Academy of Arts and Sciences Host 89th Academy Awards

Hollywood, CA- The Academy of Arts and Sciences hosted their 89th Academy Award ceremony on Sunday, February 26, with late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel serving as master of ceremonies for the event. The award show spotlights excellence in both short form and long form filmmaking, including technical categories such as sound editing and visual effects as well as best original and adapted screenplay, best director and of course best actor and actress.

Moonlight star Mahershala Ali made history by becoming with first Muslim to win an Oscar for acting, after taking home the Best Supporting Actor. Viola Davis moved the audience with her emotional acceptance speech after taking home the Best Supporting Actress win for Fences.  Davis also won a Tony for portraying the same role in 2010, and took home a Golden Globe for the film earlier this year.

The odds of Emma Stone winning Best Actress for La La Land were already in the young actresses favor when she took home the win, beating out Natalie Portman, Ruth Negga and the iconic Meryl Streep. Casey Affleck took home Best Actor for Manchester by the Sea, where he played the role of a janitor taking custody of his teenage nephew after his brother suffers a heart attack.

Jimmy Kimmel continued to keep the show light and entertaining, having Hollywood stars read mean tweets, antagonizing Matt Damon and making cookies, candy and doughnuts rain from the ceiling. At one point, he even brought in an unsuspecting Hollywood tour to meet the assorted stars and starlettes. But the most unexpected event came at the end of the night.

It began when Bonnie and Clyde themselves, Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, reunited to announce the winner for Best Picture, the top honor of the Academy Awards. After a moment, Dunaway announced that La La Land had won best picture. However, upon taking the stage, La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz halted his acceptance speech and revealed the startling truth: Moonlight was the true winner of the Best Picture award and that Beatty and Dunaway had read from the wrong card.

Beatty nervously explained that they had actually been given the card for Best Actress instead. Jimmy Kimmel made an effort to bring levity to the events as the crews of La La Land and Moonlight traded places on the stage, stating that he knew he would somehow screw up hosting the Oscars. Horowitz and company were gracious in handing the Oscar over to the crew of Moonlight, stating that it was an honor to give it to them. The crew of Moonlight returned the sentiment during their acceptance speech.

The accountants of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, who are responsible for tallying the votes, released a statement about the proceedings:

“We sincerely apologize to ‘Moonlight,’ ‘La La Land,’ Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for Best Picture. The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected. We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred.”

The complete list of winners:

Best Picture

• – La La Land Moonlight

Best Director

• Damien Chazelle – La La Land

Best Actor

• Casey Affleck – Manchester By The Sea

Best Actress

• Emma Stone – La La Land

Best Supporting Actor

• Mahershala Ali – Moonlight

Best Supporting Actress

• Viola Davis – Fences

Best Original Screenplay

• Manchester By The Sea

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Moonlight

Best Film Editing

• Hacksaw Ridge

Best Foreign Language Film

• The Salesman – Iran

Best Animated Feature

• Zootopia

Best Cinematography

• La La Land

Best Production Design

• La La Land

Best Visual Effects

• The Jungle Book

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• Suicide Squad

Best Sound Mixing

• Hacksaw Ridge

Best Sound Editing

• Arrival

Best Costume Design

• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Best Original Score

• La La Land

Best Original Song

• La La Land – City of Stars

Best Documentary Feature

• O.J: Made in America

Best Documentary Short

• The White Helmets

Best Live-Action Short

• Sing

Best Animated Short

• Piper