Before revealing that Sentimental Value won the Oscar for best international feature film, Javier Bardem began with, “No to war and free Palestine.”

Director Joachim Trier also concluded his speech by slamming politicians. “I want to end by paraphrasing the wonderful American writer James Baldwin, who makes us remember that all adults are responsible for all children, and let’s not vote for politicians who don’t take this seriously into account,” Trier said.

Backstage, the filmmaker expanded on his paraphrasingBaldwin: “I think the world is at the moment when we are getting more information than ever about the wrongdoings made towards children in several wars.  I feel, personally–I have two small kids–and most people around me have been at times, crying daily and feeling incapable of doing stuff because we’ve seen Palestinian children suffer, children from Ukraine suffer, from Sudan suffer, and there doesn’t seem to be any accountability at the moment.”

Trier added, “I’m not a politician, but I do believe that we need to go, as they say, across the aisle to be more collaborative about how we protect children in conflict situations, but also society in general.”

Both winners in the documentary categories also didn’t hold back, given their respective projects.

All the Empty Rooms, which won the best documentary short Oscar, followed correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp as they embarked on a seven-year-long project to document the empty bedrooms of children killed in school shootings.

During his speech, All the Empty Rooms director Joshua Seftel took a moment to remember the four children who were killed in school shootings, whose empty rooms were featured in the documentary: Hallie, Gracie, Dominic and Jackie.

Jackie’s mother, Gloria Cazales, shared: “My daughter Jackie was 9 years old when she was killed in Uvalde,” she said. “Since that day, her bedroom has been frozen in time. Jackie is more than just a headline; she is our light and our life.”

Cazales continued, “Gun violence is now the number one cause of death in kids and teens. We believe that if the world could see their empty bedrooms, we’d be a different America.”

While speaking with press backstage, Seftel added, “We’ve reached a point in our country where school shootings are so common, there’s more than 100 per year, and if we focus on the children who are gone, we’re more likely to remember these things that are fading so quickly from our minds.”

The winner of best documentary feature, Mr. Nobody Against Putin, centered on Russian teacher who secretly documents his small town school’s transformation into war recruitment center during the Ukraine invasion, revealing the ethical dilemmas educators face amid propaganda and militarization.

David Borenstein, who co-directed the film, said: “Mr. Nobody Against Putin is about how you lose your country. And what we saw when working with this footage, it’s that you lose it through countless small, little acts of complicity. When we act complicit, when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities, when we don’t say anything, when oligarchs take over the media and control how we can produce it and consume it. We all face a moral choice, but luckily, even a nobody is more powerful than you think.”

Pavel Talankin, the film’s subject, who also co-directed alongside Borenstein, also demanded that all the wars happening in the world end now.

Backstage in the press room, Borenstein also spoke about the parallels between Russia and the U.S. currently. “One interesting thing about working with a team of Russians throughout this process has been my desire as an American to constantly compare the situation in America to Russia. But a lot of my Russian colleagues and friends always said no, it’s not the same situation. It’s actually happening quicker in America than it’s been happening in Russia. [Donald] Trump was moving a lot quicker than [Vladimir] Putin moved in his early years. So that’s all I have to say to that.”

Jimmy Kimmel, known to get political and ongoing feud with President Trump, also made an appearance at one point during the night to present the honors for best documentary short and best documentary feature. He dropped some pointed jokes during his short time on stage.

Kimmel continued, “Fortunately for all of us, there is an international community of filmmakers dedicated to telling the truth, oftentimes at great risk to make films that teach us, that call out injustice, that inspire us to take action.

And there are also documentaries where you walk around the White House trying on shoes,” he quipped, referencing the Melania Trump doc, Melania. Before revealing the nominees for best documentary feature, he added, “Oh man, is he gonna be mad his wife wasn’t nominated for this,” alluding to Donald Trump.

At the beginning of the ceremony, host O’Brien warned that “things could get political,” including his own jokes and commentary.

“I should warn you, tonight things could get political. So there’s alternate Oscars hosted by Kid Rock at the Dave and Busters down the street,” the host quipped, referring to the right-wing Super Bowl counter-programming last month.

At the end of his monologue, O’Brien got serious: “Tonight is an international event. If I can be serious for just a moment, everyone watching right now, around the world, is all too aware that these are very chaotic, frightening times.”

“It’s at moments like these that I believe that the Oscars are particularly resonant — 31 countries across six continents are represented this evening, and every film we salute is the product of thousands of people speaking different languages, working hard to make something of beauty. We pay tribute tonight, not just to film, but to the ideals of global artistry, collaboration, patience, resilience and that rarest of qualities today–optimism.”