The 89th Annual Academy Awards turned out to be a memorable television event, thanks to a few key moments and a fairly sizable blunder.
The show began with an energetic performance by Justin Timberlake, though it felt as though it belonged more to the Grammy’s than the Oscars. Jimmy Kimmel proved to be an incredibly likable and effective host. I don’t think there has been a host in recent history that seemed more comfortable doing the job. I won’t be surprised if he asked to return to host numerous times. He brought with him his signature humor, as well as bits from his television show. “Mean Tweets,” a generally enjoyable segment from Jimmy Kimmel Live! , in which celebrities read aloud mean spirited tweet about them, had a special Oscar Edition on the program. Kimmel had candy parachuted from the ceiling for the guests in attendance, which was cute at best the first time he did it, but then he unnecessarily went back to the well a couple more times.
In what I think had the most potential as a segment, Kimmel had a tour bus of people, who thought they were going to an Oscar exhibit, actually brought into the theater. Surprising unsuspecting fans with celebrity appearances is not a new bit (fake wax figures, celebrities working a retail job in disguise, etc.) Shows like Ellen have been doing it for years. This was just taking it to the extreme. In my opinion, however, they didn’t seem surprised in any way, completely negating any funny that would have been had from it. Kimmel did the best he could to milk some comedy out of it, which ended up dragging out the unfunny entirely too long.
In traditional “padding each other on the back” fashion, the Oscars featured segments in which contemporary actors cited the film that influenced them, and them came out to present withe the star of said film (despite the self congratulatory nature, I rather enjoyed these segments). First up was Charlize Theron (who proved once again that she is one of the most attractive people on the planet), who came out with The Apartment star Shirley MacLaine. Next, in what was the highlight of the awards for me, was Seth Rogen presenting with Michael J. Fox. The two came out in the time machine Delorean, while Rogen donned the 2015 Mag Nikes from Back to the Future Part II. Javier Bardem came out with Meryl Streep after citing Bridges of Madison County as his influnce. In Jimmy Kimmel’s ongoing “feud” with Matt Damon, Kimmel was up next to humorously discuss Damon’s bomb We Bought a Zoo, followed immediately by Ben Affleck and “guest” (Damon) being announced to present the Award for Best Screenplay. Damon was then played off by the orchestra (conducted by Kimmel) every time he spoke.
John Cho and Leslie Mann had a pretty funny moment recapping their hosting of the Academy’s Sci Tech Awards, and their complete non understanding of them. A very orange Jennifer Aniston presented the In Memoriam segment, which was a sober reminder of how many great talents we lost last year.
And then came the moment that will be talked about for some time (well, for a day or so until something else trivial grabs social media’s attention). Somehow, the wrong category’s envelope was given to Warren Beatty when he was announcing the Best Picture, prompting Beatty to announce that La La Land had won, when in fact it was Moonlight that actually had won. When the error was caught, La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz very graciously made the announcement and brought the Moonlight producers on stage. Beatty actually explained that he had the wrong envelope, but PricewaterhouseCoopers, the audit and assurance firm that handles the nominees on Oscars night, made the following statement:
“We sincerely apologize to ‘Moonlight,’ ‘La La Land,’ Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for best picture. The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected. We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred. We appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, ABC, and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation.”
Below are the list of winners, along with some highlights of the show.
