New Zealand director Taika Waititi has won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 92nd Annual Academy Awards for his film Jojo Rabbit, marking the first time an Indigenous New Zealander has won an Oscar.
The actor, director, and writer took to the stage to accept the award, making a joke that he thought it was going to be “heavy”.
Waititi’s thanked his mother — his date whom he’d lost somewhere in the crowd earlier on in the night — and said to laughter:
“There are many people that I want to thank, but I won’t because I can’t remember them.”
The Avengers: End Game director then went on to dedicate the award to “all the indigenous kids of the world who want to do art and dance and write stories.”
“We are the original storytellers and we can make it here as well. Thank you.”
Jojo Rabbit follows a young boy growing up in Nazi Germany during World War II and stars Scarlett Johansson, Thomasin McKenzie and Waititi as Adolf Hitler.
The 2020 Oscars took place February 9 (February 10 in Australia) at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California.