It was a roller-coaster of a night for the 2017 Academy Awards. While the majority of the ceremony went off without a hitch, the announcement of the Best Picture winner was an absolute catastrophe. La La Land was initially read out by Faye Dunaway, taking her cue from Warren Beaty, who opened the envelope as her co-presenter. However, as the cast and crew of the film made it on stage and got part way through their acceptance speeches, the organisers eventually stormed the stage to say that there had been a mistake and that Moonlight had actually won.
Whether it was an accident, some kind of ill conceived point on the part of the presenters or a cleverly coordinated effort to add a little more attention to the massive Awards Ceremony, it’s hard to tell, but either way it looked like a bit of a mess. Great news for the guys behind Moonlight, and it will undoubtedly go down in history, but perhaps it’s for the wrong reasons. Instead of it being a momentous turning point in Academy Awards selection and nod for great indie cinema, which the ceremony has been criticised over for years, it will now be overshadowed by a very silly banana peel slide and foam pie in the face.
Despite the huge flaming pile and fan altercation of the Best Picture announcement, the guys from La La Land were very gracious under the circumstances. They went on to be winners of six Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Emma Stone and Best Director for Damien Chazelle. Moonlight also picked up the Actor in a Supporting Role for Mahershala Ali’s leading performance and Best Adapted Screenplay in addition to its belated Best Picture win.
2017 Academy Award Winners:
Best Picture
Moonlight
Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner
Actor in a Leading Role
Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
Actress in a Leading Role
Emma Stone, La La Land
Actor in a Supporting Role
Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Actress in a Supporting Role
Viola Davis, Fences
Directing
La La Land, Damien Chazelle
Cinematography
Linus Sandgren, La La Land
Film Editing
John Gilbert, Hacksaw Ridge
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Moonlight
Screenplay by Barry Jenkins; Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney
Writing (Original Screenplay)
Manchester by the Sea
Written by Kenneth Lonergan
Animated Feature Film
Zootopia, Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer
Costume Design
Colleen Atwood, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Documentary (Feature)
O.J.: Made in America
Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow
Documentary (Short)
The White Helmets
Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara
Foreign Language Film
The Salesman, Iran; Directed by Asghar Farhadi
Makeup and Hairstyling
Suicide Squad, Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio…
Music (Original Score)
La La Land, Justin Hurwitz
Music (Original Song)
“City Of Stars” from La La Land
Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
Production Design
La La Land, David Wasco (Production Design); Sandy Reynolds-Wasco (Set Decoration)
Short Film (Animated)
Piper, Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer
Short Film (Live Action)
Sing, Kristof Deák and Anna Udvardy
Sound Editing
Arrival, Sylvain Bellemare
Sound Mixing
Hacksaw Ridge, Kevin O’Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace
Visual Effects
The Jungle Book, Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Dan Lemmon
