The “immigrant” theme dominated the acceptance speech, and not for the first time Sunday, in one of the major Oscar categories — the best director award.
Fantasy director Guillermo Del Toro won the Oscar for his film “The Shape of Water” and leaped right into the matter and said movies should lead to one world and erase national sovereignty.
“I am an immigrant like Alfonso, Alejandro, my compadres,” he said, referring to Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Gonalez Inarritu, all three Mexican-born directors who have won the best director prize for English-language and American-produced movies in the past several years.
“In my last 25 years, I’ve been living in a country all of my own,” created by the movies in the nations where he has worked, he said. “I think the greatest thing that our industry does is erase the line in the sand.”
It was the latest in a series of acceptance speeches shouting out to Latin America and/or Mexico and declaring solidarity with illegal immigrants — in various forms best animated film, best song, and best production design all had lines like “Que Viva Mexico” and “Like everyone watching, we are Dreamers.”
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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