Oscars 2023: 10 Ups & 5 Downs

2. Putin Gets Called Out On The Oscar Stage

Academy producers can pretend all they like that the Oscars aren't political, but literally every aspect of filmmaking and awards is inextricably mired in them.

And while this year's Oscars was admittedly low on political grandstanding speeches, there was one extremely potent and effective moment when Navalny won the Best Documentary Feature award.

After the searing doc about currently-imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny scooped the award, director Daniel Roher took the stage to draw further attention to Navalny's unjust incarceration in Russia, while dedicating the award to him and "all political prisoners around the world."

Navalny's wife Yulia, who was on stage with their children, also used the spotlight to criticise the Putin government for her husband's imprisonment.

Though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's request to speak at the Oscars was rejected by producers, there was absolutely nothing they could do to stop award winners critiquing Putin's Russia loud and clear.