Quantcast

And the Oscar goes to — Brooklyn!

And the Oscar goes to — Brooklyn!
Associated Press / John Shearer

Leave it to Brooklynites to steal the show.

A pair of Park Slope songwriters nabbed an Academy Award for Best Song on Sunday night for their smash hit song “Let it Go” — the catchy number from the Disney blockbuster “Frozen” — and served up the best acceptance speech of the evening.

“We have so many people to thank — luckily, everybody’s name rhymed,” said Kristen Anderson-Lopez who, with her co-author and husband Boddy Lopez, ran through the list, including “Let it Go” singer Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell, the voice of the movie’s protagonist.

The talented pair shouted out Brooklyn and thanked their daughters for giving them the inspiration to write the ditty, which now boasts more than 121 million views on YouTube, up 80 million from Jan. 20.

“Katie and Annie, this song is inspired by our love for you and the hope that you never let fear or shame keep you from celebrating the unique people that you are,” said an emotional Anderson-Lopez.

The couple came up with the idea for “Let it Go,” which marks the moment that main character Elsa reveals her magical abilities and weaves a huge ice palace, after taking a stroll in Brooklyn’s backyard.

“We went for a walk in Prospect Park and stood on picnic bench,” Anderson-Lopez told The Brooklyn Paper in January. “We looked across the park and said, ‘You’re on a mountain alone and you’ve lost everything you knew. But also everything you’ve been holding back.’ ”

Recent Brooklyn transplant Lupita Nyong’o, who has frequented Fort Greene’s Madiba restaurant and started a book club in the borough, according to the New York Post, also took home a gold statue for her part as an enslaved woman named Patsey in the Best Picture-winning “12 Years a Slave.”

But not every Brooklynite was so lucky. Journalist Jeremy Scahill, whose Best Documentary-nominated “Dirty Wars” follows him from his home borough to the sites of covert U.S. military operations and back again, lost out to Morgan Neville’s “20 Feet From Stardom.”

Reach reporter Megan Riesz at mriesz@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4505. Follow her on Twitter @meganriesz.