As movie fans prepare for the 2026 Oscars<\/a>, we’re looking back at some of the most memorable moments in the Academy Awards’ nearly 100-year history.<\/p>\n OSCARS 2026<\/strong>: See the full list of nominees for the 98th Academy Awards<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n While the show is typically known for high-honor awards and exciting musical performances, some of the most talked about moments each year are the unexpected surprises that always seem to make their way into the program.<\/p>\n From viral celebrity moments to heartwarming, emotional speeches, these are some of the most iconic Oscars moments of all time.<\/p>\n “Wicked” stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo opened the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday with special musical performances.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The 2025 Oscars opened with an amazing and moving performance by “Wicked” actors Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo<\/a>.<\/p>\n Grande started the show with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” which was sung by Judy Garland in the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz.” She wore a ruby red dress as she belted the iconic song.<\/p>\n Then came Erivo. She sang “Home” from the 1975 stage musical “The Wiz.” The song was originally performed by Stephanie Mills. Erivo’s performance showcased her powerful vocals and how she brings emotion into all her work.<\/p>\n Erivo was then joined by Grande as they dueted “Defying Gravity” from “Wicked.” When Erivo finished with the iconic battle cry, the audience gave her a standing ovation.<\/p>\n After taking the stage to accept his Academy Award for best supporting actor, Kieran Culkin made it clear he had an important topic to address a long-running deal with his wife, Jazz Charton, about expanding their family.<\/p>\n “Please don’t play the music, because I want to tell a really quick story about Jazz,” he began, before diving into the backstory.<\/p>\n “A year ago, I said that I wanted a third kid, because she said if I won the award, she would give me the kid. Turns out she said that because she didn’t think I was going to win.”<\/p>\n Kieran Culkin has won the award for Best Supporting Actor at the 97th Academy Awards.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n “Anyway, after the show, we’re walking through a parking lot. She’s holding the Emmy and she goes, ‘Oh, god, I did say that. I guess I owe you a third kid.’<\/p>\n “I turned to her and said, ‘Really, I want four.’ And she turned to me — I swear to god this happened — and said, ‘I will give you four when you win an Oscar.'”<\/p>\n “I held my hand out, she shook it and I have not brought it up once until just now. You remember that, honey?”<\/p>\n The audience erupted in laughter as Culkin turned to his wife in the crowd.<\/p>\n Zoe Salda\u00f1a wins the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for “Emilia P\u00e9rez” at the 2025 Academy Awards.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In her best supporting actress acceptance speech for her role in “Emilia P\u00e9rez,” Zoe Salda\u00f1a said she was “floored” by the honor and thanked her family and dedicated the win to her grandmother.<\/p>\n “My grandmother came to this country in 1961,” she said. “I am a proud child of immigrant parents with dreams and dignity and hardworking hands, and I am the first American of Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award, and I know I will not be the last. I hope the fact that I’m getting an award for a role where I got to sing and speak in Spanish, my grandmother, if she were here, she would be so delighted. This is for my grandmother.”<\/p>\n “Wicked” wins the Oscar for Best Costume Design at the 2025 Academy Awards.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Paul Tazewell became the first Black man to win<\/a> the Oscar for best costume design. He won for his work on “Wicked.”<\/p>\n For his work on “Wicked,” Tazewell designed more than 1,000 costumes, which were worked on by 70 people.<\/p>\n Tazewell was nominated for an Oscar in 2022 for costume design on “West Side Story” and became the first Black man nominated in the category.<\/p>\n John Cena presents the award for best costume design during the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n AP Photo\/Chris Pizzello<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n We saw a lot of WWE wrestler turned actor John Cena at the 2024 Oscars.<\/p>\n Back in 1974, a streaker later identified as Robert Opel ran across the stage at the Academy Awards while flashing a peace sign.