1973. Marlon Brando refused his Oscar in protest

The most talked about thing of the night at the 1973 Oscars was the absence of the favourite to win the Oscar for Best Actor, the legendary Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone in ‘The Godfather.’ When he was awarded the award, the young activist Sacheen Littlefeather came on stage and refused the Oscar on behalf of the actor: “I come here tonight on behalf of Marlon Brando. He has asked me to tell you [...] that he regrettably refuses this generous award. This is due to the mistreatment of American Indians today by the film industry and on television.”

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1974. The Oscar and the streaker

While actor David Niven was presenting an award, Robert Opel, an artist and LGBT activist, snuck onto the stage completely naked. Niven, displaying his British humor, exclaimed: “Isn’t it fascinating to think that the only laugh that man will probably get in his life is by stripping off and showing his little things?”

1999. On the waterfront for Elia Kazan

When the director of such great classics as ‘East of Eden’ and ‘On the Waterfront’ received an honorary Oscar, the division of opinions in the audience was more than evident. His cinematographic quality was beyond all doubt, but many of those present refused to stand up and applaud Elia Kazan for having betrayed some of his fellow communists during the McCarthy witch hunt.

2003. Michael Moore booed

The atmosphere that year was tense as the second Iraq war had just broken out. When Michael Moore went on stage to collect the Oscar for Best Documentary for ‘Bowling for Columbine’ the director began a fiery speech: “We like non-fiction, and we live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. [,,,] We are against this war. Shame on you, Mr. Bush!” The reaction of most of the attendees was one of surprise and the filmmaker was heard booing.

2013. Jennifer Lawrence and her Oscar stumble

The actress won the Oscar for Best Actress for ‘Silver Linings Playbook.’ She was wearing a spectacular Dior dress but, when she went up the stairs to the stage, she tripped and fell before being able to collect her award. The actress, all spontaneity, laughed and climbed up as best she could. In her speech she joked about it: “You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell and that’s really embarrassing, but thank you. This is nuts.”

2013. Seth McFarlane sings ‘We saw your boobs’ to actresses

When the Academy asked Seth McFarlane to present the 2013 gala, everyone expected a dry and irreverent sense of humour (he is the creator of Family Guy, for example). But the presenter went too far and a large number of actresses criticized, in particular, a musical number called ‘We saw your boobs’ (we saw your boobs) where he reviewed some of the names of actresses who have shown their breasts on the big screen. Pretty bad taste.

2017. And the Oscar goes to... La La Land. Or not

Bonnie and Clyde or, in other words, Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty were in charge of announcing the winner of the Oscar for Best Picture in 2017. To summarize: they named ‘La La Land’ the winner but while Damien Chazelle was giving his acceptance speech, the film’s producer, Jordan Horowitz, said “The Oscar is not for us, it’s for ‘Moonlight’.” The faces of disbelief, the chaos when the real winners came on stage and everything else is now history.

2017. Adrien Brody and his (non-consensual) kiss on Halle Berry

Halle Berry was in charge of presenting the award for Best Actor, having won the award the previous year. When an exultant Adrien Brody went up on stage to collect the statuette for his performance in ‘The Pianist,’ he had no other idea than to grab her by the waist and plant a passionate kiss on her mouth, which took the actress completely by surprise. At the time, it was a gesture that was applauded for its spontaneity, but fortunately, we have learned over the years that consent must also exist at the Oscars.

2022. Will Smith slaps Chris Rock in the face

It’s one of the most memorable moments of recent years. It was Will Smith’s night, who attended the ceremony as a big favorite with his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith (who, remember, has a shaved head because she has alopecia).

Chris Rock went up on stage to do one of his monologues and, at one point, made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s alopecia: “Jada, I can’t wait to see ‘Lieutenant O’Neil 2’.” At first Smith laughed and Jada made a face. Without saying a word, Will Smith got up from his seat, went up on stage and gave the stand-up comedian a resounding slap. “Get my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth,” he snapped at him twice when he returned to his seat. The rest is history.

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