Oscars: hits and misses
AWARDS: SEVERAL STARS HIT BACK AT US PRESIDENT
Viola Davis gets Oscar as best supporting actress for Fences.
Hollywood seized the global platform of the Oscars on Sunday to take on Donald Trump, but stars kept the tone light and inclusive after the US president’s divisive debut.
With Trump famous for his angry Twitter attacks on critics, Hollywood’s stars made jibes about incurring his wrath but mostly adopted a celebratory mood, with multiple winners highlighting their origins as immigrants, minorities or foreigners.
“This broadcast is being watched live by millions of Americans and around the world in more than 225 countries that now hate us,” the awards’ host, Jimmy Kimmel, said in his opening monologue. The late-night comedian quipped that Trump, who pulled off a political upset win with his campaign that targeted immigration, had taken the heat off Hollywood and its annual gala.
“I want to say thank you to President Trump. Remember last year when it seemed like the Oscars were racist? That’s gone,” Kimmel said. “We are very welcoming to outsiders here in Hollywood. We don’t discriminate on people based on what countries they come from. We discriminate based on their age and weight.”
The top prize went to Moonlight, the coming-of-age story of an African-American boy and his struggles with sexual identity, although the Oscar was announced only after an embarrassing mistake in which feel-good musical La La Land was first announced as the winner.
“This goes out to all those black and brown boys and girls, and nongender-conforming, who don’t see themselves; we’re trying to show you,” playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney said as he accepted the Oscar for best adapted screenplay.
Also for Moonlight, Mahershala Ali won the Oscar for best supporting actor for his portrayal of a drug dealer, becoming the first Muslim to pick up a golden statuette for acting.
In perhaps the night’s most potent symbol, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi boycotted the gala as his drama The Salesman won for best foreign language film. Farhadi was protesting Trump’s visa ban that bars citizens of sev- en Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, from entering the US. “Dividing the world into the US and ‘our enemies’ categories creates fear, a deceitful justification for aggression and war,” he said in a statement read at the gala.
Viola Davis won best supporting actress Oscar for her gut-wrenching performance in August Wilson’s Fences. The 51-year-old said: “O captain! My captain! Denzel Washington, thank you for putting two entities in the driving seat – August and God.” –