Over the years, the Oscars have seen many actors, film directors, and moments. The Oscars is an award ceremony for artistic and technical merit seen in the film industry. This award ceremony is international recognition of excellence in cinematic achievements voted by the Academy’s membership. The annual ceremony is a breeding ground for celebrity tension and dispute.  

In 1973, Marlon Brando won an Oscar for Best Actor for his movie, The Godfather. He refused to accept this award as a protest against Hollywood’s lack of Native American representation in films. Rather than accepting the award, he had Sacheen Littlefeather, who was a Native American activist and actor, go on stage to accept the award for him. Security allegedly had to hold back John Wayne in order to protect Sacheen as Wayne was going to attempt to attack her. The crowd was unsure whether to cheer or be silent, while many others had made a joke out of the two and how they refused the award.

The Oscars had given all their awards to white actors for the second year in a row in 2016. This had kicked off a boycott which created the #OscarsSoWhite campaign. These were trending widely on social media yet still had no impact despite the academy diversifying its membership. Even despite the changes, the Academy Awards still happen to be in favor of a particular group. Surveys have shown that most of the academies are white men showing how the academy could be in favor of white people. 

This also consisted of Chris Rock and another one of his jokes though. Due to the boycott, it seemed things were going to get awkward and the host that year was Chris Rock, who never shies away from controversial humor. Chris Rock was not the one who had shocked the viewers though, they believed his monologue about race in Hollywood was hilarious. It was a bit he performed with Stacey Dash that had not settled well. As she was announced “the new director of minority outreach program” Dash said “I cannot wait to help my people out. Happy Black History Month!” before walking off stage. This quote did not have the audience amused in the slightest. 

The Oscars have had many moments but surprisingly not many scandalous moments. With the scandalous moments being interruptions, physical altercations, and boycotting there still aren’t many. For all the years it’s been around there has to be at least one shocking moment that could make someone gasp. The Oscars still have many more years to bring us many more shocking events. Many people will find a way to make a big scene out of small issues like Marlon Brando not accepting his award himself. Events and ceremonies are full of shocking and scandalous moments including the Oscars.