This is why celebrities wore blue ribbons to the Oscars

cate blanchett
Why celebrities wore blue ribbons to the OscarsABC - Getty Images

The 2023 Academy Awards took place last night, with the biggest names and brightest talents in the film industry hitting the champagne-coloured red carpet. But there was one special accessory in particular that might have caught your attention.

Famous faces such as Cate Blanchett, Bill Nighy, Dolly De Leon and Edward Berger all wore blue ribbons made by refugees to the 95th annual Oscars, to show solidarity for the United Nations Refugee Agency’s #WithRefugees campaign.

Refugees working at Knotty Tie Co – a company in Denver, Colorado, which provides refugees with employment, training and education – made the ribbons to raise awareness for the campaign, which highlights those who have been forced out of their homes due to war and persecution.

95th annual academy awards red carpet
Dolly De Leon wearing a blue ribbon on the red carpetJesse Grant - Getty Images

“What I love about film is the way it draws us into compelling human themes to uncover the connective tissue that binds us all,” Blanchett, a Goodwill Ambassador for the UNHCR, previously explained.

“Whenever I have met refugees – in places such as Lebanon, Jordan or Bangladesh, in the UK, or back home in Australia – what has struck me has not been their ‘otherness’ but how many things we share in common.”

2023 vanity fair oscar party hosted by radhika jones red carpet
Cindy Ord/VF23 - Getty Images
95th annual academy awards arrivals
Mike Coppola - Getty Images

The star matched her blue ribbon to her gown for the evening, arriving in a Louis Vuitton design featuring a shimmering draped top and fishtail skirt.

As well as last night's red carpet, celebrities – including Blanchett, Michelle Yeoh, Sheila Atim, Jamie Lee Curtis, Florence Pugh, Colin Farrell and Bill Nighy – also wore blue ribbons to the BAFTAs to show their support of the #WithRefugees campaign.

According to the UNHCR, more than 103 million people around the world have been forcibly displaced, having had to flee their homes because of war and conflict.

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