The 95th Academy Awards kicked off at the Dolby Theatre with a piece of history. Host Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue was followed by the presentation of the first of 24 awards for the night. A top filmmaker returned to the stage to collect the gold statuette and became the only winner in Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Animated Feature Film. While the Netflix Original film was the front-runner following its dominance at the pre-cursors, the acceptance speech from Guillermo del Toro is what may have made Hollywood pause and take notice. 

The first award of the night, Best Animated Feature, saw Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio walk away with the trophy. It marked the 58-year-old’s return to the stage for the first time since winning Best Picture and Best Director at the 90th Academy Awards for The Shape of Water. 

Guillermo del Toro made a plea for animated cinema at the Academy Awards 

After accepting their Oscars from presenters Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson, the quartet of Del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar, and Alex Bulkley soaked in the applause before taking to the mic. Del Toro used his time well and delivered a rousing speech that could change the game for animation and animated cinema. 

The three-time Academy Award winner said, “Animation is cinema. Animation is not a genre. Animation is ready to be taken to the next step. We are all ready for it. Please help us keep animation in the conversation.”

“I would like to thank Netflix and Ted Sarandos for sustaining his faith in us to make this movie. ” 

A big-name filmmaker like Guillermo del Toro winning in animation could open the floodgates and push directorial stalwarts to the animated genre. As the auteur spoke, the crowd in the theater vociferously cheered to show that he had struck a chord with his earnest words. The same was echoed online with many congratulatory posts.

Fans had their say on Pinocchio’s win at the Oscars

After the first award of the night was in the history books, cinephiles took to Twitter to have their say on the proceedings. Many users lauded the Mexican filmmaker for winning his third Oscar.

One user pointed out how Netflix’s film managed to break a hegemony at the Oscars in this category. For context, in 22 years of this category, Pixar has taken home the trophy on 11 occasions. Netflix has joined the likes of Sony (Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse), Nickelodeon (Rango), Aardman (Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of Were-Rabbit), and Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away) as the studios outside DreamWorks, Walt Disney, and Pixar to win an Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

One user seemed to enjoy del Toro’s acceptance speech and made it clear via Twitter.

Another user wondered whether not watching the film was a bad thing. He may not be alone, as many who haven’t seen Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio may flock to the streamer to catch it.

What did you make of Guillermo del Toro’s acceptance speech after winning his third Academy Award?