The 89th Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, took place on February 26th, 2017 at 8 EST. The host of the awards was the very prominant Jimmy Kimmel and Justin Timberlake did the famous opening number.
The first award went to Mahershala Ali from “Moonlight”. Ali is the first Muslim to win an Oscar. “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” won for best costumes, which makes “Fantastic Beasts” the first “Harry Potter” franchise movie to win an Oscar.
Before the actresses of “Hidden Figures” were presenting the award for best Documentary Feature, they brought out Katherine Johnson, one women portrayed in the movie, to honor her achievements. The performances were “How Far I’ll Go” from “Moana”, a “La La Land” Medley done by John Legend, and “The Empty Chair” from “Jim: The James Foley Story” performed by Sting. “How Far I’ll Go” was performed by the voice of Moana, Auli’i Cravalho, and the song writer, Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Viola Davis gave a powerful speech with ode to artists and thanks to the playwright and her director. Viola Davis is first Black woman to win an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony. Jimmy Kimmel surprised fans from an LA tour bus when he had them all come into the Oscars. The group walked down the first line of the audience and got to hug and talk to the celebrities. One lucky participant even got Jennifer Aniston’s sunglasses.
Michael J. Fox and Seth Rogan presented the award for Film Editing, but before they did that, they came out in a DeLorean. Seth Rogan said, “I’m at the Oscars with Michael J. Fox, a DeLorean while wearing future shoes. All I have to do is sing the Schuyler Sister’s from “Hamilton” and I will have completed my entire bucket list.” Then, Seth Rogan started to sing the song, bringing Michael J Fox to join him .
Jimmy Kimmel’s night time show often shows stars reading off mean tweets that people have tweeted about them. He had Oscar stars do the same thing, some of which included Natalie Portman, Ryan Gosling, Tilda Swinton, and more. Sara Bareilles sang “Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell while the Oscar screen featured pictures of those who have passed away over the past year.
“La La Land” was nominated 14 times, which is tied with “All About Eve: and “Titanic” for the most Oscar nominations. While presenting the last award of the night, best picture, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, were given the wrong envelope. The envelope they were given was actually for best actress, which was Emma Stone for “La La Land”. Beatty staled for a minute when looking at the card and then Dunaway was given the card and read out the winner was “La La Land”. The cast and crew of “La La Land” came to the stage and three credited producers were almost through their speech when producer Jordan Horowitz was forced to take the microphone and said the film had lost to “Moonlight”.
Congrats to all the winners and nominees, and we hope you enjoyed watching!