From John Travolta’s botched pronunciation of Idina Menzel, to Jennifer Lawrence’s fall before stepping on stage, every year at the Oscars there seems to be some event or statement made that will overshadow the actual ceremony and its winners. And this years Academy Awards was no exception.

Hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, the 87th Oscars had a very controversial pool of nominees, where every nominee for a best leading or supporting role was white. Harris did his best to poke fun and bring awareness to this fact, making the joke that they were honoring the “best and whitest” in cinema. However the truth also remains that in the last ten years, only one host has been African American.

Overall this made for a somewhat awkward atmosphere, for host and guests alike. Which was only made worst by Sean Penn’s flippant remark about best director winner Alejandro González Iñárritu. Directly before Iñárritu stepped on stage to accept his award for the film Birdman, Penn uttered the comment “Who gave this son of a bitch his green card?”

Despite the statement itself, which later Iñárritu said he found hilarious, the most devastating effect seemed to be the way it over shadowed Iñárritu acceptance speech. Being the second Mexican filmmaker to win best director in a row, he used the opportunity to call for respect and dignity for immigrants in our nation and that those in Mexico could “find and build a government that we deserve.”

Too often the drama of the event hides the opportunities it provides for honoring and learning from a diverse array of voices in the film industry. The event still held powerful moments calling for continued fights against racism, but there is still work to be done if this industry is going to produce and appropriately honor films and filmmakers as diverse as the country we live in.

Abby Thomas can be reached at [email protected]