Oscars 2024: From Olivia Colman to Denzel Washington, most memorable acceptance speeches of all time

CNN Central News & Network-ITDC India Epress / ITDC News Bhopal: From Olivia Colman blowing a raspberry at the teleprompter to Cuba Gooding Jr. saying ‘I love everybody’ on stage, here are some of our favorite Oscar speeches.

Going into Oscar night, we watch to see if our favourite films will win. But when the ceremony ends, what we’re left with is how they made us feel, and that comes down to the winning speeches. Did they make us laugh or cry or cheer? Or all of the above? Giving the perfect speech is difficult, and not everyone has that skill. (Also read: Oscars 2024: From Cillian Murphy to Paul Giamatti and Bradley Cooper, a guide to Best Actor)

Here’s a list of memorable speeches that tomorrow’s winners should try and emulate.

Spielberg’s moving speech for Schindler’s List

When Schindler’s List won Best Picture in 1994, Steven Spielberg was already backstage having just received his Best Director Oscar from Clint Eastwood. In his short speech, Spielberg made an impassioned plea to educators to teach children about the horrors of the Holocaust so that it would never be forgotten. But the most moving part came later, when one of his producing partners, Branko Lustig started his speech by introducing himself and reading out the number tattooed on his arm when he was a child at Auschwitz. He proceeded to speak about his experience at the concentration camp and his speech was almost as powerful as the film itself.

Denzel Washington honors Sidney Poitier in his Best Actor speech

2002 inadvertently became the greatest year for African-American actors when both Halle Berry and Denzel Washington won for Best Actress and Best Actor, respectively. In addition, the Academy chose to give the legendary Sidney Poitier an honorary Oscar at the same ceremony. When Denzel won, he acknowledged Sidney in his speech saying he would always follow in Poitier’s footsteps. And in a touching moment, the two actors raised their Oscars to each other.

Marketa Irglova gets a second chance after being played off for Best Song

Irish musicians Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova came out of nowhere to win Best Song for Falling Slowly from the lovely musical Once, in which they also starred. Hansard gave a lovely speech but used up all their time and the orchestra played them off before Marketa could speak. When the show returned from a commercial break, host Jon Stewart made a beautiful gesture apologizing to Irglova and calling her back onstage to give her speech. Irglova took the opportunity to talk about the power of dreaming big, a truly inspirational speech.