Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Entertainment
  3. News

The 2017 Academy Awards: Pranks, politics, and the craziest ending ever

'Moonlight' wins Best Picture, but only after a bizarre twist

Rick Marshall
By

visual effects oscar history vfx academy awards oscars
Image used with permission by copyright holder
The 89th annual Academy Awards ceremony is officially in the rearview mirror, having honored the best and brightest films and filmmakers to come out of Hollywood and elsewhere around the world last year.

Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, this year’s Academy Awards show had an early favorite, with Whiplash director Damian Chazelle’s La La Land matching the all-time record with 14 nominations. However, the show still managed to have quite the twist ending.

Recommended Videos

(Note: For the full list of winners in all major categories, scroll down to the second page below.)

Related

The winner of the “Best Picture” category was announced in the usual manner during the closing moments of the show. Veteran actors Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway teamed up to present the award, and announced La La Land as the big winner.

Midway through the La La Land team’s speeches, there was some confusion on the stage, and it was revealed that the winner of the category was actually director Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight. After several awkward moments when no one from either film seemed certain whether they were being pranked, the Moonlight team took the stage and offered up their own acceptance speeches, with many people on the stage and in the crowd left shaking their heads in disbelief.

Oscars Mistake: Moonlight Wins Best Picture after La La Land Mistakenly Announced | ABC News

Shortly thereafter, Beatty himself took the microphone to explain that he was given the wrong card to read, and held up the correct card — one that clearly indicated Moonlight was the winning film.

Prior to all of the chaos in the final moments of the ceremony, the Academy Awards had a relatively smooth roll-out with Kimmel as host.

The show got started with a particularly notable moment as Moonlight actor Mahershala Ali became the first Muslim actor to win an Academy Award. In fact, it wasn’t until nearly two hours into the ceremony before early favorite La La Land won its first Oscar, taking home the award in the Production Design category.

Chazelle’s modern musical did indeed pick up steam as the show went on, ending up with six Oscars by the end of the night. Moonlight snagged three Oscars overall, and both Hacksaw Ridge and Manchester by the Sea each took home two Oscars.

In a recurring comedy bit, Kimmel tormented actor Matt Damon in various ways throughout the broadcast, even using the orchestra to play him off the stage when he was attempting to present an award, in one instance.

There was also no shortage of emotional moments, both from those present at the ceremony and those accepting awards on behalf of people who couldn’t make it.

In accepting the Supporting Actress award, Fences actress Viola Davis offered up a passionate celebration of the acting profession and the work of playwright August Wilson, who penned both the screenplay for Fences and the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name that it was based on.

“We are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life,” said Davis. “Here’s to August Wilson, who exhumed and exalted the ordinary people.”

Also noteworthy was the absence of Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, whose film The Salesman won the Oscar for the year’s best foreign-language film. Farhadi declined to attend the ceremony to protest President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting U.S. travel for Muslim immigrants and citizens of seven Muslim-majority nations.

Anousheh Ansari, Iran’s first person in space, read out a statement from Farhadi at the podium indicating that his absence “is out of respect for the people of my country, and those of the other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S.”

Here’s the full list of winners and nominees for each category:

BEST PICTURE

  • Arrival
  • Fences
  • Hacksaw Ridge
  • Hell or High Water
  • Hidden Figures
  • La La Land
  • Lion
  • Manchester By the Sea
  • WINNER: Moonlight

BEST DIRECTOR

  • Denis Villeneuve (Arrival)
  • Mel Gibson (Hacksaw Ridge)
  • WINNER: Damien Chazelle (La La Land)
  • Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea)
  • Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)

BEST ACTRESS

  • Isabelle Huppert (Elle)
  • Ruth Negga (Loving)
  • WINNER: Emma Stone (La La Land )
  • Natalie Portman (Jackie)
  • Meryl Streep (Florence Foster Jenkins)

BEST ACTOR

  • WINNER: Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)
  • Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge)
  • Ryan Gosling (La La Land)
  • Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic)
  • Denzel Washington (Fences)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

  • WINNER: Viola Davis (Fences)
  • Naomie Harris (Moonlight)
  • Nicole Kidman (Lion)
  • Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures)
  • Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

  • WINNER: Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)
  • Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water)
  • Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea)
  • Dev Patel (Lion)
  • Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

  • Jackie (Micachu)
  • WINNER: La La Land (Justin Hurwitz)
  • Lion (Dustin O’Halloran, Hauschka)
  • Moonlight (Nicholas Britell)
  • Passengers (Thomas Newman)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

  • Audition (La La Land )
  • Can’t Stop the Feeling! (Trolls)
  • WINNER: City of Stars (La La Land )
  • The Empty Chair (Jim: The James Foley Story)
  • How Far I’ll Go (Moana)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

  • Hell or High Water (Taylor Sheridan)
  • La La Land (Damien Chazelle)
  • The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthymis Filippou)
  • WINNER: Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan)
  • 20th Century Women (Mike Mills)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

  • Arrival (Eric Heisserer)
  • Fences (August Wilson)
  • Hidden Figures (Allison Schroeder, Theodore Melfi)
  • Lion (Luke Davies)
  • WINNER: Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, Tarell Alvin McRaney)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

  • Arrival (Bradford Young)
  • WINNER: La La Land (Linus Sandgren)
  • Lion (Grieg Fraser)
  • Moonlight (James Laxton)
  • Silence (Rodrigo Prieto)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

