Hollywood glamour, arguments for unity, plus a big twist
The 89th Academy Awards—an evening dedicated to celebrating outstanding achievements in film—veered between light-hearted jokes led by host Jimmy Kimmel and passionate arguments for peace and unity by winners and presenters.
This year, the ceremony held on Feb. 26 played up Hollywood glamour and paid special honour to the history of the Academy Awards, with music interludes taken from the scores of classic films such as Top Gun and Tootsie.
At one point, gift bags of Junior Mints and Red Vines dropped into the theatre in hundreds of tiny parachutes to an amused audience after Kimmel noted that you cannot watch a film without a few sweet treats. The ceremony ultimately re-focused our attention to what Hollywood does best: entertainment.
Actor Mahershala Ali won the first big award of the night, best supporting actor, for the coming-of-age drama Moonlight, making him the first Muslim actor to win an Academy Award and earning him a standing ovation from the audience.
“Peace and blessings,” he said, accepting his gold statuette.
History was also made when actress Viola Davis won the award for best supporting actress, as expected, for her role in the adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Fences. Davis became the very first black actor to win awards at the Oscars, Emmys, and Tonys, a collective honour often referred to as the “triple-crown” of the acting industry.
As for best actor, it was a close race, but Casey Affleck ultimately took home gold for his performance in the tragic drama Manchester by the Sea over Denzel Washington’s performance in Fences.
La La Land, the charming musical ode, was the night’s biggest winner, taking home six Oscars, including Damien Chazelle’s win for best director (making him the category’s youngest-ever winner at 32-years-old) and Emma Stone’s award for best actress.
However, if you called it a night as soon as La La Land was announced as best picture, you didn’t get the full scoop.
In true M. Night Shyamalan fashion, there was a shocking twist to the end of the ceremony.
For the first time in Oscar history, the wrong film was announced for best picture. La La Land was mistakenly named at the ceremony, but, in reality, it was Moonlight that had won the top award.
Every time the camera cut away to the audience, there were looks of utter disbelief and astonishment.
“Well, I don’t know what happened—I blame myself for this,” Kimmel said as he took the stage, trying to salvage things after the crew of Moonlight accepted the award that was rightfully theirs.
All jokes aside, Moonlight is a praiseworthy winner and should be remembered as a beautiful and touching work of art.
The strangest (but perhaps most entertaining) moment of the night had to be Kimmel inviting members of the general public to tour the theatre in the middle of the ceremony and meet the stars in the front rows—even instructing them to rub Ali’s new Oscar.This also included an engaged couple being “married” by Denzel Washington in an impromptu service.
“It’s official because it’s Denzel Washington,” Kimmel said.
Although we must (sadly) bid farewell to awards season, one can take solace in the fact that we have been given such a tremendous and diverse line-up of films to add to our watch-lists.
Just don’t forget the candy!
Photo courtesy of Ivan Banduravia via CC BY 2.0.