Review: The Best Oscar Acceptance Speeches of All Time

Oscars 2024
The best acceptance speeches in award history: from Robert Downey Jr. to Tom Hanks to Alfred Hitchcock

The most interesting films are often not shown in cinemas. But at the Oscars, when the winners take the stage to say thank you. In these moments, it’s not the acting performance that counts, but only whether the feeling you want to express is really authentic. Unfortunately, most expressions of gratitude give the impression that they all come from the same writer. It’s an eternal déjà vu – thanks to God, mom, dad, my agent, wife/husband, director, colleagues. But sometimes something special can be achieved, namely an acceptance speech that gives a brief insight into the stars’ hearts. Like last night with Robert Downey Jr.

The superstar, finally honored after 30 years for the best male supporting role in “Oppenheimer,” remembers in his Acceptance speech about the time he almost killed himself with drugs – with a mixture of humor and humility. First, he listed his lawyer, “who got me out of jail back then. And then I would like to thank my terrible youth and the Oscar Academy – in that order. And finally I would like to thank my vet, I mean of course my wife Susan Downey . She found a rescued pet whimpering – You loved me back to life!”

A sea of ​​tears

Reason enough to remember four other Oscar acceptance speeches that deserve a golden boy for their particular emotionality and originality:

Visibly touched Tom Hanks In 1994 he received the Oscar for the best male lead in the AIDS drama “Philadelphia”, with which he made the leap from comedy star to serious work. First, the usual speech credits: Hanks thanks his colleagues, the director, the crew – until he bows to one of his high school teachers and a school friend, whom he describes as “two of the finest gay Americans.” What Hanks forgets in his emotion: The two had not yet come out as homosexual at the time – Hanks came out to an audience of millions.

Sobbing uncontrollably, Brendan Fraser steps in front of the microphone in 2023 to accept his Oscar for best actor in “The Whale”. After years of being ridiculed by Hollywood, the “Mummy” superstar wins the trophy for his portrayal of an obese man slowly dying from his illness. Weeping thanks Fraser praised his colleagues for “the creative lifeline” that the film meant to him and his career. “I’ve been in the film business for 30 years and nothing has fallen into my lap. I didn’t appreciate a lot of things either – until I lost them.” At this point the entire auditorium cries and gives him a standing ovation.

Cuba Gooding Jr. thanks everyone, Hitchcock thanks no one

Cuba Gooding Jr., winner of the best supporting role in “Jerry Maguire – Game of Life,” already had one at the 1997 Oscars speech which should actually have been the end of all acceptance speeches. In rapid speech, he races through a list of people in two minutes, leaving no one unmentioned: Tom Cruise, his wife, his two children, his parents, God (“Hallelujah!”). Before he can list all the moviegoers, the music starts and Cuba Gooding Jr. just screams “I Love You All” and jumps around the stage.

However, the Oscar for the best of all acceptance speeches goes to Alfred Hitchcock. He was nominated six times and came away empty-handed six times. In 1968 the master director was finally awarded the trophy for his life’s work. The eulogy lasts a never-ending two minutes, as if one wanted to apologize to him for the neglect of the past decades. And what says Hitchcock? He calmly walks up to the microphone, grabs the statue without a smile and just murmurs one word: “Thank you” – and simply disappears from the stage…