21 pop culture moments from 2018 we’re celebrating

HOLLYWOOD, CA – MARCH 04: Actor Frances McDormand (L) accepts Best Actress for ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ from actors Jennifer Lawrence and Jodie Foster onstage during the 90th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center on March 4, 2018 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Frances McDormand’s Oscar speech

For all the fervor that surrounds them, from the months of prognostication and punditry to the millions of studio dollars spent on publicity campaigns, the Academy Awards tend to be a rather forgettable affair. The winners are predictable; the speeches bore; and the banter is as likely to induce sighs as laughs. Even the controversies peter out after a couple of days.

This year’s ceremony, the 90th, was no exception. If anything, it felt even stodgier than usual, as producers Michael De Luca and Jennifer Todd, director Glenn Weiss, and host Jimmy Kimmel painstakingly engineered a program free of wrinkles or spontaneity, determined to avoid another “Envelopegate”-style fiasco/triumph. Despite the shadow of the Trump presidency and Harvey Weinstein’s downfall, politics were consigned to stale jokes and sincere yet dutiful remarks that, at best, drew polite applause.

Then, Frances McDormand took the stage. Accepting the Oscar for her fierce lead performance in Martin McDonagh’s divisive revenge parable Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the famously plain-spoken actress displayed the energy of a first-timer and the confidence of an old-timer (she previously won in the same category for 1996’s Fargo). She opened with a cackle followed by a hook: “If I fall over, pick me up because I’ve got some things to say.” The swell of cheers that unfurled from the audience in response felt like a dam breaking.

And boy, did she say things. After a brief detour for the requisite thank-yous, McDormand urged the female nominees, from her fellow actresses to the cinematographers (well, cinematographer), to stand up. It wasn’t an empty self-congratulatory gesture: accompanied by a direct plea to hire the people standing, the spectacle served as a stark illustration of women’s presence in film and a tacit reproach to the men who ignore them. It was a dare. Only someone with a certain amount of industry clout could make such a demand on such a stage, and she knew it.

Even her puzzling sign-off – “inclusion rider” – plays like a mic drop. What’s more audacious at the Oscars than giving a triumphant speech and then leaving a room full of celebrities scratching their heads and performing frantic late-night Google searches? Truly, we are not worthy.