The best Oscars speeches of all time

For any actor or filmmaker, winning an Academy Award is a momentous occasion in their careers. So it makes sense that their Oscar acceptance speeches are emotional, tearful and often hilarious.

We’ve rounded up the best Oscars speeches in the history of the iconic awards - from Olivia Colman’s surprise win to the shortest speech ever made, along with several momentous wins that made history. 

These are the 32 most memorable Academy Award speeches.

The best Oscars speeches of all time

Halle Berry

For her role in 2001’s Monster’s Ball, Halle Berry became the first Black woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress. As she walked onto the stage, it was clear that both she and the audience understood the weight of the moment, with several people standing to applaud and Berry herself appearing very emotional. 

“This moment is so much bigger than me”, she began, listing several other Black actresses as well as “every nameless, faceless woman of colour that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened”. Later in her speech, as the music began to play signifying that an awardee should wrap things up, Berry quipped, “Okay, wait a minute… seventy-four years here! I got to take this time!”

Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears| £15.63 at Amazon 

Penned by New York Times bestseller, Michael Schuman, Oscar Wars tells the lively history of the Academy Awards (and the stories behind some of the most iconic speeches), focusing on the behind-the-scenes drama, bitter rivalries and star-studded gossip. 

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Olivia Colman

When British actress Olivia Colman won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2019, no one was more surprised than her. Beginning her career in British sitcom Peep Show, Colman was still mostly known for her roles in British films and TV shows by the time she won for her turn as Queen Anne in The Favourite, and from the sounds of her hilarious speech, which began, “It’s genuinely quite stressful!”, Colman was not prepared to win.

The actress stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry at the cameras when a teleprompter asked her to ‘please wrap up’, after speaking telling her children: “and my kids who are at home and watching, look! Well if you’re not, then kind of well done, but I sort of hope you are. This is not gonna happen again!” 

She also gave a touching tribute to her husband of 25 years, who was visibly emotional, and then told the audience “he’s gonna cry, I’m not!”, despite having tears running down her face. One of the best and most chaotic Oscars speeches also ended with an impromptu shout of “Lady Gaga!” when Colman saw the star in the front row, to which Gaga blew several enthusiastic kisses back.

Ke Huy Quan

Born during the Vietnam War, Ke Huy Quan fled with his family to a refugee camp in Hong Kong, before being admitted to the US and becoming a child actor. Quan enjoyed success in iconic 80s films Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies, before taking a 19-year hiatus from acting; he was inspired to act again after the success of Crazy Rich Asians, and was soon cast in Everything Everywhere All at Once, which was a huge success. For his win at the 2023 Oscars, Quan became the second Asian actor, and first Vietnam-born actor, to win the award.

Quan’s emotional speech began with the actor joyfully exclaiming, “My mum is 84 years old and she’s at home watching… mum, I just won an Oscar!” He continued by explaining, “my journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp, and somehow I ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage. They say stories like this only happen in the movies; I cannot believe it’s happening to me!” Quan also encouraged anyone watching to “please, keep your dreams alive”.

Patricia Arquette

For her role in the coming-of-age film Boyhood, Patricia Arquette won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and used her speech to speak about women’s rights. “To every woman who gave birth”, Arquette said, “to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America".

James Cameron

James Cameron is one of the most successful directors of all time, and at the 1998 Academy Awards, his film Titanic won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing. Accepting the Oscar for Best Director, Cameron ended his speech by saying “there is no way that I can express to you what I’m feeling right now, my heart is full to bursting, except to say - I’m the king of the world!”, quoting the iconic line from Titanic, which was one of the most successful films of the 90s.

Sacheen Littlefeather (on behalf of Marlon Brando)

When Marlon Brando won the Best Actor Academy Award for his iconic role in The Godfather, one of the most successful films of the 70s, the actor controversially decided to boycott the night and decline his award, in protest of the negative representation of Native Americans in Hollywood. In his place, he asked Apache activist Sacheen Littlefeather to attend and reject the award, preparing a long speech that she wasn’t allowed to read out in its entirety due to time constraints. 

Littlefeather, who spoke calmly and eloquently to a confused audience, was met with a mixture of applause and booing, and Brando’s decision became one of the most memorable moments in Oscars history.

Frances McDormand

Frances McDormand is the second woman, after Katharine Hepburn, to have won Best Actress three times, and during her speech for the 2017 film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the actor was clearly ecstatic. She began, “Okay, so I’m hyperventilating a little bit, [but] if I fall over, pick me up, because I’ve got some things to say”. She wasn’t wrong - McDormand continued by asking all the female nominees in each category to stand, quipping “Meryl, if you do it everybody else will, c’mon!”, after which the camera panned to Meryl Streep standing and enthusiastically giving her support.

