By Farhan C

The events of the 89th Academy Awards have left America with a lot to talk about. Weather it be the countless jokes about Donald Trump, the continuous feud between Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon, or the biggest screw up in oscar history, this year’s Oscars had no shortage of unforgettable moments.

It’s hard to talk about this year’s Oscars without mentioning the colossal screw up with the Best Picture award. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway came on stage to present the award and after a few awkward pauses from Beatty, Dunaway took it upon herself and announced La La Land as the winner. The whole crew from La La Land walked on stage to accept their trophies for an award that they didn’t win. Halfway through their acceptance speeches, a backstage crewmember made it on stage to report the true winner and La La Land producer Justin Horowitz revealed to the world that Moonlight was the actual Best Picture winner.  

An audible gasp went through the auditorium as everyone, including the cast and crew of Moonlight, tried to figure out what the hell just happened. The producers of La La Land graciously handed their trophies to the cast and crew of Moonlight who proceed to give their acceptance speeches with pure and utter shock on their faces. After the brief speeches, Warren Beatty went to the mic to explain what had just happened. He was mistakenly given the envelope for Best Actress in a Leading Role, which was won by Emma Stone for La La Land,  which lead to La La Land being incorrectly announced as the winner.   

The envelope mix-up wasn’t the only mistake the at the Academy Awards this year.  During the In Memorium part of the show, which honors those in the film community who passed away that year, they showed the picture of a woman who is still alive. A picture of Australian film producer Jan Chapman, who is still living, was erroneously shown during the montage in what was supposed to be a tribute for Australian costume designer Janet Patterson. Patterson, who has been previously nominated for four Academy Awards, passed away in October. Not a lot of people are aware of this mistake due to the much more obvious failure that occurred with the Best Picture award.

 

Aside from the Best Picture and In Memoriam debacles, the rest of the ceremony went very well. Jimmy Kimmel did a great job hosting the show and all of his jokes were hilarious. He kept the audience engaged throughout the entire ceremony and there was never a dull moment. Equally as entertaining, were all of the musical performances were great as well. There were also a very diverse group of winners for both the film and acting categories, which we had not seen in the previous years. The winners of the night are as follows:  

 

Best Picture: Moonlight

Actor: Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea

Actress: Emma Stone, La La Land

Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali, Moonlight

Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, Fences

Animated Feature: Zootopia

Cinematography: La La Land

Costume Design: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Direction: Damien Chazelle, La La Land

Documentary Feature: O.J.: Made in America

Documentary Short: The White Helmets

Film Editing: Hacksaw Ridge

Foreign Language Film: The Salesman

Makeup and Hairstyling: Suicide Squad

Score: La La Land

Song: “City of Stars” from La La Land

Production Design: La La Land

Animated Short: Piper

Live Action Short: Sing

Sound Editing: Arrival

Sound Mixing: Hacksaw Ridge

Visual Effects: The Jungle Book

Adapted Screenplay: Moonlight

Original Screenplay: Manchester by the Sea

(List taken from The New York Times) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/26/movies/oscar-winners.html