No offense to absolute legends Regina King and Alfonso Cuarón and the rest of the winners at the 91st annual Academy Awards, but the best speech of the night goes to Rayka Zehtabchi and Melissa Berton, who took home an Oscar for their documentary short, Period. End of Sentence.
Accepting the award for her feminist sanitary pad movie, producer Berton took the stage in tears and highly emotional (come on, wouldn’t you be?). Here’s her brilliant opening line: “I’m not crying because I’m on my period or anything.”
She then added, “I can’t believe that a film about menstruation just won an Oscar.” It may be hard to believe, but the 26-minute short that tackles the stigma around menstruation in rural India totally deserves it. (Seriously, watch it on Netflix now.)
Director Zehtabchi finished the speech on another high, saying, “A period should end a sentence, not a girl’s education.”
