The Japanese Director Of “Godzilla Minus One” Was Played Off At The Oscars As He Struggled To Deliver His Acceptance Speech In English, And People Are Outraged

Oppenheimer was the biggest success of the night, with director Christopher Nolan and stars Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. all taking home Academy Awards for their work in the film, which also won the much-coveted Best Picture category.

The hit biopic ended up taking home seven awards in total, including Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Score. 

But the ceremony honored a whole heap of other films as well, including Godzilla Minus One — which became the lowest-budget film to win the Best Visual Effects Oscar since Ex Machina in 2016.

The Japanese epic kaiju movie, which was released last year, had an estimated budget of less than $15 million but still managed to beat much more expensive productions — like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One — to the award. 

As you are probably aware, the Academy Awards have a strict time limit for speeches and will normally strike up the orchestra 45 seconds in. 

However, people thought that the academy should have extended some grace during this occasion, as English is not the Godzilla team’s first language. 

He started off by joking, “The moment we were nominated, we prepared like Rocky Balboa,” but later appeared to lose his spot on the paper that he was reading from as he stumbled over his words.

And just as Takashi began to pay poignant tribute to the movie’s producer Shuji Abe, who died in December, the play-off music began. 

And people did not hold back as they took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share their thoughts on the situation.

One person wrote, “So ecstatic for the Godzilla Minus One team, but furious how they were played off during their speech! They deserved all the time in the world! They put in the effort to translate their speech for you, and you play them off???”

Another asked, “Can we discuss how rude it was for them to play the Godzilla minus one crew off the stage while they were struggling to translate their speech into English? I’m mad annoyed about that.”

“Trying to play off the Godzilla Minus One crew,  who are trying to give their speech in another fucking language, is criminal,” somebody else agreed. One more tweeted, “Don't play off the poor Godzilla team struggling through their speech, you assholes.”