89th Annual Academy Awards – 2017 Oscar winners & an explanation of that crazy ending

89th Annual Academy Awards – 2017 Oscar winners & an explanation of that crazy ending

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The 2017 Academy Awards have come and gone, and this is one people won’t soon forget. This year’s event was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and took place at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood. If you’ve ever watched JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE, you may be familiar with his ongoing faux feud with Jimmy and actor Matt Damon, and Kimmel took full advantage of Hollywood’s biggest stage to expand on that – making fun of WE BOUGHT A ZOO, having Damon come out to present with Ben Affleck while being referred to as “Ben Affleck and guest” by the announcer, and then Jimmy hijacking the orchestra to play Matt off while he’s simply trying to present an award… it was priceless shtick. Some of the other show highlights include Kimmel bringing in a legitimately unsuspecting Hollywood tour bus group into the theater during the show and parading them along the front row, and it was very clear they had no idea what they were walking into. Seth Rogen talked about his love of Michael J. Fox and BACK TO THE FUTURE, then took the stage with Fox arriving in a Delorean time machine, Rogen wearing Nike Mag power-laced shoes – the entire audience gave Fox a standing ovation. Other select moments to remember include Jackie Chan getting an honorary Oscar, nominated celebrities reading Mean Tweets, and the HIDDEN FIGURES acting trio of Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe bringing out the real Katherine Johnson (who Henson played in the film). We saw a much more diversified selection of films nominated this year, including Sci-Fi fare like PASSENGERS and STAR TREK BEYOND, even SUICIDE SQUAD won an Academy Award! One very noticeable difference this year was people of color being represented in several categories, particularly Best Supporting Actress with Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Naomie Harris all getting nominated (Davis won), and Mahershala Ali winning Best Supporting Actor for MOONLIGHT. This noticeable change is likely a direct (and welcome) result of last year’s #OscarsSoWhite controversy, though in my opinion it has more to do with the film selections this year than anything else. Hollywood also seemed to be embracing Mel Gibson again, as his movie HACKSAW RIDGE was nominated for Best Picture, Mel nominated for Best Director, and the movie getting several other technical award nods. I still want to know, how was Taraji P. Henson snubbed for HIDDEN FIGURES?!? The Ryan Gosling musical LA LA LAND took home a lot of statues in various categories, including Best Director for Damien Chazelle (the youngest ever to win that category) and Best Actress for Emma Stone, and MANCHESTER BY THE SEA grabbed Best Actor for Casey Affleck and Best Screenplay by Kenneth Lonergan.

But all anyone will be talking about this week is how the Best Picture award turned into a confusing debacle. The final award of the evening was presented by Hollywood royalty, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway celebrating the 50th Anniversary of their smash hit BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967). They took the stage and read off the nominees, Warren opened the envelope, and made a very funny face while looking around somewhat nervously. Dunaway seemed to think he was joking, and when Beatty finally handed her the paper to read, she happily announced LA LA LAND as the winner for Best Picture. The entire cast and crew took the stage, and not one, not two, but three men made thank you speeches in acceptance… but as those speeches were given, commotion started behind them. Academy officials were rushing the stage with earpieces in, and even Jimmy Kimmel came out to interrupt. LA LA LAND didn’t win Best Picture, MOONLIGHT did. All of those folks on stage had to surrender their Oscars and the MOONLIGHT crew (in shock) came up to take their place. Beatty, now alone in the chaos as Dunaway had quickly disappeared, tried to explain quickly what just took place. Kimmel joked “What did you do, Warren?!” Beatty attempted to show the card that was read, noting it said “Emma Stone, LA LA LAND” on it. But how could this be? It was later revealed that Emma was backstage with her winning card in hand. So what happened? Well, on closer inspection, it’s pretty clear that Beatty was given a duplicate of the Best Actress envelope before he went on stage. Look at the photo below and you can see Faye Dunaway is holding the Best Actress envelope, NOT the Best Picture envelope. Safe to say someone from PriceWaterhouseCoopers severely dropped the ball here, and either handed them the wrong envelope, or mixed up envelopes backstage. This is a very unfortunate mix up that’s almost identical to what happened with Steve Harvey during last year’s Miss Universe pageant, in which Harvey read the wrong name, and the crown had to be removed from the winner. With all the confusion, it’s a shame that the team from MOONLIGHT‘s acceptance speech was probably not heard well, but perhaps an even bigger shame that the LA LA LAND crew had their victory taken back from them… both parties acted about as professionally as you could expect given the circumstances. Oh well, that’s one way to make sure people are talking about the Oscars this week! See the winners below and compare them to our original picks to win (we originally posted 21 picks to win, and got 14 right).

