The 2017 Academy Awards

The 89th Academy Awards took place last night at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, California. Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel the evening was peppered with political talk and ended with one of the biggest snafus since Steve Harvey crowned the wrong Miss Universe in 2015.

The night kicked off with “Best original Song” nominee, Justin Timberlake entering the Dolby Theater from the back and singing and dancing his away to the main stage up the aisle. He stopped to greet his “Mickey Mouse Club” costar, Ryan Gosling. Once on stage, JT was joined by his Tennessee Kids and a crew of dancers only to jump back off stage to dance with Halle Berry, Denzel Washington and wife, Jessica Biel. It was an upbeat start with Justin Timberlake entirely in his element, only further fueling the hopes of a new JT album and tour.

Kimmel for his part tried to keep his monologue light and his antics fun, dropping Red Vines and Jr. Mints on to the presumably hungry crowd and also kidnapping a bus full of Los Angeles tourists who only thought they were getting a bus ride through town to look at houses.  

Other performances were peppered throughout the night including John Legend, Sting, and 16 year old, Moana star, Auli’I Cravalho, who took getting hit by a flag during her performance with co-star Lin-Manuel Miranda in stride.

Miranda for his part did not win his ‘O’ in the coveted EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony). The award for Best Original Song instead went to Justin Hurwitz for “City of Stars” from the 14 times nominated motion picture, La La Land. The movie went on to take home 6 of the 14 nods including Best Actress for Emma Stone and Best Director for Damien Chazelle, who at 34 became the youngest person to win the award.

​The biggest moment of the night came at the very end of the broadcast when the award for Best Picture was first awarded, incorrectly to La La Land by presenter Fay Dunaway. While the cast of La La Land was on stage hugging and celebrating, Jordan Horowitz announced there had been a mistake and that it was quote “not a joke” but in fact Moonlight had won.

It turned out Dunaway and co-presenter Warren Beatty were handed the incorrect envelope, instead of being given the Best Picture winner they were given the Best Actress winner. When Beatty passed the envelope to Dunaway, she read the name of the film.

Jimmy Kimmel joined everyone on stage and simply said “I blame Steve Harvey for this”.

While early ratings numbers are in, and they are low, the 89th Academy Awards are sure to be remember due to the end of show snafu for years to come. 

Written by Kristen