USA TODAY International Edition
MAGIC MOMENTS, WINNING SMILES
The film industry’s brightest stars celebrated their best Sunday at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. USA TODAY highlights big moments at the 89th Academy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel
12: 09: And the musical has it: La
La Land is named best picture, its seventh Oscar of the night. Or not! Faye Dunaway reads the wrong movie and Moonlight is actually best picture. “Very clearly even in my dreams, this couldn’t be true. But hell with it! It is true!” says director Barry Jenkins, taking the weirdness so well. “We didn’t do this. You choose us. Thank you for the choice.”
11: 57: La La Land wins its sixth Oscar and Emma Stone grabs her first one ever for best actress. “To the women in this category ... you are all so extraordinary and I look up to you and I admire you,” says an out- of- breath Stone. “I still have a lot of growing and learning and work to do, and this guy is a really beautiful symbol to continue on that journey.”
11: 51: Casey Affleck wins his first Oscar and takes best actor for
Manchester by the Sea. “It means so much to me,” says an emotional Affleck. “Without this part and without ( Kenneth Lonergan’s) writing, I wouldn’t be here.”
11: 42: At 32, La La Land filmmaker Damien Chazelle becomes the youngest person to ever win best director. “This is a movie about love and I fell in love making it,” says Chazelle when thanking his wife Jasmine.
11: 34: Moonlight wins best adapted screenplay, and Barry Jenkins thanks pretty much everyone he knows: “I really wanted this result because there is a bajillion people watching.”
11: 30: Ben Affleck arrives to present best original screenplay with Matt Damon, and Kimmel hilariously tries to play off his forever foe Damon. Seriousness returns and Kenneth Lonergan wins the Oscar for Manchester by the Sea. “I love movies, I love being part of the movies,” says Lonergan, thanking Casey Affleck three times and saying farewall to his father, who died last year.
11: 21: Sara Bareilles sings Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now for the “In Memoriam” segment, which didn’t include this weekend’s passing of Bill Paxton.
11: 15: Composer Justin Hurwitz wins his first Oscar for La La Land‘ s original score and quickly follows it with his second, original song for City of Stars.
11: 05: John Legend takes the stage to sing La La Land‘ s Oscarnominated original tunes, City of Stars and Audition.
10: 59: La La Land is starting to pick up a little steam as Linus Sandgren wins for best cinematography, calling his director, Damien Chazelle, “a poetic genius.”
10: 45: The White Helmets, about volunteer rescue workers in the Syrian Civil Defense, nabs documentary short subject. Live- action short goes to Sing, which follows friends in a Budapest elementary school choir.
10: 33: Seth Rogen takes the stage with Michael J. Fox to present the Oscar for film editing, which goes to Hacksaw Ridge.
10: 31: The Jungle Book bests Rogue One and Doctor Strange for the visual- effects Oscar.
10: 18: Kimmel brings in a random people from a tour bus. “On the count of three, we’ll turn the lights on and everybody yell ‘ Mahershala’!” Kimmel says. One man is documenting the event via smartphone, and the host tells him, “We’re on TV so you don’t have to do that.” Denzel Washington also “marries” a couple of them. “It’s Denzel so it’s legal,” Kimmel retorts. A woman is awarded Jennifer Aniston’s sunglasses, and everybody gets to rub Mahershala Ali’s new Oscar.
10: 15: La La Land gets its first Oscar of the night, snagging production design. 10: 08: Pixar’s Piper takes animated short, and fellow Disney project Zootopia wins for animated feature. “We are so grateful to the audiences all over the word that embraced this film with this story of tolerance being more powerful than fear of the other,” says Zootopia director Rich Moore.
10: 02: Sting performs his Oscarnominated song The Empty Chair from Jim: The James Foley Story. He plays in front of a picture of the late journalist Foley and the words “If I don’t have the moral courage to challenge authority ... we don’t have journalism.”
9: 58: The Salesman wins for best foreign- language film. “It’s a great honor to be receiving this valuable award for the second time,” says Iranian director Asghar Farhadi in a statement after boycotting the Oscars because of the Trump administration’s travel ban. “Dividing the world into the ‘ us’ and ‘ our enemies’ categories creates fear. It’s a deceitful justification for aggression and war.”
9: 44: In her third try, Viola Davis gets her first Oscar, for supporting actress for Fences. “I became an artist and thank God I did because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life,” says Davis, also celebrating writer August Wilson “who exhumed and exalted the ordinary people.”
9: 15: Dwayne Johnson introduces his “twin” Lin- Manuel Miranda and Hollywood newcomer Auli’i Cravalho to perform best song contender How Far I’ll Go from Moana.
9: 09: Hidden Figures stars Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monae and Octavia Spencer introduce Katherine Johnson on stage, followed by a standing ovation for the former NASA mathematician and subject of the movie. The actresses present the Oscar for documentary feature, which goes to O. J.: Made in America.
9: 01: Colleen Atwood wins her fourth career Oscar for costume design, for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
8: 58: Sorry, haters: That’s OSCAR- WINNING Suicide Squad, for makeup and hairstyling.
8: 49: Ali wins supporting actor for Moonlight. “My grandma would want me to button up,” he says, adjusting his suit and thanking his teachers, who he said always told him, “It’s not about you, it’s about these characters.’ ” Ali also honors his wife, Amatus Sami- Karim, who gave birth to their daughter four days ago.
8: 35: Host Jimmy Kimmel takes the stage “to a sitting ovation.” He gets the first political poke in, about the Oscar- cast going to “countries that now hate us.” 8: 30: Timberlake opens the show singing his Oscar- nominated hit from Trolls, Can’t Stop the Feeling! The crowd is on its feet.