AP And the winner is not La La Land...
Big moments to bigger blunders — this year’s ceremony will stay with people for a long time
Sunday evening saw perhaps what could be one of the biggest goof-ups in the history of the Oscars. Or should we say, Moonlight eclipsed La La ‘Oscar’ Land? The 89th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, USA, on Sunday (February 26) was all about big wins and grateful speeches until a gaffe that no one could’ve dreamt of happened. Veteran Hollywood actors Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway (who somehow had the wrong envelope) announced La La Land (2016) as the Best Picture, but it was Moonlight (2016) that had won the finale honour.
The La La Land team rejoiced and began giving their speeches. But their squeals of joy were soon replaced by silence, which was broken by sighs, gasps and celebration — this time by team Moonlight, after representatives for ballot tabulators raced onstage to notify them of the blunder. La La Land’s producer Jordan Horowitz graciously passed the trophy to the producers of Moonlight.
Among other highlights of the three-hour long ceremony was Iranian-American astronaut Anousheh Ansari’s acceptance speech on behalf of Iranian film-maker Asghar Farhadi, whose film, The Salesman (2016), won in the Foreign Language Film category. Accepting the Oscar for Farhadi, Ansari read out a note in which the film-maker blamed US President Donald Trump’s travel ban for his absence. “An inhumane law that bans entry into the US... Dividing the world into the ‘us’ and ‘our enemies’ categories creates fear, a deceitful justification for aggression and war.”
Trump also was the brunt of some digs by ceremony host, Jimmy Kimmel. Mimicking Trump’s tweet, he asked the audience — comprising Hollywood’s best — to give “overrated” actor Meryl Streep an “undeserving” standing ovation for her anti-Trump remarks at the Golden Globes awards last month.
Child actor Sunny Pawar also had his moment when Kimmel lifted the eight-yearold up ‘Lion King’ style, and an excited Pawar yelled, “Lemonades, Mikes and Ikes,” pointing to the candies, cookies, doughnuts and jellies that were falling from the ceiling.
Another touching moment was when the organisers paid tribute to late actor Om Puri.
The colour palette at this year’s Academy Awards was disappointing. The red carpet was ruled by pastel, gold and whitecoloured dresses and gowns. Celebrities such as Emma Stone, Priyanka Chopra, Felicity Jones and Nicole Kidman, among others, flaunted these colours. While these stars stood out in their respective ensembles, we couldn’t help but notice that most celebrities chose to play it safe with their looks at the awards night. Here’s a look at what went down at the Oscars this year.