Everybody with a statue seemed to have a cause.
Over and over, the winners at the Academy Awards on Sunday night used their acceptance speeches to call attention to social injustice, mental health and political debates.
Here’s a look at what they said.
Pay equity
The winner: Patricia Arquette, best supporting actress for “Boyhood.”
What she said: “To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. ... It is our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for all women in America!”
Suicide
The winner: Graham Moore, best adapted screenplay for “The Imitation Game.”
What he said: “When I was 16, I tried to kill myself because I felt weird and I felt different and I felt like I did not belong. I would like this moment to be for the kid out there who feels like she’s weird and different and feels like she doesn't belong. Yes, you do.”
Government surveillance
The winner: Laura Poitras, best documentary for “Citizenfour.”
What she said: “The disclosures that Edward Snowden reveals don’t only expose threats to our privacy but to our democracy.”
Immigration
The winner: Alejandro González Iñárritu, accepting the best picture award for “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).”
What he said: That he hoped present-day immigrants “can be treated with the same dignity and respect of the ones who came before and built this incredible immigrant nation.”
Alzheimer’s
The winner: Julianne Moore, best actress for “Still Alice.”
What she said: “People with Alzheimer’s deserve to be seen.”
Lou Gehrig’s disease
The winner: Eddie Redmayne, best actor for “The Theory of Everything.”
What he said: “Please know this — that I am fully aware that I am a lucky, lucky man. This belongs to all of the people around the world battling ALS.”
Civil rights and the incarceration rate
The winners: John Legend, who accepted with the rapper Common for best original song, “Glory,” from “Selma.”
What he said: “We say that ‘Selma’ is now, because the struggle for justice is right now. We know that the Voting Rights Act that they fought for 50 years ago is being compromised right now in this country today. We know that right now the struggle for freedom and justices where we live in the most incarcerated country in the world.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.