<\/p>\n Cena took the stage in a similar fashion for a fun “streaker skit” with host Jimmy Kimmel before presenting the award for best costume design.<\/p>\n Ryan Gosling, left, performs the song “I’m Just Ken” from the movie “Barbie” with Slash, right, playing the guitar during the Oscars on March 10, 2024 in Los Angeles.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n AP Photo\/Chris Pizzello<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ryan Gosling brought his “Kenergy” to a new level on the Oscars stage when he performed “I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie.”<\/a><\/p>\n The power ballad was nominated for best original song and is performed by Gosling in the film.<\/p>\n Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, who composed the guitar instrumentation on the song, made a surprise appearance on stage for a rollicking guitar solo.<\/p>\n And at one point, Gosling even jumped into the audience and held out the mic so co-stars Margot Robbie and America Ferrera and director Greta Gerwig could join in and sing along.<\/p>\n From history-making Oscar wins to Jimmy Kimmel addressing last year’s infamous slap, here’s what you might have missed from the biggest night in Hollywood.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n “Everything Everywhere All At Once”<\/a> lived up to its title, with the film taking home gold in seven out of 11 nominated categories, including best picture and best director, along with three acting nods.<\/p>\n The eccentric tale about a Chinese immigrant family and alternate realities, from directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, is the first-ever science fiction film to win the top prize.<\/p>\n “Everything Everywhere” star Michelle Yeoh made history as the first Asian woman to win best actress, while co-stars Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis also won in the supporting actor and actress categories, respectively. Only two other films in Oscar history — “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Network” — have won three acting Oscars.<\/p>\n “Thank you for all the little boys and girls who look like me tonight,” Yeoh said during her acceptance speech. “This is proof that dreams do come true. And ladies, don’t let anyone ever tell you you’re past your prime.”<\/p>\n Curtis paid homage to her Oscar-nominated parents, Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, after her win. It comes more than 60 years after her mother was nominated for her supporting acting work in “Psycho.” Her father received a nod in 1959 in the best actor category for “The Defiant Ones.”<\/p>\n “My mother and my father were both nominated for Oscars in different categories,” Curtis said, beginning to cry as she accepted the award. “I just won an Oscar!”<\/p>\n Former child star Quan’s win was also met with a standing ovation, capping his own extraordinary comeback.<\/p>\n “They say stories like this only happen in the movies. I can’t believe it’s happening,” he said. “This is the American dream.”<\/p>\n In a bizarre moment at the Oscars, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock in the face after he directed a G.I. Jane joke at Smith’s wife and actress Jada Pinkett Smith.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Academy Awards named the deaf family drama “CODA,” best picture, handing Hollywood’s top award to a streaming service for the first time in a ceremony that saw the greatest drama when Will Smith strode onstage and slapped Chris Rock.<\/a><\/p>\n After Rock, as a presenter, joked to Jada Pinkett Smith that he was looking forward to a sequel to “G.I. Jane,” Will Smith stood up from his seat near the stage, strode up to Rock and smacked him. After sitting back down, Smith shouted at Rock to “keep my wife’s name out of your (expletive) mouth.” When Rock, who joked about Jada Pinkett Smith while hosting the Oscars in 2016, protested that it was just a “GI Jane” joke, Smith repeated the same line.<\/p>\n The moment shocked the Dolby Theatre audience and viewers at home. Smith later took the stage when he won best actor for Venus and Serena Williams’ father in “King Richard,” his first Oscar. His acceptance speech vacillated between defense and apology.<\/p>\n “Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family,” Smith said in his first remarks. Smith then shared what Denzel Washington told him: “At your highest moment, be careful because that’s when the devil comes for you.”<\/p>\n Yuh-Jung Youn has become the first Korean actor to win an Academy Award. She claimed the Oscar for best supporting actress Sunday night for her performance in “Minari” as a grandmother who moves from South Korea to live with her daughter’s farming family in Arkansas.