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Best Picture:
Arrival (Produced by Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, Aaron Ryder and David Linde)
Fences (Produced by Scott Rudin, Denzel Washington and Todd Black)
Hacksaw Ridge (Produced by Bill Mechanic and David Permut)
Hell or High Water (Produced by Carla Hacken and Julie Yorn)
Hidden Figures (Produced by Donna Gigliotti, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Pharrell Williams and Theodore Melfi)
La La Land (Produced by Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz and Marc Platt) – our pick to WIN!
Lion (Produced by Emile Sherman, Iain Canning and Angie Fielder)
Manchester by the Sea (Produced by Matt Damon, Kimberly Steward, Chris Moore, Lauren Beck & Kevin J. Walsh)
Moonlight (Produced by Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner) – WINNER

Best Director:
Denis Villeneuve (Arrival)
Mel Gibson (Hacksaw Ridge)
Damien Chazelle (La La Land) – our pick to WIN! – WINNER
Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea)
Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)

Best Actor:
Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea) – our pick to WIN! – WINNER
Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge)
Ryan Gosling (La La Land)
Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic)
Denzel Washington (Fences)

Best Actress:
Isabelle Huppert (Elle)
Ruth Negga (Loving)
Natalie Portman (Jackie) – our pick to WIN!
Emma Stone (La La Land) – WINNER
Meryl Streep (Florence Foster Jenkins)

Best Supporting Actor:
Mahershala Ali (Moonlight) – our pick to WIN! – WINNER
Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water)
Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea)
Dev Patel (Lion)
Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals)

Best Supporting Actress:
Viola Davis (Fences) – our pick to WIN! – WINNER
Naomie Harris (Moonlight)
Nicole Kidman (Lion)
Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures)
Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea)

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Arrival (Eric Heisserer)
Fences (August Wilson)
Hidden Figures (Allison Schroeder, Theodore Melfi)
Lion (Luke Davies)
Moonlight (Barry Jenkins; Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney) – our pick to WIN! – WINNER

Best Original Screenplay:
Hell or High Water (Taylor Sheridan)
La La Land (Damien Chazelle)
The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthymis Filippou)
Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan) – our pick to WIN! – WINNER
20th Century Women (Mike Mills)

Best Animated Feature:
Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight and Arianne Sutner)
Moana (John Musker, Ron Clements and Osnat Shurer)
My Life as a Zucchini (Claude Barras and Max Karli)
The Red Turtle (Michael Dudok de Wit and Toshio Suzuki)
Zootopia (Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer) – our pick to WIN! – WINNER

Best Documentary:
Fire at Sea (Gianfranco Rosi and Donatella Palermo)
I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck, Remi Grellety and Hebert Peck)
Life, Animated (Roger Ross Williams and Julie Goldman)
O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow) – our pick to WIN! – WINNER
13th (Ava DuVernay, Spencer Averick and Howard Barish)

Best Foreign Language Film:
Land of Mine (Denmark)
A Man Called Ove (Sweden)
The Salesman (Iran) – WINNER
Tanna (Australia)
Toni Erdmann (Germany) – our pick to WIN!

Best Cinematography:
Arrival (Bradford Young)
La La Land (Linus Sandgren) – our pick to WIN! – WINNER
Lion (Greig Fraser)
Moonlight (James Laxton)
Silence (Rodrigo Prieto)

Best Film Editing:
Arrival (Joe Walker)
Hacksaw Ridge (John Gilbert) – our pick to WIN! – WINNER
Hell or High Water (Jake Roberts)
La La Land (Tom Cross)
Moonlight (Joi McMillon, Nat Sanders)

Best Costume Design:
Allied (Joanna Johnston)
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Colleen Atwood) – our pick to WIN! – WINNER
Florence Foster Jenkins (Consolata Boyle)
Jackie (Madeline Fontaine)
La La Land (Mary Zophres)

Best Makeup and Hair:
A Man Called Ove (Eva von Bahr and Love Larson)
Star Trek Beyond (Joel Harlow and Richard Alonzo)
Suicide Squad (Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson) – our pick to WIN! – WINNER

