academy Awards without some controversy (both major and minor). With any given year, there are bound to be big Oscar snubs, but perhaps the most concerning decision the Academy has made is pulling categories from its telecast, a decision the institution claims came from an ultimatum posed by its network ABC. Aside from the negatives, one thing we can always count on with the Oscars are the moving acceptance speeches. Here are the seven best Academy Awards acceptance speeches from the 2020s so far, ranked.
Related: The Best Picture Oscar Nominees of 2022, in Order of Most Likely to Win

7 Brad Pitt — Best Supporting Actor, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Directed by Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was already expected to become a box office hit even before its release. In addition, having a star cast consisting of big names such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, would make failing those expectations disastrous. But the movie did indeed end up grossing $374 million worldwide and receiving ten Academy Award nominations. One of those was Pitt’s nomination for Best Supporting Actor, which he ended up taking home, making it his first acting Oscar trophy. The movie itself carries heavy political messages, therefore it was no surprise that Pitt decided to use his acceptance speech to say something meaningful. Even before thanking Tarantino, his kids, and remarking, “Leo, I’ll ride on your coattails any day, man. The view is fantastic,” Pitt alluded to the impeachment trial against former president Trump: “The 45 seconds I have to give this speech is 45 seconds longer than the Senate allowed John Bolton this week.”

6 Daniel Kaluuya — Best Supporting Actor, Judas and the Black Messiah

In the same manner with Pitt, Daniel Kaluuya received his second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in the biographical drama Judas and the Black Messiah. Kaluuya received high praise for his portrayal of the Black Panther chairman Fred Hampton, as he was pushing through many personal and political struggles. The actor gave his personal thanks to the Black Panther Party advocate by saying: “What a man. What a man. How blessed we are that we lived in a lifetime where he existed … Thank you for your light. He was on this earth for 21 years, 21 years and found a way to feed kids breakfast, educate kids, give free medical care against all the odds.” What truly startled the audience and especially his mother sitting in the said audience, was when Kaluuya decided to ‘celebrate life’: “We’re breathing, walking, it’s incredible. It’s incredible. Like, it’s incredible. My mom met dad, they had sex. It’s amazing.” He definitely won’t ever hear the end of it from his mother.

5 Karen Rupert Toliver and Matthew A. Cherry — Best Animated Short Film, Hair Love

Hair Love used just seven minutes to tell an emotionally complex story with contemporary Black characters during Black History Month. Not only does the short animation celebrate Black hair, it also shows a beautiful portrayal of a disabled character. Karen Rupert Toliver became the first Black woman that has received an award in this category. In her acceptance speech, she pointed out how representation in cartoons matters: “Because in cartoons, that’s how we first see our movies, and that’s how we shape our lives and how we see the world.” Cherry added they wanted to normalize Black hair and didn’t forget the ongoing political debates surrounding the topic: “There’s a very important issue that’s out there, the CROWN Act, and if we can help get this passed in all 50 states, we can help stories like Deandre Arnold’s to stop from happening.” CROWN Act is legislation that prevents employers and schools K-12 from discriminating against hairstyles typically done by people with Afro-textured strands.

4 Chloé Zhao — Best Director, Nomandland

The fact that Chloé Zhao is first woman of color and the second woman overall to win in Best Director probably tells you a lot about the outdated Academy Awards standards. Zhao wrote, produced, directed and also edited Nomadland on a budget of $5 million. Making history, Zhao decided to speak about the Chinese beliefs of goodness: “We [Zhao and her dad] would memorize classic Chinese poems and texts, and we would recite them together and try to finish each other’s sentences.​​​​​​​ There’s one that I remember so dearly, it’s called the Three Character Classics. The first phrase goes… ‘People at birth are inherently good.'” To dedicate her speech to classical Chinese texts on an Anglo-centric stage and at a time when anti-Asian and anti-Chinese sentiments in the US were at their highest is more than we could have ever asked for.
Related: Here’s Every Woman Who Has Been Nominated for the Best Director Oscar

3 Youn Yuh-jung — Best Supporting Actress, Minari

If we’re talking about iconic Oscar acceptance speeches, we definitely can’t skip Youn Yuh-Jung’s. She became the first South Korean actress to ever win at Academy Awards, the category being Best Supporting Actress for her role in Minari, a movie about South Korean immigrants who try making it in the 80s United States. When she started her acceptance speech with ““Mr Brad Pitt, finally. Nice to meet you. Where were you while we were filming in Tulsa? It’s [an] honour to meet you,” the media jumped on it and began calling it a fangirling moment. The real truth is that she’s calling Pitt out, because he was a producer on Minari and hadn’t deigned to meet her or come to set. She went on to jokingly talk about being simply luckier than the other nominees, adding “And also, maybe, [this] is American hospitality for the Korean actor.” Youn completely stole the show and made every actor in the audience laugh.

2 Joaquin Phoenix — Best Actor, Joker

The Academy Award for Best Actor in Joker was the third nomination and first win Joaquin Phoenix managed to earn in this category. Joker was one of the big talks of the night with so much as 11 nominations altogether. When he came up on stage to accept the award, everyone knew we were about to get a phenomenal acceptance speech. Phoenix decided to talk about the topic of fighting injustice. “I think, whether we’re talking about gender inequality or racism or queer rights or indigenous rights or animal rights, we’re talking about the fight against injustice.” The actor blamed the cancel culture for delaying one’s personal growth and pushed people to help and support each other. Despite the applause trying to push him off-stage, Phoenix let his voice break upon mentioning his late brother at the end of his speech.

1 Bong Joon-ho — Best Director, Parasite

From the six nominations that Parasite received, Bong Joon-ho appeared on the stage to accept four of them. After he won the award for Best Director, he thanked each and every director nominated in the category with him, but especially highlighted Scorsese: “When I was young and studying cinema, there was a saying that I carved deep into my heart, which is that ‘The most personal is the most creative.'” Upon winning the Best International Feature Oscar, Bong beautifully called out every native English speaker: “Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” Parasite made history that night — and deservedly so.

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