Oscars 2017: Winners, losers and highlights from Hollywood’s biggest night
THE wrong film was awarded Best Picture as the world looked on. It was painful to watch, but the apology was excruciating.
IN a monumental fail, the Best Picture gong at the Academy Awards has been mistakenly presented to La La Land — when Moonlight was the actual winner.
After reading out the nominations, Hollywood icons Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway opened the envelope and awkwardly fumbled with it before announcing the winner.
Beatty seemed unsure as he paused and looked at Dunaway, who then glanced down at the paper and confidently said: “La La Land”.
As the film’s elated producers accepted the award, their joy quickly turned to shock and disbelief when it was revealed the winner was actually Moonlight.
Fred Berger, one of La La Land’s producers, was mid-speech when murmuring began behind him as a stage manager appeared on stage wearing a head mic and lanyard.
As Berger realised the news, he blurted into the microphone: “We lost by the way, but you know what ...” he said.
While the audience and viewers tried to comprehend what was going on, Jordan Horowitz, another producer, took over the microphone.
“I’m sorry, no, there’s a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture. This is not a joke. Come on. This is not a joke. I’m afraid they read the wrong thing,” Horowitz said.
The envelope was held up to the camera. And in bold print was the winner: Moonlight.
“Guys ... This is very unfortunate what happened. Personally, I blame Steve Harvey for this,” host Jimmy Kimmel said, joking about the mistake Steve Harvey made when he announced the wrong winner at Miss Universe in 2015. “I would like to see you get an Oscar anyway. Why can’t we just give out a whole bunch of them?”
Moonlight director Barry Jenkins, who immediately paid homage to La La Land, told a stunned audience during his acceptance speech: “It is true. It’s not fake.”
After the award was handed to the correct winner, Beatty explained his mistake.
“I want to tell you what happened. Oh. 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.”
Then he said “thanks” and exited the stage.
Eagle-eyed viewers were quick to note Beatty was actually holding the envelope labelled “Actress in a Leading Role”.
Who ever distributes the envelopes: YOU HAD ONE JOB #Oscars pic.twitter.com/3KHR9tRR98
— Dylan (@DylansFreshTake) February 27, 2017
Kimmel closed the awards, telling the audience it was “just an awards show”.
“Well, I don’t know what happened. I blame myself for this. Let’s remember it’s just an awards show,” he said. “I mean, we hate to see people disappointed. But the good news is we got to see some extra speeches. We have some great movies. I knew I would screw this show up. I really did. Thank you for watching. I’m back to work tomorrow night … I promise I’ll never do this again.”
The huge mistake overshadowed what could’ve been considered a five-star Oscars ceremony that included the perfect mix of jokes, running gags and stunts.
As well as endless trolling of his arch nemesis Matt Damon, Kimmel pulled his own viral stunt that rivals Ellen DeGeneres’ now iconic all-star selfie.
Tricking a busload of Los Angeles tourists into gatecrashing the ceremony, the host secretly lured them into the Academy Awards auditorium to surprise them with hundreds of Hollywood A-listers.
Kimmel explained they’d told the tourists they were going on a simple tour of Tinseltown.
“We told them we are coming into this building to see special exhibits of dresses and gowns,” Kimmel told the audience. “It is dresses and gowns, but they will be on people. The moment that we open the doors they will be on live TV and we are going to surprise them, OK?”
As secret cameras showed the unknowing tourists walking through the corridors of the auditorium, Kimmel said: “We spent many weeks and thousands of dollars figuring out how to get this done. If everyone stays very still, maybe we can make them think they’re at the wax museums or something.”
In the priceless moment the tourists began filing out on stage — complete with cameras and selfie sticks — they were visibly perplexed as it took them a moment to gather exactly what was going on.
“This is Nicole Kidman,” Kimmel said, introducing the stunned out-of-towners. “This is Ryan Gosling, he is very handsome, don’t look into his eyes.”
When someone in the group revealed she was getting married, Kimmel made Denzel Washington sign-up to being the best man before making Jennifer Aniston hand over husband Justin Theroux’s sunglasses as a wedding gift.
The moment almost eclipsed the awards themselves, which saw Casey Affleck scoop the Best Actor Oscar for his role in Manchester By The Sea and critic-favourite Emma Stone win the best Actress award for La La Land.
Accepting his first Academy Award, Casey was shocked and emotional at the win.
“It means so much to me. Thank you. Woo. Damn it! One of the first people who taught me though to act was Denzel Washington and I just met him tonight for the very first time. Thank you,” he said.
Thanking his fellow nominees and family, Affleck added: “Man, I wish I had something bigger and more meaningful to say.”
Accepting her win, 28-year-old Stone thanked her fellow nominees.
“To the women in this category, Natalie, Isobell, Meryl, Ruth, you were all so extraordinary and I look up to you and I admire you more than I can put into words,” she said. “It has been the greatest honour just to stand alongside you. That is the greatest honour of all.”