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The night’s MVP was adorable best supporting actress winner Yuh-Jung Youn<\/a>, the feisty grandma from “Minari” who made Oscar history as the first Korean actress to collect the Academy’s Golden Boy.<\/p>\n “Brad Pitt-finally,” Youn sassed flirtatiously to her presenter, who also produced “Minari.” She told her fellow nominees, including eight-time loser Glenn Close, “I’m luckier than you.” We were the lucky ones to have her and her joyous spirit on our shores.<\/p>\n Chlo\u00e9 Zhao, the Chinese-born director of “Nomadland,” also made history<\/a> by becoming the first Asian woman — and woman of color — to win the directing Oscar.<\/p>\n She’s also only the second woman, after Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker,” to win best director in the Academy’s 93 years.<\/p>\n Parasite wins Best Picture, becoming the first film not in English to do so.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n South Korean film “Parasite” took home the prize for best picture<\/a> during the Oscars shortly after the film won three other awards, including directing for Bong Joon Ho, best international film and best original screenplay.<\/p>\n True to its name, “Parasite” simply got under the skin of Oscar voters, attaching itself to the American awards season and, ultimately, to history. The win was a watershed moment for the Academy Awards, which has long been content to relegate international films to their own category.<\/p>\n Spike Lee accepts the award for best adapted screenplay for “BlacKkKlansman” at the Oscars on Feb. 24, 2019, in Los Angeles.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Photo by Chris Pizzello\/Invision\/AP, File<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It was a long time coming when legendary director Spike Lee, with decades of experience and dozens of films under his belt, won his first competitive Oscar<\/a> in 2019. Lee, along with Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott, won for best adapted screenplay for “BlacKkKlansman.”<\/p>\n “Before the world tonight, I give praise to the ancestors who built this country,” Lee said during his acceptance speech<\/a>. “We all connect with our ancestors who will have love, wisdom regained. We’ll regain our humanity, it will be a powerful moment.”<\/p>\n He concluded by calling on the world to “make the moral choice between love versus hate. Let’s do the right thing!”<\/p>\n Lee had previously been nominated in 1990 and 1998 and was given a non-competitive Academy Honorary Award in 2015.<\/p>\n In one of the most anticipated performances of the night, the ”A Star Is Born” co-stars took the stage for an intimate duet.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Viewers always look forward to the music at the Oscars, but few performances have generated as much buzz as Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s duet of “Shallow” from “A Star is Born” at the 2019 ceremony.<\/p>\n Fans were excited but also hesitant about the performance ahead of time. They knew Lady Gaga could perform, but would actor and director Bradley Cooper be able to keep up?<\/p>\n The pair ended up delivering a touching, intimate performance of the movie’s hit song. So much so that many people online started speculating if they were in a relationship off-screen.<\/p>\n Despite the undeniable chemistry, the celebrities later went on the record and said they weren’t dating, and the performance was purposely choreographed to be representative of their characters’ love in “A Star is Born.”<\/p>\n “Shallow” went on to win best original song later that night.<\/p>\n While accepting her best leading actress Oscar for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” Frances McDormand set her Oscar down<\/a> on the stage floor and asked every female nominee in the audience to stand: “The actors…the filmmakers, the producers, the directors, the writers, the cinematographers, the composers, the songwriters, the designers.”<\/p>\n “Meryl, if you do it, everybody else will,” McDormand quipped. “Look around, ladies and gentlemen, because we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed. Don’t talk to us about it at the parties tonight, invite us into your office in a couple of days…and we’ll tell you all about them.”<\/p>\n She then encouraged those in the room to push for an inclusion rider, a contractual stipulation that ensures diversity in the hiring process.