The 89th Annual Academy Awards

It is that time of year where Hollywood gets together to pat each other on the back for a job well done. This year was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and although it's his first time out at officiating these awards, he did as well as could be expected considering this job is definitely one of the toughest jobs on the planet. His opening monologue was the same as one would see watching his TV show--it was funny, but not uproarious.

In case you didn't see the telecast, the huge blunder of the awards was when the Best Picture award was being announced. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were presenters and as Beatty was fumbling in announcing the winner, he handed the card to Dunaway and she said "La La Land". As the last of three producers were finishing their acceptance speeches, the first producer came to the podium and mentioned that "Moonlight" won Best Picture. It was so surreal that one might think that this was a Jimmy Kimmel moment, but it went on too long. Not sure what happened, but it was "Moonlight" that actually did win Best Picture. The last time I can remember an equally embarrassinging situation at the Oscars was in 1974 when a streaker ran behind David Niven and Elizabeth Taylor who were presenting an award at that time.

One of the best moments of the presentation was the opening song, "Can't Stop the Feeling" sung by Justin Timberlake. His getting the audience interacting with him during this song was fun and exciting. This being one of the nominated songs, it was a great and fresh start to this show.

The awards were fairly evenly distributed, so as not to allow it to be one-sided. "La La Land" won 6 out of its 14 nominations, "Moonlight" won 3 awards, "Manchester by the Sea" won 2 awards, "Hacksaw Ridge" won 2 awards and others won 1 each. To get a better look at all the winners, here is the rundown:

 

Best Picture:

"Moonlight"

 

Best Actor:

Casey Affleck ("Manchester by the Sea")

 

Best Actress:

Emma Stone ("La La Land")

 

Best Director:

Damien Chazelle ("La La Land")

 

Best Supporting Actor:

Mahershala Ali ("Moonlight")

 

Best Supporting Actress:

Viola Davis ("Fences")

 

Best Original Screenplay:

Kenneth Lonergan ("Manchester by the Sea")

 

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Barry Jenkins, Tarell Alvin McCraney ("Moonlight")

 

Best Animated Film:

"Zootopia"

 

Best Foreign Language Film:

"The Salesman" (Iran)

 

Best Cinematography:

Linus Sangren ("La La Land")

 

Best Film Editing:

John Gilbert ("Hacksaw Ridge")

 

Best Production Design:

David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds-Wasco ("La La Land")

 

Best Costume Design:

Colleen Atwood ("Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them")

 

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:

Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini, Christopher Allen Nelson ("Suicide Squad")

 

Best Original Score:

Justin Hurwitz ("La La Land")

 

Best Original Song:

Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul ("La La Land")

 

Best Sound Mixing:

Kevin O'Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie, Peter Grace ("Hacksaw Ridge")

 

Best Sound Editing:

Sylvain Bellemare ("Arrival")

 

Best Visual Effects:

Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones, Dan Lemmon ("Jungle Book")

 

Best Documentary Feature:

Ezra Edelman, Caroline Waterlow ("O.J.: Made in America")

 

Best Documentary Short Subject:

Orlando von Einsiedel, Joanna Natasegara ("The White Helmets")

 

Best Animated Short Film:

Alan Barillaro, Marc Sondheimer ("Piper")

 

Best Live Action Short Film:

Kristof Deak, Anna Udvardy ("Mindenki"--"Sing")

 

The Governor's Honorary Awards were given to Anne V. Coates, Lynn Stalmaster, Frederick Wiseman and Jackie Chan.  

There were some political statements made, but not as many as I thought considering the outcome of the presidential election last month which was encouraging. Although one's ability to voice their opinions is vital, I feel at an awards ceremony, this is neither the time nor place to get serious and controversial.

All in all, I believe the academy was fair in its distribution of winners and the nominated songs were well performed, especially the one performed by Timberlake. This certainly wasn't a bad ceremony, it simply wasn't a well-honed one either. As I said last year, where is Billy Crystal when you need him?

 

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                      Rated: NR                                       3hrs.50mins