When all the nominees were standing, McDormand said, “look around, ladies and gentlemen, because we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed. Don’t talk to us about it at parties tonight. Invite us into your office in a couple days[...] and we’ll tell you all about them”. She finished her speech with, “I have two words to leave you with tonight[...] inclusion rider”, causing searches of the term to skyrocket; inclusion rider is a cause in an actor’s contract which demands a diverse cast and crew.

Viola Davis

Viola Davis is one of the most respected and talented actors in Hollywood, and when she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her 2016 film Fences, it was her third nomination at the awards. In an emotional speech, Davis said, “People ask me all the time, ‘What kind of stories do you want to tell, Viola?’ And I say, ‘Exhume those bodies. Exhume those stories, the stories of the people who dreamed big and never saw those dreams to fruition, people who fell in love and lost’. I became an artist, and thank God I did, because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life”. 

Jennifer Lawrence

In 2013, Jennifer Lawrence was at the height of her career, having starred as Katniss Everdeen in the hugely successful Hunger Games franchise and receiving critical acclaim for her role as a young widow in the film Silver Linings Playbook. For the romantic film, which also starred Bradley Cooper, Lawrence became the second-youngest winner in the Best Actress category at the Oscars, and as she walked up to the stage to accept the award, the actress tripped and fell down on the steps. In her speech, after receiving a standing ovation, Lawrence quipped “You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell and that’s really embarrassing, but thank you. This is nuts”.

Anna Paquin

Anna Paquin made her debut in the highly-acclaimed New Zealand film The Piano, and after winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the 11-year-old became the second-youngest winner in Oscars history, after Tatum O’Neal, who won at ten years old. Unsurprisingly due to her young age and lack of experience in the world of the Oscars, when Paquin got to the podium to accept her award, she looked out at the audience for several seconds in complete shock, prompting several giggles as well as more applause. The actress then impressively composed herself, giving a short and professional speech which thanked the Academy, her agents, the film’s director Jane Campion, and her co-star and on-screen mother Holly Hunter.

Anne Hathaway

After over a decade of romcom and teen movie roles, Anne Hathaway played Fantine in the 2012 film adaptation of Les Misérables, one of the most successful musical films of all time. Hathaway’s singing and acting in this role were praised, and despite some backlash in the wake of her Academy Award win for playing Fantine, due to being supposedly ‘too earnest’, her speech is still one of the most memorable. “It came true”, Hathaway said while looking down fondly at the award, before telling the audience, “Here’s hoping that someday in the not too distant future, the misfortunes of Fantine will only be found in stories and nevermore in real life”.

Lupita Nyong'o

Lupita N’yongo’s breakthrough and first feature film role was as Patsey in the highly-acclaimed 2013 film Twelve Years a Slave, and her performance was widely celebrated by many. Nyong'o's emotional acceptance speech at the Oscars the next year included the words, “When I look down at this golden statue, may it remind me and every little child that no matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid”. 

Julia Roberts

While Julia Roberts dominated the screen in the 90s, starring in much-loved films like Pretty Woman and Notting Hill, her appearance in mostly romantic comedies, films not usually successful at the Academy Awards, meant that an Oscar win didn’t come until her appearance as the lead in Erin Brokovich, which was critically acclaimed and nominated in four other categories. Roberts was clearly ecstatic to be on the Oscars stage, beaming “Thank you, thank you ever so much. I’m so happy! I love the world!” She even directly referenced music conductor Bill Conti, whose job it is to start the music when speeches go on too long, by saying “you’re doing a great job, but you’re so quick with that stick. So why don’t you sit ‘cause I may never be here again”. 

Gwyneth Paltrow

Winning for her role in Shakespeare in Love at just 26 years old, Gwyneth Paltrow gave an emotional acceptance speech for the Best Actress Academy Award. As she tearfully thanked her “mother Blythe Danner, who I love more than anything”, as well as her “father Bruce Paltrow, who has surmounted insurmountable obstacles this year”, Paltrow also paid tribute to her “grandpa Buster”, who had very recently passed away. 

Though journalists and audiences were critical of Paltrow’s tear-filled speech, they didn’t realise that her father Bruce was very ill at the time, compounding the actress’s emotions, and he passed away just a few years later (the Coldplay song “Fix You” was written about Chris Martin supporting Paltrow through her grief).

Robin Williams

Much-loved actor Robin Williams was always going to give a great Oscars speech, and when he won Best Supporting Actor for Good Will Hunting, which was written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck when they were just 22 and 20, he was both humble and funny. “This might be the one time I’m speechless!”, he began, before thanking Damon and Affleck and claiming, “I still want to see some ID”. Williams finished his speech with two sweet tributes, one to his then-wife, who he called “the woman who lights my soul on fire every morning”, and one to his late father, of which he said: “I want to thank my father, up there, the man who, when I said I wanted to be an actor, said ‘Wonderful, just have a back-up profession like welding’”.