<\/p>\n By the end of the night, “inclusion rider” was among the most-searched terms on the Merriam-Webster website.<\/p>\n ABC’s Dayna Bucchus has more on how it happened and reaction.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It was perhaps the biggest shock in Oscars history when the biggest award of the night, best picture, was wrongly presented<\/a> by “Bonnie and Clyde” stars Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty at the 89th Academy Awards.<\/p>\n The presenters looked confused when they took the card out of the envelope after reading the nominees. Beatty even looked back in the envelope before passing the card to Dunaway as he stalled to read aloud what the card said.<\/p>\n Dunaway read “La La Land” and the cast and crew took to the stage. It wasn’t a huge shock since the film had already won six Oscars that night and was nominated for a record-tying 14 awards.<\/p>\n However, “La La Land” producer Jordan Horowitz stopped his colleagues’ acceptance speeches short after whispers and shocked looks traveled across the stage as they realized there was a mistake.<\/p>\n “I’m sorry, no. There’s a mistake. ‘Moonlight,’ you guys won best picture,” Horowitz said. “This is not a joke. Come up here.”<\/p>\n The camera then cut to the now-iconic shot of Horowitz holding the correct card, which, in fact, listed “Moonlight” as the best picture winner.<\/p>\n It turns out that Beatty and Dunaway had been wrongly handed the envelope for best actress, which had “Emma Stone, ‘La La Land'” written on it. No wonder they looked so confused.<\/p>\n What better time for Jimmy Kimmel to add fuel to the fire of his good-hearted feud with Matt Damon than during his Oscars opening monologue?<\/p>\n Discussing the divisive nature of the recent presidential election during his first turn as Oscars host in 2017, Kimmel said he wanted to make good with somebody he’s had issues with: Damon.<\/p>\n When it comes to “healing and bringing people together,” Kimmel said, it “starts with us.”<\/p>\n Kimmel zinged Damon as “a selfish person” but joked that Damon did something very unselfish by passing on the chance to star in “Manchester by the Sea,” a role that eventually landed Casey Affleck a best leading actor win. Damon instead starred in “The Great Wall,” a film that Kimmel said “went on to lose $80 million.”<\/p>\n It might be hard to believe that Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t win an Oscar for his touching portrayal of Jack Dawson in “Titanic.” But, alas, it wasn’t his time yet. In fact, his time wouldn’t come for nearly 20 years. DiCaprio didn’t win his first Oscar until 2016<\/a> when he was honored for his portrayal of Hugh Glass in “The Revenant.”<\/p>\n DiCaprio, who received a standing ovation from the audience, used the end of his acceptance speech to raise awareness about climate change.<\/p>\n “It is happening right now,” he said. “It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating.”<\/p>\n DiCaprio ended with, “Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take tonight for granted.”<\/p>\n He had previously been nominated in 1994, 2005, 2007 and 2014.<\/p>\n Lady Gaga channels Julie Andrews in the 50th anniversary tribute of ‘The Sound of Music’<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n2025: Powerful ‘Wicked’ medley opens 97th Academy Awards<\/h2>\n
2025: Kieran Culkin says wife promised him 4th child if he won<\/h2>\n
2025: Zoe Salda\u00f1a dedicates Oscar win to her grandmother in emotional speech<\/h2>\n
2025: Paul Tazewell is 1st Black man to win Oscar for costume design<\/h2>\n
2024: John Cena strips down on Oscars stage<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n2024: Ryan Gosling sings ‘I’m Just Ken’ with Slash<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n2023: ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ is everything everywhere all over the Oscars<\/h2>\n
2022: ‘CODA’ wins best picture, but Will Smith slap drama steals show<\/h2>\n
2021: Yuh-Jung Youn charms Oscar viewers<\/h2>\n
2020: ‘Parasite’ makes best picture history<\/h2>\n
2019: Spike Lee wins his first competitive Oscar<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n2019: Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga perform “Shallow”<\/h2>\n
2018: Frances McDormand honors female nominees during acceptance speech<\/h2>\n
2017: Wrong winner announced<\/h2>\n
2017: Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon’s (faux) feud rages on<\/h2>\n
2016: Leonardo DiCaprio finally wins an Oscar<\/h2>\n
2015: Lady Gaga channels Julie Andrews in the 50th anniversary tribute to “The Sound of Music”<\/h2>\n
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