Academy Awards Acceptance Speech Database

ROBERT DUVALL:
Thank you very much. I'm very excited, very happy, very moved, very everything tonight, to be up here, to be singled out from among all these very talented people. I sometimes come to the Academy Awards and watch them year after year, and I get caught up in the spectacle of it, in the event, in the very complex type of entertainment and I guess, I know I forget, that what we're really here for is to single out who we think is the best for that given year. And if that's what I am to be this year then I appreciate it. I accept it with an honor and I'm very moved because of that.

I think we set out to make a film, a very truthful film, a very good film. I think Bruce Beresford, Horton Foote, the Hobels, EMI, should all be commended for a very wonderful job that they did in putting this film together. I think it's a valid film, valid enough that we have gotten very much applause of a certain kind from certain members of the country western community, such as my friend Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings. And this is certainly a very high level of criticism coming from those people. And if I didn't have that on one hand, I would feel that this on the other hand was not complete. But the combination of both tonight makes this a very complete and exciting evening for me tonight. And I want to thank the Academy very much for this award. I'm very happy. Thank you.