  • Fire at Sea
  • I Am Not Your Negro
  • Life, Animated
  • WINNER: O.J.: Made in America
  • The 13th

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

  • Land of Mine, Denmark, Martin Zandvliet, director
  • A Man Called Ove, Sweden, Hannes Holm, director
  • WINNER: The Salesman, Iran, Asghar Farhadi, director
  • Tanna, Australia, Bentley Dean, Martin Butler, directors
  • Toni Erdmann, Germany, Maren Ade, director

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

  • Allied (Joanna Johnston)
  • WINNER: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Colleen Atwood)
  • Florence Foster Jenkins (Consolata Boyle)
  • Jackie (Madeline Fontaine)
  • La La Land (Mary Zophres)

BEST SOUND EDITING

  • WINNER: Arrival
  • Deepwater Horizon
  • Hacksaw Ridge
  • La La Land
  • Sully

BEST SOUND MIXING

  • Arrival
  • WINNER: Hacksaw Ridge
  • La La Land
  • Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
  • 13 Hours

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

  • 4.1 Miles 
  • Extremis
  • Joe’s Violin 
  • Watani: My Homeland
  • WINNER: The White Helmets 

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT

  • Ennemis intérieurs (Sélim Azzazi)
  • La Femme et le TGV (Timo von Gunten, Giacun Caduff)
  • Silent Nights (Aske Bang, Kim Magnusson)
  • WINNER: Sing (Kristóf Deák, Anna Udvardy)
  • Timecode (Juanjo Giménez)

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

  • Arrival (Patrice Vermette)
  • Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Stuart Craig)
  • Hail, Caesar! (Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh)
  • WINNER: La La Land (Sandy Reynolds-Wasco, David Wasco)
  • Passengers (Guy Hendrix Dyas)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

  • Kubo and the Two Strings (Focus Features, Laika Entertainment)
  • Moana (Disney)
  • My Life As a Zucchini (GKIDS)
  • The Red Turtle (Sony Classics)
  • WINNER: Zootopia (Disney)

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

  • Blind Vaysha (National Film Board of Canada)
  • Borrowed Time (Quorum Films)
  • Pear Cider and Cigarettes (Massive Swerve Studios and Passion Pictures Animation)
  • Pearl (Google Spotlight Stories/Evil Eye Pictures)
  • WINNER: Piper (Pixar)

BEST FILM EDITING

  • Arrival (Joe Walker)
  • WINNER: Hacksaw Ridge (John Gilbert)
  • Hell or High Water (Jake Roberts)
  • La La Land (Tom Cross)
  • Moonlight (Joi McMillon, Nat Sanders)

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

  • A Man Called Ove
  • Star Trek Beyond
  • WINNER: Suicide Squad

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Rick Marshall
Rick Marshall
Former Digital Trends Contributor
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
10 most overrated Best Picture Oscar-winning movies ever
Russell Crowe standing and yelling in a scene from Gladiator.

For any movie lover, Academy Awards season is a time to revel in your favorite films of the year, and root for them to get the recognition they deserve. In some cases, the movies that win are shoo-ins. In others, jaws drop when the winner’s name is announced (assuming it was the right one, that is).

Every Oscar-winning movie is an expression of cinematic excellence. Some Best Picture winners have been no-brainers, like Casablanca, Schindler’s List, and The Godfather. But sometimes, another nominated film in a given year is deemed more deserving by voters. Because of this, some Oscar-winning movies are remembered as highly overrated victors in the Best Picture category.
Crash (2004)

Read more
The youngest Oscar winners ever, ranked by age
Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences doesn’t hand out Oscars to everyone. It’s a sign of prestige to be awarded one of the golden statues and the recognition of the Academy and cinematic peers that comes with it. So, when someone wins who is still coming-of-age, or in the infancy of their career as a young adult, it’s a testament to their tremendous talent.

Shirley Temple, one of the earliest and most successful child actors, never officially won an Academy Award. But she did become an Honorary Juvenile Award recipient at the tender age of six, making her one of the most impressive young talents in Hollywood. Adrien Brody, meanwhile, made history when, at 29, he became the youngest actor ever to win a Best Actor Academy Award for the 2002 movie The Pianist.

Read more
Author Charles Elton on the rise and fall of Michael Cimino
American actors Jon Voight and Jane Fonda pose with American director Michael Cimino, holding their Oscars on stage at the 51st Annual Academy Awards.

Michael Cimino is a film director every cinephile knows about and no one really knows. As the main creative force behind one of the most acclaimed movies of the 1970s, The Deer Hunter, Cimino was the first major Hollywood director to make a film about the Vietnam War. The result was a groundbreaking 1978 film that won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Yet just two years later, his brief reign at the top came crashing down with the notorious flop Heaven's Gate, which bankrupted United Artists, was used as a scapegoat by studios to make less risky, auteur-driven films, and made Cimino a pariah in Hollywood until his death in 2016.

In his new book Cimino: The Deer Hunter, Heaven's Gate, and the Price of a Vision, author Charles Elton breaks down the many myths and falsehoods surrounding the late enigmatic director. In a conversation with Digital Trends, Elton discusses the challenges involved in separating fact from fiction about a largely elusive figure, the price Cimino paid for sticking to his demanding yet unique vision, and why Heaven's Gate should be re-considered as a masterpiece of auteur filmmaking.

Read more