By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
Academy Speeches And Backstage
ALFONSO CUARÓN (Director): “I want to thank the Academy for recognizing a film centered around an indigenous woman, one of the 70 million domestic workers in the world without work rights, a character that has historically been relegated in the background in cinema. As artists our job is to look where others don’t. This responsibility becomes much more important in times when we are being encouraged to look away. Muchas gracias. Muchas gracias a mi familia. Muchas gracias, Mexico, y sobre todo muchas gracias. Gracias, gracias, gracias.”
PETER FARRELLY (Best Picture): “Thank you very much. You know, he’s right, this is, the whole story, is about love. It’s about loving each other despite our differences. And finding the truth about who we are, we’re the same people. And this doesn’t start, by the way, without Viggo Mortensen, right there. We have no movie, all these awards are because Viggo and Mahershala and Linda, but it started with Viggo… And I want to thank my sister Kathy. She died a week before we started shooting this but she never left my side.”
PETER FARRELLY: (Best Original Screenplay): “They say if you want to go somewhere fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. I gotta lot of people to than, starting with the entire state of Rhode Island.”
CHARLES B. WESSLER (Best Picture): “Hey, thanks very much for this to the Academy but I just want to dedicate this to our great friend Carrie Fisher.”
PETER RAMSEY (Best Animated Feature): “Yeah. It’s a huge responsibility. This is something that is going to be seen and taken to heart by millions of people… Miles had a lot of backup. He had a lot of people who really loved him as a character, believed in this story and knew how important it was going to be to, you know, black kids, Latino kids, kids who just want to be their best selves, no matter who they are. So everybody gave it 110%, and we are very gratified that people are receiving his story in the spirit in which we put it out.”