From Brando To Halle Berry, Sean Penn To Spike Lee

1973Marlon Brando famously rejected his Best Actor victory for The Godfather and sent Native American woman Sacheen Littlefeather to deliver a speech on his behalf, in which she announced his disapproval of the industry’s treatment of Native Americans—she was met with some applause, as well as jeers from the crowd and a near-outburst from John Wayne, who had to be restrained by security.

1975When the anti-Vietnam War film Hearts and Minds won documentary feature, producer Bert Schneider read a message from Viet Cong official Dinh Ba Thi thanking those fighting for peace, prompting host Frank Sinatra to read a statement from the Academy later in the show distancing itself from political remarks made by winners.

1978Vanessa Redgrave won best supporting actress for Julia, in which she played an anti-Nazi operative, and in her speech rebuked “Zionist hoodlums whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world,” sparking controversy and criticism from a presenter later in the ceremony: Pro-Israel screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky said Redgrave “winning an Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation and a simple ‘Thank you’ would’ve sufficed.”

1993Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, who took the stage to present best film editing, urged the U.S. government “to admit that HIV is not a crime” and admit HIV-positive Haitians being held Guantanamo Bay into the country.

1999When screenwriter Elia Kazan received an honorary Oscar, nearly 50 years after testifying to the House Un-American Activities Committee in which he listed names of alleged communists, and was met with protests, actors including Ed Harris and Nick Nolte refused to stand or applaud and sat with their arms folded while protesters picketed outside.

2002Halle Berry became the first—and to date, only—Black woman and woman of color to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for Monster’s Ball, delivering an emotional speech dedicated to “every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened.”

2003Michael Moore, in his acceptance speech for documentary feature, slammed President George W. Bush for entering the Iraq War for “fictitious reasons” and yelled, “shame on you, Mr. Bush” to boos from the audience.

2004The next winner for documentary feature, Errol Morris, also criticized the Iraq War, comparing it to Vietnam, this time to applause from the audience.

2009Sean Penn and Dustin Lance Black won lead actor and original screenplay, respectively, for Milk, the biopic of assassinated gay rights icon Harvey Milk, and both spoke passionately in favor of gay rights, with Penn criticizing those who voted for California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage.

2010When The Cove, a documentary about dolphin hunting in Japan, won documentary feature, one of the producers onstage held up a banner reading “Text DOLPHIN to 44144” to support a protest against a Japanese hunt—but the cameras cut away immediately.

2016Leonardo DiCaprio dedicated his leading actor speech to calling for action on climate change, which he called “the most urgent threat facing our entire species.”

2019Spike Lee won adapted screenplay for BlacKkKlansman and urged the audience to make the “moral choice between love versus hate” in the 2020 presidential election.