Oscars 2017 countdown: Best Academy Awards moments, from Leo's big win to Ellen's selfie

This Sunday, 22 February 2017 will mark one of the most important events for the International film industry. It’s time for the 89th Academy Awards — and one thing is for sure: because the high-stakes event lends itself to raw emotions, there are rare moments of candor from publicly cautious celebrities. Over the years, the Academy Awards have given us some of the most hilarious, memorable and touching memories of our favourite celebrities. Here are our favourite Oscar moments from the ceremonies throughout the years: Leonardo DiCaprio finally wins the Oscar

After 27 years in Hollywood, six nominations, countless articles about him not winning the Oscar and one graphic bear attack, Leonardo DiCaprio finally won the best actor Oscar for his performance in The Revenant in 2016. The world had to start looking for a new meme. “Thank you to all of you in this room,” DiCaprio said, to a standing ovation, when he reached the stage. The actor thanked The Revenant co-star Tom Hardy, director Alejandro González Iñárritu and Martin Scorsese, for teaching him the art of film. The happiest person was ofcourse, the bear from The Revenant.

Halle Barry breaks down on Stage

The Academy Awards has seen it all — from tears to falls to memorable acceptance speeches. Halle Berry breaks into tears during her acceptance speech after winning Best Actress for her role as Leticia Musgrove in the film Monsters Ball when she became the first African-American actress to win the Oscar in 2002. Ellen’s Oscar Celebrity Selfie Who can forget the famous photo taken by the then Oscars host Ellen Degeneres. Among the stars who posed with her: Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Lupita Nyong’o, Kevin Spacey, Jared Leto and Channing Tatum. Shortly after the epic selfie posted, Twitter experienced intermittent outages. The photo had been retweeted more than 750,000 times in its first 45 minutes of it being put up. After one hour, it topped the previous record-holder for most retweets — a tweet from President Barack Obama after he won the 2012 election. That Obama tweet was retweeted a little more than 780,000 times.

Charlie Chaplin: The never seen before standing ovation After returning to America after his 20 year exile because of supporting communism during the Cold War, Charlie Chaplin returned to Hollywood for one of the greatest moments in Oscar history. During the 45th Academy Awards in 1972, Chaplin went on stage to receive a Lifetime Achievement award and was also awarded with the longest standing ovation in Oscar history — lasting around 12 minutes. This video, fortunately or unfortunately does not include the full length of the ovation.

The Only Woman to win the ‘Best Director’ Award Katherine Bigelow became the only woman to win the directing Oscar in the 2009 Award ceremony for her film The Hurt Locker (it went to win the Oscar for Best Film as well). No other woman has won or been nominated since. Barbra Streisand announces her name by saying, “Well, the time has finally come:”

Heath Ledger wins Best Supporting Actor posthumously for The Dark Knight Ledger became the second actor to win a posthumous Oscar, accepted by his family.

What gave rise to the politicalisation of the Oscars: Marlon Brando declines his Award The 45th Annual Awards in 1973 saw what was the beginning of the protest against Hollywood’s treatment of people of color. When Marlon Brando was awarded the Best Actor Oscar for his iconic role as Vito Corleone in The Godfather, he didn’t show up to accept the statue. Instead, he sent a Native American activist named Sacheen Littlefeather in his place to decline the award. Littlefeather stood behind the podium and, to a mixed reaction of boos and applause from the audience, explained why the movie star, at the height of his career, was rejecting the Academy’s most prestigious individual honor. “He has asked me to tell you, that he very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award,” Littlefeather, wearing traditional Apache dress, said. “And the reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry.” The #OscarsSoWhite controversy of last year shows that sadly Hollywood has not changed much:

Benedict Cumberbatch: ‘Go Away’ The 87th Annual Academy Awards or the Oscars 2015 was a special night Benedict Cumberbatch. He had bagged an Oscar Nomination for Best Actor for his role as Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, but sadly lost out to Eddie Redmayne. However, it looks like Benedict was well prepared to drown his sorrows with a hip-flask that he kept taking a swig from throughout the live broadcast and mouthed ‘Go Away’ when the camera was on him after Redmayne bagged the award.