You don’t make it into the history books for simply saying “I’d like to thank the Academy.”
The Oscar acceptance speech is a tricky and unique part of pop culture. It’s simultaneously a victory lap for the person who worked hard to get the industry’s highest honor and a public platform. It must be eloquent but not overly prepared. Reading the speech just doesn’t feel as good.
As hard as it is to pull off a truly great Oscar speech, it has been done. Earlier speeches by Julie Andrews in 1965 (“I know you Americans are famous for your hospitality, but this is really ridiculous”) and Ruth Gordon in 1969 (“I can’t tell you how encouraging a thing like this is”) were on the right track, but in recent years, recipients have truly honed the craft (Mahershala Ali had us welling up just last year after winning for Moonlight). We’ve rounded up our five favorites of all time.
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