BEST PICTURE
“Arrival”
“Fences”
“Hacksaw Ridge”
“Hell or High Water”
“Hidden Figures”
“La La Land”
“Lion”
“Manchester by the Sea”
“Moonlight” (WINNER)
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Casey Affleck in “Manchester by the Sea” (WINNER)
Andrew Garfield in “Hacksaw Ridge”
Ryan Gosling in “La La Land”
Viggo Mortensen in “Captain Fantastic”
Denzel Washington in “Fences”
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Jeff Bridges in “Hell or High Water”
Mahershala Ali in “Moonlight” (WINNER)
Lucas Hedges in “Manchester by the Sea”
Dev Patel in “Lion”
Michael Shannon in “Nocturnal Animals”
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Isabelle Huppert in “Elle”
Ruth Negga in “Loving”
Natalie Portman in “Jackie”
Emma Stone in “La La Land” (WINNER)
Meryl Streep in “Florence Foster Jenkins”
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Nicole Kidman in “Lion”
Viola Davis in “Fences” (WINNER)
Naomie Harris in “Moonlight”
Octavia Spencer in “Hidden Figures”
Michelle Williams in “Manchester by the Sea”
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
“Kubo and the Two Strings”
“Moana”
“My Life as a Zucchini”
“The Red Turtle”
“Zootopia” (WINNER)
CINEMATOGRAPHY
“Arrival”
“La La Land” (WINNER)
“Lion”
“Moonlight”
“Silence”
COSTUME DESIGN
“Allied”
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” (WINNER)
“Florence Foster Jenkins”
“Jackie”
“La La Land”
“Fantastic
DIRECTING
“Arrival” – Denis Villeneuve
“Hacksaw Ridge” – Mel Gibson
“La La Land” – Damien Chazelle (WINNER)
“Manchester by the Sea” – Kenneth Lonergan
“Moonlight” – Barry Jenkins
DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)
“Fire at Sea”
“I Am Not Your Negro”
“Life, Animated”
“O.J.: Made in America” (WINNER)
“13th”
DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)
“Extremis”
“4.1 Miles”
“Joe’s Violin”
“Watani: My Homeland”
“The White Helmets” (WINNER)
FILM EDITING
“Arrival”
“Hacksaw Ridge” (WINNER)
“Hell or High Water”
“La La Land”
“Moonlight”
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“Land of Mine”
“A Man Called Ove”
“The Salesman” (WINNER)
“Tanna”
“Toni Erdmann”
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
“A Man Called Ove”
“Star Trek Beyond”
“Suicide Squad” (WINNER)
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
“Jackie”
“La La Land” (WINNER)
“Lion”
“Moonlight”
“Passengers”
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
“Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” from “La La Land”
“Can’t Stop The Feeling” from “Trolls”
“City Of Stars” from “La La Land” (WINNER)
“The Empty Chair” from “Jim: The James Foley Story”
“How Far I’ll Go” from “Moana”
PRODUCTION DESIGN
“Arrival”
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”
“Hail, Caesar!”
“La La Land” (WINNER)
“Passengers”
ANIMATED SHORT FILM
“Blind Vaysha”
“Borrowed Time”
“Pear Cider and Cigarettes”
“Pearl”
“Piper” (WINNER)
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
“Ennemis Intérieurs”
“La Femme et le TGV”
“Silent Nights”
“Sing” (WINNER)
“Timecode”
SOUND EDITING
“Arrival” (WINNER)
“Deepwater Horizon”
“Hacksaw Ridge”
“La La Land”
“Sully”
SOUND MIXING
“Arrival”
“Hacksaw Ridge” (WINNER)
“La La Land”
“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”
“13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi”
VISUAL EFFECTS
“Deepwater Horizon”
“Doctor Strange”
“The Jungle Book” (WINNER)
“Kubo and the Two Strings”
“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”
WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
“Arrival”
“Fences
“Hidden Figures”
“Lion”
“Moonlight” (WINNER)
WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
“Hell or High Water”
“La La Land”
“The Lobster”
“Manchester by the Sea” (WINNER)
“20th Century Women”
What a poorly produced show. I thought I was watching the Oscars, not an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. He’s had funnier “Mean Tweets” segments on his show. The candy/donuts/whatever dropping from the ceiling has been done in the past with pizza and Girl Scout cookies. We get it – you get hungry during an awards show! hardy har har.
Like you said – the bus thing totally fell flat. It was infuriating that they played people off of the stage during their acceptance speeches, but had plenty of time for gags that went nowhere. Also – where were the MOVIES? First time I can ever remember where they didn’t have people come out throughout the night and introduce a clip of each Best Pic nominee. There were NO movie montages, except for the random one about The Apartment, and one where people around the world were talking about movies…that induced absolutely NO emotion. The Back to the Future one was the only one that hit the mark, and even that was spoiled for me later, because I felt that the only reason they did that was so they could do the “We Bought a Zoo” gag later.
And finally…I hate that Beatty is taking the fall for this. He clearly knew something was wrong, looked around for help (twice), and ultimately Dunaway was the one who yanked the card away and read it. He didn’t say a thing.