New Delhi[India]: The 89th annual Academy Awards became a platform to take a jibe at the U.S President Donald Trump and his recent policies.
Some celebs, who came out openly, speaking against Trump, at the event, are Jimmy Kemmel, Asghar Farhadi and others.
• Kimmel’s opening monologue:
The Oscars host spent little time before laying into Trump. “I want to say ‘Thank You’ to President Trump,” Kimmel said during his opening monologue.
“Remember, last year, when it seemed like the Oscars were racist?,” referring to last year’s Academy Awards, when no non-white actors were nominated for awards for a second straight year.
“That’s gone, thanks to him,” Kimmel added, implying that the award show seems much less racist now in comparison.
“Some of you get to come on this stage and make a speech that the President of the United States will tweet about in all caps during his 5 a.m. bowel movement,” Kimmel said.
Kimmel’s other moments of political humor included telling French actress Isabelle Huppert, “I’m glad Homeland Security let you in tonight.”
Kimmel also made light of Trump’s Tweet calling Streep “overrated,” with the Oscars host joking that Streep’s career had “stood the test of time for her many uninspiring and overrated performances.”
Kimmel proceeded to ridicule Trump’s swipe at the iconic actress while the audience gave Streep a standing ovation.
Kimmel couldn’t help but add a joke about the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, who has recently seen several retailers drop her clothing line. “Nice dress, by the way,” Kimmel said to Streep, “Is that an Ivanka?”
• Asghar Farhadi – reason for absence
The Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s ‘The Salesman’ won the trophy in the ‘Best Foreign Picture’ category. But Farhadi did not attend the event, in protest of President Trump’s attempted travel ban covering Farhadi’s home country as well as six other Muslim-majority nations.
In a statement on behalf of Farhadi, as his acceptance speech, read, “My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of the other six nations whom have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S. Dividing the world into the ‘us’ and ‘our enemies’ categories creates fear-a deceitful justification for aggression and war.”
Gael Garcia Bernal’s Mexican stand:
Star of Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle, Gael García Bernal reminded the audience about his own Mexican heritage (with an obvious reference to the president’s plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border) before he introduced the nominees for Best Animated Feature.
“As a Mexican, as a Latin American, as a migrant worker, as a human being, I am against any form of wall that wants to separate us,” García Bernal said.
‘White Helmets’ cinematographer halt:
Khaled Khatib, the 21-year-old cinematographer for ‘White Helmets,’ who worked to draw attention to the plight of his country’s civil war, was not allowed to board his flight to from Istanbul to Los Angeles for the Academy Awards night.
Reportedly, he was stopped by US officials who said they had uncovered “derogatory information” about him.
‘The White Helmets,’ a 40-minute Netflix documentary, focuses on the rescue workers who risk their lives to save Syrians affected by civil war. Many of the group’s members have been killed by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s air forces. The group also was nominated for last year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
On a related note, an unusually tense atmosphere coalesced before the Dolby Theatre ceremony, with protests, rallies and boycotts swirling around this year’s Oscars.(ANI)