Friday March 29th, 2024
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Last Night's Oscars: First Ever Muslim Win, Beautiful Tribute to Syria and an Arab Barred

Important highlights from last night's Academy Awards Ceremony.

Staff Writer

As we’re sure all of you know, the Oscars (HURRAH) were last night and we have a new list of winners, many of whom - in true Oscars fashion - were white. However, we were pleasantly surprised at how diverse the winners list was this year. Throw in a fuck-up in announcing the Best Picture and we’ve got ourselves a can’t-miss Oscars ceremony.

Winning the Best Supporting Actor award, and the first Muslim to win an Academy Award in the event's history, was Mahershala Ali, for his unbelievable performance in Moonlight, which won Best Picture.

Furthermore, winning Best Documentary was the Syrian documentary, White Helmets, about the eponymous volunteer civil defense organisation that currently operates in parts of rebel-controlled Syria. Gripping to the core, and an intimate depiction of the Syrian civil war, "White Helmets" focuses on the group of a volunteer support group which work in war-torn Syria and Turkey.

Filmmakers Joanna Natasegara and Orlando von Einsiedel read a statement from the film's star, White Helmets’ leader Raed Saleh, who could not make it to the ceremony. 

Von Einsiedel said, "Well, Raed Saleh, he is the leader of the White Helmets, he couldn't come in the end because the last couple of days in Syria, the violence has really escalated, and he does lifesaving work, and he decided in the end his time was better placed to do that.”

This Sunday, AP reported that U.S. officials said they found "derogatory information" about the documentary cinematographer, Khaled Khateeb and would not let him into the country in President Donald Trump's visa ban on certain muslim countries.

"And Khaled Khateeb, our cinematographer, I mean, we're confused about this too. The last two weeks have been very difficult. He had a U.S. visa, he tried to board a plane and he wasn't able to come. So we're very sad about that,” continues Von Einsiedel.

One of the highlights of the night was when they announced that the Best Picture winner was bomb-shell romance film, La La Land, only to announce that it was a mistake and that Moonlight would receive it instead...awkward. The cast and crew started to celebrate only to have their dreams snatched from them. Regrettable but entertaining still.