7 Most Memorable Grownup Moments at the Oscars

Yoko Ono, 91, got a shout-out from her Oscar-winning son

Sean Lennon, 48, helped accept the Oscar for animated short feature for War Is Over!, inspired by the music of his folks John Lennon and Yoko Ono. After the music played to notify the winners to exit the stage, Lennon leaned into the microphone and said, “I just want to quickly say my mother turned 91 this February, and today is Mother’s Day in the UK. So will everyone please say. ‘Happy Mother’s Day, Yoko?’” The crowd obliged. Ono has a new honor of her own: The current career retrospective exhibition Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind is winning raves at London’s Tate Modern.

Rich Polk/Variety via Getty Images

Robert Downey Jr., 58, proved he’s more than Iron Man by winning his first Oscar

It’s been 31 years since Downey proved himself more than a hard-partying Brat Packer by earning a best actor nomination in Chaplin. Since then he’s had to live down another reputation, as a box-office superhero in $14 billion worth of movies — good for the pocketbook, risky in terms of Oscar snob appeal. As J. Robert Oppenheimer’s benefactor and nemesis Lewis Strauss, Downey demonstrated a whole new depth and subtlety in his performance, and nabbed the best supporting actor trophy. Renowned and beloved for his witty acceptance speeches (and he’s had a lot of accepting to do), he did not disappoint at the 96th Oscars, thanking his “terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order,” and also his wife, Susan, who “found me a snarling rescue pet and she loved me back to life,” and Tom Hanson, his lawyer for 40 years, “for half of which he spent trying to get me insured and bailing me out of the hoosegow.” 

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Hayao Miyazaki makes history at 83

Director Miyazaki, whose animated classics are very much for grownups, not just kids, has earned four Oscar nominations for best animated feature, plus a 2015 honorary award. But when he won his second Oscar for The Boy and the Heron, he broke two records: He’s the oldest animation director ever nominated and the oldest winner by over two decades. Miyazaki is also the only one to win for hand-drawn animation (twice, for this film and 2001’s Spirited Away). The director is now tied with Pixar’s Pete Docter, 55, for the most nominations. While Miyazaki wasn’t at the ceremony to accept the award, he said when the film was released: “There’s nothing more pathetic than telling the world you’ll retire because of your age [at 58, he’d announced plans to retire], then making yet another comeback. Doesn’t an elderly person deluding themself that they’re still capable, despite their geriatric forgetfulness, prove that they’re past their best?” That would be a hard no, as proved by his unprecedented Oscar.

Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Slash, 58, joined Ryan Gosling's Oscar band

​Guns N’ Roses’ Slash, who played on the Barbie soundtrack, gave a shred-eriffic guitar performance on “I’m Just Ken,” joining Wolfgang Van Halen, Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt and Ken himself, Ryan Gosling, to rock the tune from the film. Gosling roamed the room, giving Barbie director Greta Gerwig and star Margot Robbie a chance to chime in triumphantly on vocals. Slash’s all-black outfit and trademark top hat next to Gosling’s all-pink suit made it a visual treat as well.

Director Christopher Nolan, 53, finally broke into the winner’s circle

Possibly the most respected director who’d never won an Oscar (though he’d had eight nominations in several categories), Nolan has long been revered for the sheer intelligence and bold ambition of epics like The Dark Knight, Dunkirk and Memento. He outdid himself with Oppenheimer, a film that manages to pack in a crash lesson in physics, deep psychological realism, eye-popping spectacle, a narrative time line that makes quantum leaps and some of the best performances by some of the greatest actors alive.

“Movies are just a little bit over 100 years old,” Nolan said while accepting the award. “I mean, imagine being there 100 years into painting or theater. We don’t know where this incredible journey is going from here. But to know that you think that I’m a meaningful part of it means the world to me.”

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Oppenheimer was the bomb

Arguably, there was never a smarter best picture winner than Oppenheimer, and discerning grownups were crucial in making it a near-billion-dollar hit. It is history’s highest-grossing biopic and also the top World War II film, two genres beloved by AARP members.

Emma Thomas, 52, who produced the high-risk film with Charles Roven, 74, and Nolan, her husband, accepted the award and echoed Sean Lennon’s sentiments: “It’s UK Mother’s Day, so I’m thinking of my mum, who’s no longer with us today, and my mother-in-law, Christina, who’s here with my dad. So thank you. And thank you, Academy! I’m so honored to be here!”