Zoe Saldana broke down in tears as she accepted the Best Actress in a Supporting role Academy Award on Sunday (02.03.25).
The 46-year-old actress admitted she was "floored" to have won the Oscar for 'Emilia Perez' ahead of Monica Barbaro ('A Complete Unknown'), Ariana Grande ('Wicked'), Felicity Jones ('The Brutalist') and Isabella Rossellini ('Conclave') and gave an emotional speech in which she paid tribute to her family and spoke proudly of being the "first American of Dominican origin" to win at the ceremony.
Speaking on stage at Los Angeles' Dolby Theater, she said: "Mommy! Mommy! My mom is here, my whole family is here. I am floored by this honour.
"Thank you to the Academy for recognising the quiet heroism and the power of a woman like Rita and talking about powerful women, my fellow nominees, the love and community you have offered me is a true gift and I will pay it forward. Thank you so much.
"Jacques Audiard you are forever a belvoed character in my life, thank you for taking the interest, thank you for being so curious about these women to tell this story.
"To my cast and crew of 'Emilia Perez', I am sharing this award with you.
"Netflix, Ted, Lisa, Bella, Why Not productions, YSL, thank you for your support. To my kick-ass team at CAA, my amazing managers and lawyers and the powerful ladies of the lead company, your guidance and thank you for always, always answering my emails late at night."
Zoe - who has twins Cy and Bowie, 10, and eight-year-old Zen with husband Marco Perego – then grew more emotional as she spoke about her family.
She added: "To my mom and dad, my sisters, everything brave, outrageous and good that I have ever done in my life is because of you, thank you so much.
"And to my husband, you have beautiful hair, you're just... The biggest honour of my life is being my partner You hung the moon in our beautiful sons, Cy Bowie and Zen. They fill our skies every night with stars.
"My grandmother came to this country in 1961, I am a proud child of immigrant parents with dreams and dignity and hard-working hands and I am the first American of Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award and I know I won't be the last. I hope the fact I'm getting an award for a role where I got to sing and speak in Spanish, my grandmother if she were here, she'd be so delighted. Thank you so much."
