Oscars 98: Stars Demand Free Palestine, Slam ICE Killings
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- Javier Bardem declared "No to war, and free Palestine" while presenting the best international feature film award, drawing immediate applause from the Dolby Theatre audience.
- One Battle After Another dominated the night with six wins, including best picture, best director (Paul Thomas Anderson), supporting actor (Sean Penn), adapted screenplay, editing, and the Academy's new best casting award.
- Mr Nobody Against Putin co-director David Borenstein said "We act complicit when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities," a speech widely read as addressing ICE killings.
- Gloria Cazares of best documentary short winner "All the Empty Rooms" said gun violence is the number one cause of death in kids and teens, speaking about her nine-year-old daughter Jackie, killed in a school shooting.
- Paul Thomas Anderson said he wrote "One Battle After Another" for his kids "to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world," acknowledging parallels between the film's authoritarian America and the current political climate.
- The Voice of Hind Rajab team wore pins demanding a permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war; Palestinian lead actor Motaz Malhees was barred from attending by the US travel ban, writing: "You can block a passport. You cannot block a voice."
Why it matters: The 98th Academy Awards broke with the ceremony's long-standing reluctance to embrace overt political speech, as multiple winners and presenters used the platform to address Gaza, ICE killings, and gun violence — cited in the ceremony itself as the #1 killer of children. The Academy expanded membership 40% last year to increase diversity, and that institutional shift is now visibly reshaping whose voices reach a global audience on Hollywood's biggest night.
