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This director refused to be played off after winning his Oscar. And he became a hero.

Alex Abad-Santos is a senior correspondent who explains what society obsesses over, from Marvel and movies to fitness and skin care. He came to Vox in 2014. Prior to that, he worked at the Atlantic.

Winning an Oscar is something few people outside of Meryl Streep and Colin Firth will ever get to experience in their lifetimes. And director Paweł Pawlikowski understands this better than anyone. Pawlikowski won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film with his film Ida and gave what felt like a completely improvised speech.

Then the "music" slowly started to trickle in from the speakers above. This is a sign that the producers and powers that be want you to wrap it up. Pawlikowski heard himself being played off and seemingly started to wrap it up, until he just decided not to.

"And I would like to dedicate it [the Oscar] to my late wife," he said. The applause started coming in.  "And my parents who are not among the living," he added.

"…And my children, who are hopefully watching." Pawlikowski said, closing out his speech, and completely winning us (and the crowd) over.