One of the most embarrassing moments in the history of the Academy Awards was the mixing of “La La Land” and “Moonlight” for best film during the 2017 ceremony. Now, according to Sarah’s 11-year-old daughter Polly, another similar confusion tragically occurred on April Fool’s Day, and this is due to her mother receiving an Oscar for the film “Women Talk.” So the young girl took it upon herself to tell her mother the news in the most hilarious, cruel, well-written April Fool’s joke possibly ever.
Last month, Sarah Polley won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film “Women Talk.” It was such an exciting moment for everyone, especially considering that this year the film was rejected in many other categories. However, according to Sarah’s daughter Polly (or David Rubin, since the letter is “signed”), all this was a mistake, and in fact the Netflix film “On the Western Front without Change” should have received such a sought-after writer’s award. The letter goes on to list various reasons why Polly needs to get her golden statuette back, and it’s really funny. The Women Talking writer posted a note she received from the version of The Academy run by her young child on Instagram so the world could see her:
Bu gönderiyi Instagram’da gör
The whole letter is hysterical, but one of the main points, of course, is this sentence about why Polly is only now learning that she should not have been among the winners of the 2023 Oscar:
..we should have told you when we realized this, on the night of the Oscars, but you should understand that we didn’t want another “Year of Moonlight”, and we also didn’t want it to end with your local news, as the people of Toronto would probably be quite annoyed, and we didn’t we want this news to leak out.
She makes a good point, I would also assume that the Academy would not want another “Moonlight Year”.
I also liked the self-awareness of the letter, as it noted that Polly received it on April Fool’s Day. The meta-nature of the note made me laugh out loud, and I like that an 11-year-old girl felt the need to acknowledge the “cruelty” of the date when the letter was sent, and was determined to assure her mother “that this is not a joke.”
This humorous joke played by Polly is not only well written (for a child), but also extremely clever, just like herself. The witty nature of the note reminded me in many ways of the various speeches of the actress-turned-director this year, including her Oscar speech, as well as her silly post on the day of the nomination about her low expectations for the Oscar. I would say that the 11-year-old daughter of the director inherited both her mother’s sense of humor and her writing abilities. Many other celebrities acknowledged how well the note for the sixth grader was written, and said that Polly could have a comedy writer. Ted Lasso star Brett Goldstein even retweeted the letter, saying he would consider employing the kid:
Would accept this as a writing sample. https://t.co/voCsuFlcc1
— Brett Goldstein (@brettgoldstein) April 1, 2023
For example, I agree with one of the creators of “Reduction”, it seems that this little lady may have a future as a comedy writer. However, she is only 11, so it will be a minute before we see her credits on TV. So for now, we can all enjoy this witty and cruel letter she wrote to her mother about why she needs to get her Oscar back.
