What do we want from award show acceptance speeches?

This Sunday, Hollywood will be celebrating the most phenomenal films from last year at the 96th Academy Awards. It'll be a night filled with incredible outfits and unforgettable performances. It's also Jimmy Kimmel's fourth time hosting. 

But more than anything, the Oscars are about the acceptance speeches, especially the moments where the winners say things from the heart and use their platform to speak up about issues that matter the most to them.

Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Patricia Arquette have had some of the more memorable speeches. In 1994, when Hanks won the Oscar for best actor for the AIDs drama Philadelphia, he used his speech to shine a spotlight on two people who helped shape his early career, his drama teacher and his former classmate, the latter of whom died from AIDs. 

In 2002, Halle Berry became the first Black woman to win an Oscar when she won best actress for her role in Monster's Ball. In her teary acceptance speech, she used part of her moment on stage to thank the Black actresses before her who were nominated, but never won an Academy Award. 

"This moment is so much bigger than me," Berry exclaimed, "It's for every nameless, faceless woman of colour that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened."

Patricia Arquette used her acceptance speech at the 2015 Oscars to call for wage equality for women in the United States and created one of the most recognizable GIFs of all time. 

To talk more about the greatest acceptance speeches of all time and why more people aren't using their platform to champion matters they care about, writers Hunter Harris, Kathleen Newman-Bremang and Omar El-Akkad join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud on Commotion. 

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast on your favourite podcast player.

LISTEN | Today's episode on YouTube:

Elamin: Kathleen, when you cast your mind back and think about the very best awards moments ever, what makes for a speech that is truly memorable?  

Kathleen: The Halle Berry one that you just played, that one came to mind immediately. Another one was Jamie Foxx's acceptance speech for Ray in 2005. It was all the things that I want an acceptance speech to be: emotional and funny. He talked about his grandmother, who he said was his first acting coach. I think about this all the time because he said she would say, "Act like you got some sense. Act like you've been somewhere before" while she was disciplining him. It was such a well written speech. And it was such a well delivered speech. 

But aside from that, most of the speeches that come to mind when I think of memorable Oscar Oscar speeches are ones that touch on politics or social issues. And I know some people think that award shows are not the time or the place for that, and I understand that sentiment. But there is a precedent for actors using their platforms for good on the Oscars stage. Marlon Brando famously refused to accept his Oscar in 1973, in protest in solidarity with indigenous people. In 1977, Vanessa Redgrave gave a speech that has actually been going viral again recently because she spoke out against anti-Semitism and fascism and in support of Palestinian people. And many Black actresses, including Viola Davis, have used their platform to speak about pay and equity and racism in Hollywood. So, I just think when you have a microphone and the world is watching, what you choose to say says a lot about you.

Elamin: Hunter, there's a tension between someone who goes up there and they want to thank a bunch of people who worked really hard to get them to where they are, and me. I'm sitting at home and I don't know those people. They don't mean anything to me. But maybe you can take this moment and transform it into something larger. What makes a great Oscar acceptance speech to you?

Hunter: They can thank a lot of people, but say it in such a way that feels very genuine, that feels very personal. I'm listening to someone really speak about how these specific people took a chance on me and really believed in me when others didn't, when I didn't believe in myself. Those are speeches that I think can kind of transcend just the regular thank yous and make a larger statement about who they are as a person. I love when people genuinely thank a teacher or a family member or even a producer — someone who really meant a lot to them. You can feel the energy and emotion of that moment.

Elamin: Omar, I'm going to get a little personal with you and maybe put you on the spot. When you were accepting the Giller Prize a few years ago, you had to get up on stage and give this beautiful speech. Take us back to that moment. What was that like for you? They've called your name, you're accepting the prize. What's going on in your mind? 

Omar: It was a weird night, man. I mean, first of all, I had to pull out the tuxedo. The last time I wore it was for my wedding. I own one tuxedo, so I had to put that on, which already made the evening weird. Half of our table, I think, had Covid so they didn't show up. So we were at this weird anaemic table in the middle of the ballroom. 

I had nothing prepared. I was convinced Miriam Toews was going to win. And, my editor kept saying, "But what if you do? And I ignored him completely." So when they called my name, I walked up there and to this day, I have no idea what I actually said. I've never gone back and seen a video, but I knew that I wanted to mention my dad because I miss my dad. He died before I published any of these books, and that's the only thing I knew going up there. But the weird thing about this, which I didn't know because I've lost like 30 of these, is that there's a giant teleprompter at the back of the room flashing, "Thank Scotiabank." Then about 15 seconds in, it starts screaming, wrap it up, wrap it up. And if you're watching this on CBC, you don't see it.

Elamin: Omar, do you think cultural organizations have come to see themselves as venues of protest and free speech, or as targets to these protests? The idea that they have to spend a bunch of time worrying about, "Oh no, what happens if someone brings the real world into this award show?" 

Omar: I was supposed to be at [the Gillers], and then a few days before, I emailed the organisers and told them I wasn't going and it wasn't some protest against the Gillers one way or the other. I just didn't feel like celebrating. I didn't feel like being in a celebratory environment. I didn't feel like the moment was conducive to that. And one of the things that struck me is, again, if you think that those protesters were in the wrong and that they've disrupted everybody's nice evening out. Sure. But the amount of silence was what struck me. You know, a lot of people in that room make a living off of art, off of literature, which is the act of trying to say something about what it means to be human. And then you're met with this moment that is deeply human, no matter whether you agree with it or not. And you look down and you wait for the moment to pass. That struck me as deeply indicative of something troubling that I'm still trying to wrap my head around. These institutions had no choice but to deal with this now, and I guarantee you that most of them are going to do their best to keep their heads down and try to ride this out. 

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Jess Low