Academy Awards Acceptance Speech Database

TRACY SERETEAN:
Wow, talk about beginner's luck. Thank you very much, members of the Academy. This is my first film, but I certainly didn't work with beginners. I thank the entire team of documentary people at HBO: Jeff Bewkes, Chris Albrecht, and most especially, thank you, Sheila Nevins. Also Geof Bartz, Julie Anderson. There are a few people who were with me from the very beginning three years ago: Mitchell Block, Lisa Leeman, and my cinematographer Tamara Goldsworthy. I'm here because of my family and friends. Thank you, I wish I could name you all. Lastly, I want to dedicate this award to my film's subjects, Walter Dees and his grandmother Viola, who died, unfortunately, in December at ninety-one. I'm sure she would want though to share this award with the grandmothers like her who are struggling to raise a generation of children whose own parents abandoned them. Thanks very much, and thank you to all those grandparents out there. Thank you.