Brendan Fraser

90s heartthrob Brendan Fraser took a career break for some time in the 2000s and 2010s due to a combination of family tragedies, poor mental health and an allegation of sexual assault that he made against the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, for which many believe he was effectively 'blacklisted' in Hollywood. When he returned to the limelight for the Darren Aronofsky film The Whale, along with other roles, was dubbed 'the Brennaissance' by fans, and his Academy Award win for Best Actor - making him the first Canadian to win the award - was just as well-received. 

In a speech filled with aquatic puns which riffed on the title of his film, Fraser stated, "I started in this business thirty years ago and things, they didn't come easily to me, but there was a facility that I didn't appreciate at the time, until it stopped. It's been like I've been on a diving expedition on the bottom of the ocean, and the air on the line to the surface is on a launch being watched over by some people in my life".

Leonardo DiCaprio

Before his win for the 2015 film The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio had been nominated for an Oscar four times, with the first nomination being over 20 years earlier for his breakout film role. While accepting the speech, DiCaprio decided to use his time to speak eloquently about climate change, an issue the actor is extremely passionate about, telling the audience: “Making The Revenant was about man's relationship to the natural world, a world that we collectively felt in 2015 as the hottest year in recorded history. Our production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow”. 

He continued, “Climate change is real. It is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating”, finishing his speech with the words “Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take tonight for granted”, prompting applause and a standing ovation. 

Hattie McDaniel

In 1940, Hattie McDaniel became the first Black actor to be nominated for, and win, an Oscar - it would be another 50 years until another Black woman would win for the same category, and Halle Berry remains the only Black actress to win the Best Actress award. At the ceremony, McDaniel was made to sit in a segregated area of the hotel. Despite this division, McDaniel told the audience in her speech, “This is one of the happiest moments of my life… I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry. My heart is too full to tell you just how I feel”.

Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney

Before the iconic Moonlight win for Best Picture, the film won the coveted Best Adapted Screenplay award, with co-writers Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney giving a memorable speech. An emotional Jenkins told the audience, “I tell my students that I teach sometimes: Be in love with the process, not the result. But I really wanted this result, because a bajillion people are watching. And all you people out there who feel like there's no mirror for you, that your life is not reflected – the Academy has your back”.

Echoing his sentiment, McCraney continued, “This goes out to all those black and brown boys and girls and non-gender-conforming [people] who don't see themselves. We're trying to show you you and us. So thank you”.

Bong Joon-Ho

2019’s Parasite was a landmark film for the Oscars, becoming the first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture and the first South Korean film to receive a nomination at the awards. Speaking partly in English and partly through his translator, director Bong Joon-Ho shouted out Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino - who he said “always put my films on his list” - and fellow nominees for Best Picture, directors Todd Phillips and Sam Mendes, stating, “If the Academy allows, I would like to get a Texas chainsaw, split the Oscar trophy into five and share it with all of you”. Joon-Ho ended his speech by quipping in English, “I will drink until next morning”.

Kathryn Bigelow

For her film The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win Best Director at the Oscars - she is still only one of three, with eleven years between her win and the next woman to be awarded the gong, Chloe Zhao, in 2021.

Acknowledging the honour, Bigelow stated, “This is the moment of a lifetime”, as well as shouting out her fellow nominees as “powerful filmmakers who have inspired me and I have admired for decades”.

Sally Field

Sally Field’s second Oscars speech is one of the most memorable for the last lines in particular: as she looked down at the award in her hand, she ecstatically exclaimed to the audience, “I can’t deny the fact that you like me. Right now, you like me!”, which was met with applause and several laughs from the room. During Field’s emotional speech, she also acknowledged, “I haven’t had the most orthodox career, and I’ve wanted more than anything to have your respect”, again speaking directly to the audience in front of her. 

Joe Pesci

For his iconic role in Martin Scorsese’s gangster epic Goodfellas, Joe Pesci gave one of the shortest speeches in Oscars history. Appearing at the podium briefly to simply say, “It was my privilege. Thank you”, Pesci reportedly didn’t prepare anything more for his speech due to the fact he was so convinced he wouldn’t win. His speech has gone down as one of the most memorable, if brief, speeches of all time.

Michelle Yeoh

The 2022 film Everything Everywhere All at Once won an incredible seven out of the eleven Academy Awards it was nominated for, and along with the tear-jerking speech from Ke Huy Quan earlier that night, Michelle Yeoh’s acceptance speech for Best Actress was equally as emotional. Becoming the first Asian woman to win in the category, and the first Malaysian to ever win an Academy Award, Yeoh said, “For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities. This is proof that dreams dream big, and dreams do come true. And, ladies, don't let anybody tell you you are ever past your prime”. 