After thanking her co-star Ryan Gosling “for making me laugh and for always raising the bar”, Stone ended her speech on a humble note.
“I still have a lot of growing and learning and work to do,” she said. “And this guy is a really beautiful symbol to continue on that journey. And I’m so grateful for that.”
With the final joke in a night that seemed to be an endless roast of his nemesis Matt Damon, Kimmel introduced the presenters of the last category.
“And now my favourite part of the night is here. A chance to see Matt Damon lose an Academy Awards,” Kimmel announced as Beatty and Dunaway walked on stage to present the award for Best Picture.
Earlier, Kimmel burned down the auditorium on Hollywood’s night of nights, using his opening monologue to skewer pretty much everyone.
No one was off limits from Donald Trump and Meryl Streep to his arch nemesis Damon.
While many anticipated his opener would be politically charged with a strong anti-Trump message, the late night host said he wasn’t the right guy to unite a nation.
“Let’s just get something straight: there’s only one brave heart and he’s not going to unite us either,” he joked, as the camera zoomed on Braveheart star and one-time Hollywood outcast Mel Gibson.
“Mel, you look great, I think the Scientology is working,” Kimmel joked as the crowd roared.
In a touching turn, Kimmel noted the importance of reaching out to people with differences in an effort to make amends, but the sentiment quickly turned.
“Tonight in the spirit of healing and bringing people together I would like to bury the hatchet of somebody I have had issues with. Matt Damon,” Kimmel said.
“Now Matt, I have known Matt for a long time now. I have known Matt so long when I first met Matt I was the fat one, OK. True. We have had problems. He’s a selfish person, those who work with him know this. But Matt did something very unselfish and I want to commend it for him.
“Matt, as you probably know, could have starred in Manchester by the Sea — he was the producer and it is nominated for six Oscars including lead actor and he could have taken that lead actor part for himself, but he didn’t. He gave that role to Casey Affleck, his childhood friend. He handed over an Oscar-calibre role to his friend and made a Chinese ponytail movie instead.
“That movie The Great Wall went on to lose $80 million. Smooth move dumb-ass. It is so easy to reach out and heal.”
In another effort to reach out, Kimmel then turned to President Donald Trump.
“Maybe this is not a popular thing to say, I want to say congratulations to Donald Trump,” he said. “Remember last year when the Oscars seemed racist? It’s gone. Thanks to him.”
Next up, Meryl Streep — who famously copped flak from the president earlier this year when Trump slammed the actress as “overrated” after her speech at the Golden Globes.
“May I say from her mediocre early work in The Deer Hunter and Out of Africa and Kramer vs. Kramer, Meryl Streep has had 50 films in her lacklustre year,” he joked.
“This is her 20th nomination. Maybe more amazing considering she wasn’t in a movie this year. We wrote her name out of habit. Stand up and please give Meryl Streep a totally undeserved round of applause.”
As Streep stood at the front of the room and Hollywood’s A-listers howled, Kimmel continued: “The highly overrated Meryl Streep, everyone!”
And just when the screen icon thought it was over, Kimmel noted: “Nice dress by the way. Is that an Ivanka?”
Following a joke about French actress Isabelle Huppert, who’s nominated for her role in Elle, Kimmel said: “We don’t discriminate against people based on what countries they come from. We discriminate against them based on their age and weight.”
He then launched into a joke that was strangely similar to the one Tina Fey made when she hosted the Golden Globes about the praise male actors receive when they lose weight for a role.
“Andrew Garfield lost 40 pounds. You can barely see him because he got so thin. He lost 40 pounds for his role in Silence. It was an astonishing transformation that has been attempted by every actress in every movie in any role.”
Damien Chazelle, the 32-year-old writer and director of fan and critic favourite La La Land also copped a gibe, with Kimmel noting the 14 nominations the film received represented “one for every year that Damien has been alive”. “Tonight is very important for Damien, if he wins he will be able to go to any college he wants,” Kimmel said.
Onto the nominations and Moonlight scooped up its first award of the evening, with first-time nominee Mahershala Ali winning Best Actor in a Supporting Role, beating out the likes of Dev Patel (Lion) and Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea.)
After O.J.: Made In America picked up the Best Documentary, Kimmel was in the crowd ready and waiting to make an expected OJ gag.
“What now I am not supposed to make an OJ joke?” he said.
“Stop it, I didn’t know that we would be doing this in 2017 either. But we are. That is the simple fact of the matter. OJ you get an extra slice of baloney on your sandwich tonight.”
The nervous crowd bristled as Kimmel walked the line.
Picking up on the hesitant laughter, Kimmel mock-narrated: “Almost midway through the broadcast, the crowd turned on Kimmel.”
After giving the celebrities their medicine, it wasn’t long before Kimmel followed it up with a bit of sugar.
