Who is the only person to win an Oscar and get arrested on the same night?
Many records have been broken throughout the history of the Academy Awards, with the red carpet being rolled out each year for more celebrities to humiliate and inevitably cancel themselves with cringe acceptance speeches and controversial moments—whether it be a poor outfit choice, tone-deaf political comments or a slap in the face. There have also been plenty of darker moments that have accompanied the ceremony, from foreshadowing remarks indicating the abusive Harvey Weinstein, actors who struggled after winning certain awards and speeches that point towards larger global issues.
However, there have also been a number of whimsical and slightly ridiculous moments, such as the streaker who broke onto the stage while The Sting was winning ‘Best Picture’ or John Travolta’s infamous mispronunciation of Idina Menzel.
Many celebrities have been awarded the golden statuette before being quickly humbled and falling from grace—from Jennifer Lawrence’s literal tumble on the way to the stage while collecting her trophy or Adrien Brody ruining his persona of performative humility after taking a whopping seven minutes to deliver his meandering and bogus speech.
But in the history of the ceremony, there has only been one recipient of the honourable award with the harshest fall from the top—the director who won and was shortly arrested the same evening.
Who is the only person to win an Oscar and get arrested on the same night?
Zbigniew Rybczyński is a Polish animator known for short films such as Tango, Soup and Imagine, with the filmmaker winning an Oscar for ‘Best Short Film’ in 1983 for Tango. However, the evening quickly descended into chaos after the presenter, Kristy McNichol, struggled to pronounce his name and butchered the pronunciation, ending up calling him “Zbigniewski Sky”.
Rybczyński then appeared on stage and began his speech, saying, “Distinguished members of the Academy, ladies and gentlemen, I made this short film, so I will speak very short. I feel honoured to receive this award. I am dreaming that someday I will speak longer from this place…” However, he was soon cut off by the sound of the Looney Tunes theme tune. His translator tried to ask for more time to finish his speech, claiming that he had an important message to share, but the presenters began abruptly escorting the filmmaker off-stage.
After speaking to journalists in the press conference afterwards, Rybczyński went for a smoke outside, and when he tried to re-enter the building, the guards refused, despite the fact that he was holding his trophy, leading to a physical altercation between both parties.
The police shortly arrived, with Rybczyński yelling, “American pig, I have Oscar”, while being arrested, and his prized Oscar being booked as ‘property’ in jail. Eventually, a translator was brought to the jail so he could explain himself and clarify the confusion. Unfortunately, it completely tainted what should have been a celebratory evening.
However, notwithstanding this disastrous experience at the awards ceremony, the director continued to have a successful career making experimental short films and music videos and, unsurprisingly, did not return to the Oscars ever again.
