This Sunday the 12th, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is honoring the best in cinema at the 2023 Oscars. Each winner will receive a golden statuette. However, this edition will be marked by a protest action by the Yanomami people.
In cooperation with an advertising agency, the indigenous people will provide a sculpture in the form of the deity Omama. The idea is to draw attention to the illegal exploitation of gold in indigenous areas in northern Brazil. The object is not made of gold or precious metals.
Before receiving the Oscar statuettes, the 20 nominees attend one Video by Junior Hekurari Yanomami, leader of the Urihi Yanomami Association. In the recording, Junior warns in his native language that gold has come to mean “death and destruction” for the indigenous people, for the forest and for the animals of the Amazon.
The following artists are expected to receive the video: Angela Bassett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kerry Condon, Stephanie Hsu, Hong Chau, Brendan Gleeson, Judd Hirsch, Brian Tyree Henry, Barry Keoghan, Ke Huy Quan, Brendan Fraser, Colin Farrell, Austin Butler , Bill Nighy, Paul Mescal, Andrea Riseborough, Cate Blanchett, Michelle Williams, Ana de Armas and Michelle Yeoh.
The record also invites artists to access the “rethink the value of your gold” website, which includes a calculator showing the social and natural impact of each gram of gold illegally extracted from the forest.
According to federal police, an illegal smuggling scheme has moved 13 tons of gold in the Amazon since 2020, worth nearly R$ billion.