Andrew Garfield: Candy Parachute King! #Oscars pic.twitter.com/8dsqAB1q3H
— Kolow T (@Kolow191) February 27, 2017
“If you close your eyes and wish very hard ... A little bag with mints will appear from the sky raining down on you for your delight,” he told the crowd as hundreds of small bags parachuted down from the ceiling.
“Don’t hurt each other. Take it and enjoy. Time to find out how well those Spanx really work. You know next year we should give out the awards this way.”
Earning an Oscar and a standing ovation for her role in Fences, Best Supporting Actress winner Viola Davis shared some emotional words.
“You know, there is one place that all the people with the greatest potential are gathered — one place. And that’s the graveyard,” she said.
“People ask me all the time, ‘What kind of stories do you want to tell, Viola?’ And I say, ‘Exhume those bodies and those stories’. The people who dreamed big and never saw those dreams to fruition. People that fell in love and lost. I became an artist and thank god I did because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life.”
As Jimmy Kimmel noted afterwards: “Viola Davis just got nominated for an Emmy for that speech at the Oscars.”
A tearful @violadavis thanks Denzel Washington during her acceptance speech. #Oscars pic.twitter.com/Ir1nrBm1pn
— Variety (@Variety) February 27, 2017
Taking to the stage with Charlize Theron, screen legend Shirley MacLaine received a warm round of applause to which she responded: “That is the nicest reception I have had in 250,000 years. Thank you.”
It didn’t take long before talk of Donald Trump made it’s way back into the ceremony. Taking to the stage again, Jimmy Kimmel noted: “We are more than two hours into the show and Donald Trump hasn’t tweeted at us once. And I’m starting to get worried about him. Hold on a second.”
Pulling out his iPhone, the host then tried to rectify the problem.
“Hey @realDonaldTrump u up?” he tweeted the President.
He then one-upped himself with another message: “@realDonaldTrump #MerylSaysHi.”
“Tonight is a celebration of the movies and those who lift us up. But we must also acknowledge those who push us down. The internet trolls who use their words to keep us grounded day after day,” Kimmel told the crowd before launching into a special Oscars edition of his famous “Celebrities Reading Mean Tweets” segments.
OK. This one's accurate #Oscars #MeanTweets pic.twitter.com/4Y18bPj56b
— Jarett Wieselman (@JarettSays) February 27, 2017
Great! #Oscars #meantweets pic.twitter.com/ADKUTeHM2k
— Paola RodrÃguez (@_PaolaRodriguez) February 27, 2017
F*ck yes!! These crack me up every time I see them!! 😂😂😂😂 #MeanTweets #Oscars pic.twitter.com/SFw7IEk1wS
— Emmanuel Asiegbu (@MannysMyName) February 27, 2017
Jimmy Kimmel’s endless trolling of his nemesis Matt Damon continued as the actor took to the stage to present with Ben Affleck.
“And now to present the award for best original screen play, two time Academy Award winner Ben Affleck and ... guest,” the voiceover said, ignoring Damon’s appearance.
The games continued as Damon tried to present the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, with the orchestra playing over the top of the actor whenever he spoke.
“Come on, what is with the music?” Damon asked. “Am I being played off, seriously? I’m just presenting. Why are you playing me off? You can’t play me off, I’m a presenter!”
Cut to the orchestra and viewers saw it was Kimmel holding the conductor’s stick.
“Wrap it up, we want to go home!” he yelled.
What came as no surprise, Damien Chazelle won the Best Director Oscar for La La Land – becoming the youngest ever winner in the Best Director category at the age of 32.
“Finally I want to thank Olivia, my love, sitting there. This was a movie about love. And I was lucky enough to fall in love while making it,” he said in his acceptance speech. “And it means the world to me that you’re here sharing this with me. Thank you. Thank you so much.”
WINNERS
Best Actor
Casey Affleck, Manchester By The Sea
Best Actress
Emma Stone, La La Land
Best Picture
Moonlight
Best Supporting Actor
Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Best Makeup and Hair Styling
Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini, and Christopher Nelson, Suicide Squad
Best Costume Design
Colleen Atwood, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them
Best Documentary — Feature
O.J.: Made In America
Best Sound Editing
Sylvain Bellemare, Arrival
Best Sound Mixing
Kevin O’Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie, and Peter Grace, Hacksaw Ridge
Best Supporting Actress
Viola Davis, Fences
Best Foreign Language Film
The Salesman
Best Animated Short Film
Piper
Best Production Design
David Wasco and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco, La La Land
Best Visual Effects
Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones, and Dan Lemmon, The Jungle Book
Best Film Editing
John Gilbert, Hacksaw Ridge
Best Animated Feature Film
Zootopia
Best Documentary — Short Subject
The White Helmets
Best Cinematography
Linus Sandgren, La La Land
Best Original Song
Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul, City Of Stars, La La Land
Best Original Screenplay
Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester By The Sea
Best Adapted Screenplay
Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney, Moonlight
Best Director
Damien Chazelle, La La Land
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