Rewritten Content in English:
New Delhi:
Best Actor winner Adrien Brody made history on Sunday by delivering the longest-ever Oscar acceptance speech, clocking an impressive five minutes and 40 seconds on stage. This surpassed an eight-decade-old record previously held by British actress Greer Garson, who won Best Actress for Mrs. Miniver in 1943 with a five-minute and 30-second speech, according to Guinness World Records.
Despite promising multiple times to keep his speech brief during his marathon monologue, Brody went on for nearly six minutes. The 97th Academy Awards ceremony itself overran, lasting close to four hours, with the low-budget indie film Anora taking home five Oscars, including Best Picture.
The Academy had introduced time limits and the practice of "playing off" winners with music following Garson’s record-setting speech. However, Brody defiantly ordered the orchestra to stop during his acceptance speech. "Please, turn the music off. I’ve done this before," said Brody, who won Best Actor in 2003 for The Pianist. "It’s not my first rodeo, but I will be brief. I will not be egregious, I promise," he added, before continuing for another 90 seconds.
Preliminary ratings for the Oscars broadcast, shared by ABC on Monday, revealed that the gala reached an audience of approximately 18.1 million viewers in the U.S., including those streaming on Hulu. This marked a slight dip compared to last year’s early ratings figure of 19.5 million, ending a three-year streak of improved Oscar viewership.
The Oscars went live on streaming for the first time this year, though technical glitches caused some online viewers to miss the final awards. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Oscars ratings had plummeted to a low of 10.4 million. A decade ago, the Academy Awards telecast regularly attracted over 40 million viewers.
Sunday night’s show received generally positive reviews. Variety called the 97th Academy Awards "successful in more ways than not," praising host Conan O’Brien for "walking the perfect line between acid and affection." The Los Angeles Times described the ceremony as "generally navigable," despite a "pointless excursion" into a dance-and-sing tribute to James Bond films.
Indiewire hailed it as "one of the best Oscars telecasts in years," while The Hollywood Reporter found the evening "unstable" and "uneven."
Brody’s lengthy speech seemed fitting for The Brutalist, a three-and-a-half-hour drama featuring an intermission, in which he plays a brilliant architect haunted by the Holocaust who moves to post-World War II America to start anew. In his speech, Brody thanked over a dozen people by name, including his parents, Brutalist director Brady Corbet, co-stars Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones, and his girlfriend Georgina Chapman.
In a quirky moment on his way to the stage, Brody paused to remove chewing gum from his mouth and tossed it to Chapman, who caught it. "I forgot I was chewing gum… ‘I’ve got to get rid of this somehow!’" Brody later explained during a post-victory interview on Live with Kelly and Mark.
He concluded his speech on a more serious note, stating, "If the past can teach us anything, it’s a reminder to not let hate go unchecked."
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Stay updated with the latest news by visiting our trusted sources: ztcnews.com and znews.today. Explore more stories and in-depth coverage today!