Here’s a look at some of the most unforgettable moments in Oscars history:
– And the best photo goes to… Oops –
The most memorable moment in recent Oscars history occurred in 2017, when the Academy’s top prize was briefly awarded to the dreamy musical “La La Land,” when the coming-of-age drama coming of age “Moonlight” was the real winner. It turns out that the accountants at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the company responsible for tallying and safeguarding the votes and results of the Oscars, had given presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway the wrong envelope.
They ended up with a duplicate Best Actress envelope — an award that went to Emma Stone for “La La Land” — instead of the one that won “Moonlight” for Best Picture.
The embarrassing mix-up, the worst mistake in Oscar history, has become known as “Envelopegate.”
“It was a heartbreaking fiasco,” wrote Entertainment Weekly critic Jeff Jensen at the time.
“You felt embarrassed for Dunaway and Beatty, who clearly knew something was wrong when he opened the envelope but didn’t know how to proceed.”
– Political protest –
In March 1973, the legendary Marlon Brando won Best Actor for his work in the popular epic ‘The Godfather’, beating out a remarkable group of contenders – Michael Caine, Peter O’Toole, Laurence Olivier and Paul Winfield.
But Brando was not present, and actress and Apache activist Sacheen Littlefeather took the stage in her place.
When actor Roger Moore offered her the gold statuette, she raised her hand in denial, and he and co-host Liv Ullmann backed off as she began to speak.
In front of a stunned audience, Littlefeather said Brando “unfortunately cannot accept this very generous award” as he wanted to protest the treatment of Native Americans by the film industry.
His statement was met with applause, cheers and a few boos.
– It’s a tie! –
There have been a handful of ties in Oscar history, but the one that got a lot of attention came in 1969, when Barbra Streisand and Katharine Hepburn both won Best Actress.
“The winner – it’s a tie!” exclaimed presenter Ingrid Bergman.
Streisand won the honour, her first Oscar, for her performance as Fanny Brice in “Funny Girl,” while Hepburn — the all-time leader among actors and actresses with Oscars at age four — triumphed for ” The Lion in Winter”.
Only Streisand attended the ceremony.
“Hello Beautiful !” she said looking at the golden statuette.
– Lip lock –
Sure, actors are thrilled when they join the hallowed pantheon of Oscar winners, but in 2003, Adrien Brody definitely went a bit too far when he nabbed the Best Actor statuette for “The Pianist.”
When he took the stage to accept his award from the previous year’s Best Actress winner Halle Berry, he stunned the audience – and Berry – when he swept her away in a brief kiss. but passionate on the lips.
“It wasn’t planned. I had no idea,” Berry said in a 2017 interview, explaining that she was caught completely off guard.
But she confirmed that she had just “done it”.
For his part, Brody said in 2015 that “time slowed down” for him at the time, but the stunt almost cost him his chance to give a speech.
“By the time I finished kissing her…they were already flashing the sign saying, ‘Get off the stage, your time is up,'” he said during an interview at the Toronto Film Festival.
– Will history repeat itself? –
Sixty years ago, Rita Moreno won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of feisty Anita in the original film version of ‘West Side Story’ – and history could repeat itself on Sunday if Ariana DeBose wins for the same role.
“I can’t believe it! My God. I’ll leave you with this,” Moreno said in the briefest of speeches after accepting the gold statuette from Rock Hudson in 1962.
The Oscar win — the first for a Latina — was Moreno’s first step on the path to earning EGOT’s rare status, as a winner of competitive Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards. There are only 16 EGOTs in the story.
This time around, DeBose is the big favorite to win the Oscar for her new version of Anita in Steven Spielberg’s reimagining of the musical classic.
“She was fabulous, she was divine,” Moreno said of DeBose in an AFP interview.