Tom Hanks

Considering Tom Hanks is one of the most beloved actors in Hollywood, it’s no surprise that his 1994 Best Actor win for Philadelphia, a film groundbreaking for its portrayal of AIDS/HIV and gay men, is one of the most affecting Academy Award speeches. 

Hanks eloquently stated in his speech, “I know that my work in this case is magnified by the fact that the streets of heaven are too crowded with angels. We know their names. They number a thousand for each one of the red ribbons that we wear here tonight. They finally rest in the warm embrace of the gracious creator of us all".

Al Pacino

With 11 million views, Al Pacino’s acceptance speech for the film Scent of a Woman is one of the most popular speeches of the Oscars. Acknowledging his good luck and privileged career, Pacino stated, "Recently a young girl came up to me. I was at a function for the South Bronx, which is where I'm from. And she said that I had encouraged her, and that's not necessarily by my work, but just by the fact that we came from the same place. And I just can't forget that girl, and I can't forget the kids out there who may be thinking tonight that if he can do it, I can do it. So this is really a proud and hopeful moment for me”.

Sandra Bullock

Sandra Bullock’s acceptance speech for her 2010 Best Actress win was equally humble and hilarious. Paying tribute to “what this film was about for me, which are the moms that take care of the babies and the children no matter where they come from”, Bullock shouted out her mum in particular, saying, if I can take this moment to thank Helga B. for not letting me ride in cars with boys till I was eighteen, 'cause she was right; I would've done what she said I was gonna do. And for reminding her daughters that there's no race, no religion, no class system, no colour, nothing, no sexual orientation, that makes us better than anyone else”.

Highlighting her quick wit, Bullock began her speech by asking, “Did I really earn this or did I just wear you all down?”, and stating that fellow nominee Meryl Streep, who she called “her lover”, was “such a good kisser”.

Eddie Redmayne

Winning the Best Actor award for his exceptional turn as physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, Eddie Redmayne emotionally told the audience, “I don’t think I’m capable of articulating quite how I feel right now. Please know this, I am fully aware that I am a lucky, lucky man. This, this Oscar... wow!”

He continued by stating that the Oscar belonged “to all of those people around the world battling ALS”, as well as “one exceptional family: Stephen, Jane, Jonathan and the Hawking children”. Redmayne finished his speech by telling his tearful wife, “Hannah, I love you so much. We have a new fella comin' to share our apartment”.

Kate Winslet

British actor Kate Winslet won the Best Actress Academy Award for her role as an illiterate Nazi camp guard in the 2008 film The Reader. Tearfully accepting the award, Winslet quipped, “I’d be lying if I haven’t made a version of this speech before - I think I was probably eight years old and staring into the bathroom mirror and this would've been a shampoo bottle”. Shouting out her parents in the audience, the actress said “Dad, whistle or something, ‘cause then I’ll know where you are”, prompting a very loud whistle from her father.

Heath Ledger (posthumously)

Heath Ledger’s role as the Joker in The Dark Knight was widely praised and is regarded as one of the best performances in film history, but tragically the actor passed away months after filming. To accept his posthumously-awarded Best Actor Oscar, his father, Kim Ledger, mother Sally Bell, and sister Kate Ledger gave an emotional speech and tribute, saying: “Heath was such a compassionate and generous soul who added so much excitement and inspiration to our lives. Tonight we are choosing to celebrate and be happy for what he has achieved”.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon

Using a script he wrote while in college, a 20-year-old Matt Damon enlisted the help of his 22-year-old best friend Ben Affleck to produce the Oscar-winning screenplay for beloved 90s film Good Will Hunting. Upon winning the award, the pair were evidently shocked and overjoyed, with Affleck stating, “We’re just really two young guys who were fortunate enough to be involved with a lot of great people”, with Damon standing next to Affleck and reminding him of people they needed to thank. At the end of the speech Damon thanked “whoever we forgot, we love you!” before the two giddily walked off stage.

Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner

The La La Land/Moonlight Oscars mixup resulted in one of the most memorable speeches of all time, partly due to just how shocking the moment was. When announcing the Best Picture award at the 2017 Oscars, presenter Warren Beatty looked confused upon opening the announcement card, before showing to to Faye Dunaway - not realising they had been given the wrong card, which had Emma Stone’s name on it, Dunaway announced that Stone’s film La La Land had won the coveted gong. After several members of the film’s production had already given tearful speeches, producer Jordan Horowitz told the audience: “There’s a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture”, holding up the correct card for the cameras and audience in a now-iconic moment.

When the producers and writer-director of Moonlight eventually accepted their award, an overwhelmed Barry Jenkins told the audience: “Very clearly, very clearly, even in my dreams, this could not be true. But to hell with dreams, I'm done with it, 'cause this is true. Oh my goodness”.