The 89th Annual Oscars; Kimmel Shines but Mistakes Were Made

All the cast of ‘La La Land’ is on stage to receive their award for Best Picture. Meanwhile, the cast of ‘Moonlight’ joins them after being informed of the mix up.

All the cast of ‘La La Land’ is on stage to receive their award for Best Picture. Meanwhile, the cast of ‘Moonlight’ joins them after being informed of the mix up.

Kenya Espinoza, Staff Writer

Feb. 26 was a night filled with people who bring magnificent stories to life and students staying up to watch their favorite actors and actresses. The evening consisted of seeing Justin Timberlake perform to anxiously hoping our favorite film would win an award. There might have been a little mix up toward the end, but the night was still golden. What occurred at the 2017 Oscars?

The 89th annual Oscars was kicked off by Justin Timberlake performing “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” which certainly got the crowd moving. The stage was then handed off to Jimmy Kimmel to begin the very exciting awards ceremony. Kimmel began the ceremony by cracking many jokes, most of which were directed toward Matt Damon due to their ongoing feud. At one point in Kimmel’s speech he stated, “I’ve known Matt for a long time now. I’ve known Matt so long, when I first met Matt, I was the fat one, okay? It’s true. And we’ve had problems. He’s a selfish person. Those of you who have worked with him know this. But Matt did something very unselfish and I want to commend him for it.” He continued to joke about Damon giving his friend a great role in a movie and creating a Chinese ponytail movie instead of playing the role, referring to his movie “The Great Wall’. Then, he concluded his “joke” by stating, “See? It’s so easy to reach out and heal” referring to “the spirit of healing and bringing people together” he had previously mentioned.

After Kimmel’s beginning speech, the awards finally began to be called. The first category presented was Best Supporting Actor, which was won by Mahershala Ali for his role in “Moonlight”. By winning this, he became the first Muslim in history to win an Oscar. His speech consisted of him thanking his teachers for teaching him that it is not about him, but the characters. He then gave thanks to his manager and his wife who had given birth to their first child four days prior to the Oscars. The next category was: Best Makeup, which was won by Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson from ‘Suicide Squad’. Then, the award for costumes was given to Colleen Atwood for her costumes in ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”

The next category was Best Documentary film, which was presented by Janelle Monae, Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer who starred in Hidden Figures. These three ladies went on to talk about how these types of stories are known by very few people, but they are the most valuable stories. After concluding their speeches, they welcomed Katherine Johanson onto the stage. Katherine Johnson is a NASA mathematician who worked for NASA when segregation still existed. She is one of the women that ‘Hidden Figures’ was based on. Once their speech and presentation of Mrs. Johnson concluded the winner of the award was announced. The winner of the award was ‘O.J. Made in America.’

The next category was Best Foreign Film, which was won by ‘The Salesman.’ After presenting this category a short break was taken and ‘The Empty Chair’ was performed. Once the emotional performance concluded Jimmy Kimmel told the crowd that when people go to Hollywood they expect to see celebrities walking around, but that that never really happens. He went on to say that that day would be different because the tourist on the bus would be taken into the Oscars live. While waiting for the tourists, the celebrities got candy rained on them. After what seemed like an eternity, the tourists finally arrived and were shocked at the fact that they were seeing all of their favorite celebrities before them. The tourist got to take pictures with many of the celebrities sitting in the front row. A man named Gary even got “married” to his fiancé by Denzel Washington.

This night was filled with many more awards, including Viola Davis winning Best Supporting Actress and her very emotional speech that brought many people to tears. Toward the end of the evening there was also a mix up for Best Picture. The award was mistakenly given to ‘La La Land’, but was then corrected and given to ‘Moonlight.’