Oscars 2017: What they said - from Jimmy Kimmel’s one-liners to top speeches

Host Jimmy Kimmel opened the Oscars with a salvo of jokes targeting President Donald Trump.

Host Jimmy Kimmel speaks at the Oscars. Picture: AP

Host Jimmy Kimmel opened the Oscars with a salvo of jokes targeting President Donald Trump on a night anticipated to be as remarkable for political protest as for its celebration of Hollywood.

Here is a round-up of Kimmel’s best - and worst gags, as well as key speeches from winners.

Kimmel on Trump

“This broadcast is being watched live by millions of Americans and around the world in more than 225 countries that now hate us,” Kimmel said.

“I want to say thank you to President Trump. Remember last year when it seemed like the Oscars were racist? That’s gone,”

“Some of you will get to come up here on this stage tonight and give a speech that the president of the United States will tweet about in all caps during his am bowel movement tomorrow. And I think that’s pretty darn excellent, if you ask me.”

Hey @realDonaldTrump u up?

— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) February 27, 2017

Kimmel later tweeted Donald Trump, with the text appearing on a large screen at the front of the room.

The Trump factor

Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, winner of the Oscar for best foreign film, boycotted the ceremony, citing Trump’s travel ban of several predominantly Muslim countries, including his own. He sent Iranian astronaut Anousheh Ansari to read a statement for him.

“Dividing the world into the ‘us and our enemies’ categories creates fear,” Ansari said, adding it’s “a deceitful justification for aggression and war.”

Mahershala Ali - best supporting actor

“I want to thank my teachers, my professors. One thing that they consistently told me... ‘It’s not about you. It’s about these characters. You are a servant. You’re in service to these stories and these characters’.”

Viola Davis - best supporting actor

“I became an artist, and thank god I did, because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life.”

Australian Oscar

“I wasn’t expecting it to happen but I feel eternally grateful that it happened specifically because of the project that it was.” Australian sound mixers Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grac who took the sound mixing Oscar for Hacksaw Ridge.

Thank you

She said only “thank you,” but it was one of the more moving moments of Sunday’s Oscars ceremony. Katherine Johnson, 98, the former NASA mathematician played by Taraji P. Henson in the movie “Hidden Figures,” was brought on stage to thunderous applause.

Oscars red carpet

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