facebook.com Jordan Horowitz, producer of “La La Land,” holds up the card revealing “Moonlight” as Best Picture.
On Sunday, the 89th academy awards celebrated the past year in cinema, but ended the night on one of the biggest mistakes in Oscar history as presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway read out “La La Land” for Best Picture instead of the real winner “Moonlight.” “La La Land” won nearly half of its 14 nominations including Best Director and Best Actress, but it was “Moonlight” who walked away with the Oscar for Best Picture after accidentally announced “La La Land,” as the presenters were accidentally given the envelope for Best Actress. “Moonlight” follows the struggles of a young, gay black man growing up in the rough neighborhoods of Miami.
There was a long pause as Beatty looked at theenvelope he was given but Dunaway announced that “La La Land” won. As the cast and crew of “La La Land” took the stage, Beatty realized they had been given the wrong envelope. Producer Jordan Horowitz was in the middle of his speech when the truth was announced.
“I opened the envelope, and it said ‘Emma Stone, La La Land.’ That’s why I took such a long look at Faye and at you. I wasn’t trying to be funny,” Beatty explained about his pause.
After being given the Oscar, “Moonlight “director Barry Jenkins said, “Very clearly, very clearly in my dreams this could not be true. But to hell with my dreams. I’m done with it because this is true. Oh my goodness.”
A running theme for the night was past winners, with several montages of previous winners receiving their awards. Another theme of the night was inspiration, by having several people in the industry talk about their movie inspirations.
In addition to Best Picture, “Moonlight” won Best Supporting Actor for Mahershalai Ali and Best Adapted Screenplay for adapting the stage play, “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue.” Meanwhile, “La La Land” won six oscars including Best Actress for Emma Stone and Best Director for Damien Chazelle. It also won Best Score and song for “City of Stars,” Best Production Design and cinematography. Casey Affleck won Best Actor for his role in “Manchester by the Sea” which also took home the Oscar for Best Screenplay. Viola Davis won Best Supporting Actress for her role in “Fences.”
facebook.com Writer and director of “Moonlight” Barry Jenkins gives an emotional acceptance speech.
Justin Timberlake kicked off the night with a truly awkward dance set to his Oscar-Nominated song, “Can’t Stop the Feeling.” Host Jimmy Kimmel was hilarious, taking shots at Matt Damon, President Trump, Meryl Streep and the awards show itself in his opening monologue. Kimmel is the host of the late night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on ABC. He had a very self aware nature throughout the night. At one point, raining candy down onto the crowd. Later, a group of tourists were brought out to meet the stars. He also did his famous mean tweet bit, where celebrities read mean tweets about themselves.
The oscars were very aware of the political climate with some winners raising awareness for their favorite causes, particularly immigration, while talking of coming together. In a powerful moment, Asghar Farhadi, director of Best Foreign Film “The Salesman,” chose not to come to protest President Trump’s policies toward immigration. In fact, immigration was a big issue with several immigrants speaking up. During Sting’s performance, there was a cry for journalism. The need for art in school was also a big favorite with speech givers as well.