Some Well Deserved Oscar Wins

Borenstein (white suit) and Talankin with their Oscars

Happy with the results of the Academy Awards?

I did not watch the whole thing, but thrilled, ecstatic, excited that the films I did watch, won Oscars:

Jessie Buckley for Best Actress in Hamnet.

Buckley was the favourite to win

Her guttural scream in a pivotal point in the film was so primal and intense, viewers could not help but feel her immense pain of losing her child.

Buckley said in a podcast that after making the film, she was desperate to get pregnant! Now she has an eight-month old baby girl and in her acceptance speech said she loved being her mother.

"It's Mother's Day in the UK today, so I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother's heart. We all come from a lineage of women who continue to create against all odds," she said.

All The Empty Rooms for Best Documentary Short

It's a haunting documentary, seeing the empty bedrooms of children who were killed in school shootings. Not only is it commendable for journalist Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp to visit these grieving families, but also record these children's rooms to prove they existed, they were loved, they had lives with hopes and dreams.

Cazares was so brave to speak out on stage

When the filmmakers went up to accept the Oscar, one of the mothers, Gloria Cazares spoke on stage. Her daughter died in the Uvalde shooting in May 2022.

"My daughter, Jackie, was nine years old when she was killed in Uvalde. Since that day, her bedroom has been frozen in time," Cazares said.

"Jackie is more than just a headline. She is our light and our life. Gun violence is now the number one cause of death in kids and teens. We believe that if the world could see their empty bedrooms, it would be a different America."

Mr Nobody Against Putin for Best Documentary Feature

In accepting the golden statuette, co-director David Borenstein warned the audience what authoritarianism is.

"Mr Nobody Against Putin is about how you lose your country," he said. "And what we saw when working with this footage is that you lose it through countless, small, little acts of complicity.

Talankin (on floor) urged for wars to stop now

"When a government murders people on the streets of our major cities, when we don't say anything, when oligarchs take over the media and control how we could produce it and consume it -- we all face a moral choice. But luckily, even a nobody is more powerful than you think."

He then introduced the star of the documentary, Pavel Talankin to speak through a Russian translator.

"For four years, we looked at the sky, for a shooting star to make an important wish. But there are countries where instead of stars they have shooting bombs and shooting drones. In the name of the future, in the name of all of our children, stop all of these wars now," said Talankin, who is now in exile in Europe.

Afterwards when Borenstein spoke to the media, he made another warning:

"One interesting thing about working with a team of Russians throughout this process has been my desire as an American to constantly compare the situation in America to Russia," he said.

"But a lot of my Russian colleagues and friends always said, 'No, no, it's not the same situation. It's actually happening quicker in America than it's been happening in Russia,' Trump is moving a lot quicker than Putin in his early years."

The Girl Who Cried Pearls for Best Animation Short

Well deserved award for Szcerbowski and Lavis

This 17-minute film was absolutely stunning in terms of its fantastic story and execution. The story isn't so simple and makes viewers think about it afterwards.

Co-directors Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski make their acceptance speech short and sweet.

"We just really want to thank our amazing neighbourhood and the amazingly talented community of artists that we've had the superb luck to work with," Szczerbowski said. "Thank you to the fantastic city of Montreal. Thank you, Canada."

"Canada!" Lavis chimed in, as they raised their Oscars.

They gave a shoutout to composer Patrick Watson and actor Colm Feore who narrated the film.

Big congratulations to all the winners and nominees!