Best Original Score:
Jackie (Mica Levi)
La La Land (Justin Hurwitz) – our pick to WIN! – WINNER
Lion (Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka)
Moonlight (Nicholas Britell)
Passengers (Thomas Newman)

Best Original Song:
“Audition (The Fools Who Dream),” from La La Land (Music by Justin Hurwitz, lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul)
“Can’t Stop the Feeling,” from Trolls (Music and lyrics by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin and Karl Johan Schuster)
“City of Stars,” from La La Land (Music by Justin Hurwitz, lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul) – our pick to WIN! – WINNER
“The Empty Chair,” from Jim: The James Foley Story (Music and lyrics by J. Ralph and Sting)
“How Far I’ll Go,” from Moana (Music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda)

Best Production Design:
Arrival (Production design: Patrice Vermette; Set decoration: Paul Hotte)
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Production design: Stuart Craig; Set decoration: Anna Pinnock)
Hail, Caesar! (Production design: Jess Gonchor; Set decoration: Nancy Haigh)
La La Land (Production design: David Wasco; Set decoration: Sandy Reynolds-Wasco) – WINNER
Passengers (Production design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set decoration: Gene Serdena) – our pick to WIN!

Best Sound Editing:
Arrival (Sylvain Bellemare) – WINNER
Deepwater Horizon (Wylie Stateman and Renée Tondelli)
Hacksaw Ridge (Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright) – our pick to WIN!
La La Land (Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan)
Sully (Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman)

Best Sound Mixing:
Arrival (Bernard Gariepy Strobl and Claude La Haye)
Hacksaw Ridge (Kevin O’Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace) – WINNER
La La Land (Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee and Steve A. Morrow) – our pick to WIN!
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (David Parker, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson)
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Mac Ruth)

Best Visual Effects:
Deepwater Horizon (Craig Hammack, Jason Snell, Jason Billington and Burt Dalton)
Doctor Strange (Stephane Ceretti, Richard Bluff, Vincent Cirelli and Paul Corbould) – our pick to WIN!
The Jungle Book (Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Dan Lemmon) – WINNER
Kubo and the Two Strings (Steve Emerson, Oliver Jones, Brian McLean and Brad Schiff)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel and Neil Corbould)

Best Animated Short:
Blind Vaysha (Theodore Ushev)
Borrowed Time (Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj)
Pear Cider and Cigarettes (Robert Valley and Cara Speller)
Pearl (Patrick Osborne)
Piper (Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer) – WINNER

Best Documentary Short:
Extremis (Dan Krauss)
4.1 Miles (Daphne Matziaraki)
Joe’s Violin (Kahane Cooperman and Raphaela Neihausen)
Watani: My Homeland (Marcel Mettelsiefen and Stephen Ellis)
The White Helmets (Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara) – WINNER

Best Live Action Short:
Ennemis Interieurs (Selim Azzazi)
La Femme et le TGV (Timo von Gunten and Giacun Caduff)
Silent Nights (Aske Bang and Kim Magnusson)
Sing (Kristof Deak and Anna Udvardy) – WINNER
Timecode (Juanjo Gimenez)

Did you agree with the choices on winners? Disagree? Let us know in the comments below. The 2017 Academy Awards was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and took place at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood. ABC broadcast the show live on Sunday, February 26, starting at 7:30pm Central.

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About the Author

Born and raised in Dallas, Mark has been a movie critic since 1994, with reviews featured in print, radio and National TV. In 2001 he started the Entertainment section of the Herorealm website, where he contributed film reviews and celebrity interviews until 2004. After three years of service there, he started Bigfanboy.com, which has become one of the Dallas film community's leading information websites. Bigfanboy hosts several movie screenings in the Texas area, and works closely with film and TV studios and promotional partners to host exciting events and contests. The site also features a variety of rare celebrity and filmmaker interviews, and Bigfanboy.com regularly covers the film festival circuit as well. In addition to Hollywood reporting, Mark has worked for many years as an advertising and sci-fi/comic book artist. Clients have included Lucasfilm Ltd., Topps Trading Cards, The Dallas Mavericks and The Dallas Stars. From 2002 until 2015 he managed the Dallas Comic Con, Sci-Fi Expo and Fan Days events in the DFW area. He currently catalogs rare comic books and movie memorabilia for Heritage Auctions, and runs the Dallas Comic Show conventions, but remains an avid moviegoer and cinema buff.