You never know what might happen when the movie’s biggest stars convene for the Oscars. The Academy Awards are a ceremony to celebrate and honor the year’s best films. The ceremonies where the favorites dominate and the host remains PG are uninspiring. The ceremonies with major upsets, celebrity gossip, and memorable performances are the ones that live forever.
Remember: It’s a TV show. The more drama, the better the ceremony. Let’s revisit seven of the most iconic Oscar moments of the last 10 years.
2017: Moonlight beats La La Land for Best Picture
If you’re on the Academy Awards stage and start a speech with “This is not a joke,” many people will naturally think it’s a gag. Thankfully, La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz held up the winning card and proclaimed, “Moonlight, Best Picture.” Poor Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. The duo was being honored for 50 years of Bonnie and Clyde at the 2017 Academy Awards. Yet they’ll forever be associated with the Best Picture error.
How can you not feel for everyone involved in La La Land? Dunaway says “La La Land,” and it’s a rush to the stage to hold the Oscar statuette. Within minutes, it’s all taken away. Every creative who worked on La La Land probably has a grudge against PricewaterhouseCoopers for the envelope snafu. It’s a rare event where someone can feel sad for those who had Best Picture snatched away and joyful for those who worked on Moonlight, a true underdog story and one of the unlikeliest Best Picture wins of the century.
2019: Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper give an emotional rendition of Shallow
There’s chemistry, and then there’s what Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper had during their performance of Shallow at the 2019 Oscars. As the Star Is Born co-stars rose from their seats and walked to the stage, we were in for something special. As a side note, their entrance is as cocky as it gets, and some real movie star stuff. 10 out of 10, no notes.
Cooper and Gaga performed a steamy rendition of Shallow for the next four minutes. The meteoric hit from A Star Is Born hit a new stratosphere when Cooper and Gaga sang the final few words cozied up on the bench with their eyes closed. The smile Gaga gives at the end is a look only reserved for people in love. Hopefully, these two work together again. The world needs it.
2020: Bong Joon-ho thanks Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese during Best Director speech
Parasite did the unthinkable at the 2020 Oscars. The South Korean thriller became the first non-English-language film to win Best Picture. The genuine reactions of Tom Hanks and Charlize Theron begging the producers to let the Best Picture-winning cast speak a little longer could have been on this list. However, Parasite belongs to Bong Joon-ho, so his speech gets the nod.
Bong defeated a stacked Best Director field that included Martin Scorsese, Todd Phillips, Sam Mendes, and Quentin Tarantino. With his translator by his side, Bong gave arguably one of the greatest speeches ever made by a director. Bong thanked Scorsese for inspiring his cinematic love and Tarantino for championing his films when no one in the US would. Bong sharing the spotlight with two visionaries like Scorsese and Tarantino is as good as it gets.
2024: Ryan Gosling steals the show as Ken
Ryan Gosling is a multitalented actor with dashing looks and magnetic charisma. On 99% of nights, he’s known as Ryan. At the 2024 Oscars, Ryan was just Ken. Most years, the Best Original Song nominees are performed during the telecast. Unfortunately, many songs are either forgettable or performed by unknown artists.
Like Gaga and Cooper’s Shallow, Gosling’s I’m Just Ken is on the Mount Rushmore of Oscar performances. The world was in for a treat from the moment Gosling showed up in the bedazzled pink suit. From the choreography and theatrics to the showmanship and bravado, Gosling made us all channel our inner Ken for a few minutes. Gosling might be the coolest A-list star right now, and honestly, it’s unfair. You can’t be that cool, talented, and handsome.
2023: Ke Huy Quan gives a heartfelt speech after winning Best Supporting Actor
Ke Huy Quan embodies the phrase, “Never give up.” Quan became a popular child star after playing Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Richard “Data” Wang in The Goonies. Frankly, he’s the only guy in Hollywood who can make Harrison Ford smile for a picture. That deserves an Oscar itself. The roles eventually dried up for Quan, and he transitioned to below-the-line work for two decades.
Then, Quan showed up in Everything Everywhere All at Once as Waymond Wang, the kindhearted husband of Michelle Yeoh’s Evelyn Wang. Quan’s scene-stealing performance led to dominance during the awards season, culminating with Best Supporting Actor at the 2023 Oscars. Quan’s heartfelt speech will leave you in tears, reminding everyone keep dreaming. “I almost gave up on mine,” Quan said. “To all of you out there, please keep your dreams alive.”
2022: CODA wins Best Picture
Was CODA the best movie of 2021? Probably not. It’s still much better than people give it credit for. Sian Heder’s coming-of-age drama follows a teenage girl named Ruby (Emilia Jones), the only hearing member of her deaf family in a Massachusetts coastal town. While her family can’t hear, Ruby loves music and dreams of becoming a singer. CODA is a warm blanket of emotion. Once Ruby’s father (Troy Kotsur) feels Ruby’s vocal cords while she sings on the back of the truck, it’s waterworks.
The Power of the Dog dominated the precursor awards, but momentum for CODA grew substantially after the Best Ensemble win at the SAG Awards. Game of Thrones Tyrion Lannister once said, “There’s nothing in the world more powerful than a good story.” Though critically acclaimed, The Power of the Dog had no narrative. On the other hand, CODA was a sentimental play and a movie that made everyone feel good coming out of COVID-19. Listen to that scream at 2:10 when CODA wins Best Picture. That’s a good story.
2022: The Slap
Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars was a disgraceful act. The slap completely derailed the ceremony on a night that would have belonged to Smith anyway, thanks to his acting win for King Richard. Instead, Smith’s resume must include a line at the top about the slap.
Let’s speak freely now that the formalities are out of the way. The slap was one of the rare “where were you” moments. The ABC broadcast censored the slap, so it felt like Smith and Rock were in on the joke. My word was that that was not true. Smith slapped the you-know-what out of Rock for a joke that wouldn’t even be in the top 10 of the most offensive things the comedian has ever said. I doubt there will ever be another slap. Then again, how many could have predicted that Smith would smack Rock on a live television show?
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