This year’s Oscars consisted of many moments that will have echoing ramifications for the cinematic world. The black achiever; an esoteric movie like Moonlight winning the best motion picture; and then Casey Affleck, Viola Davis and Kevin O’ Connell taking home the statutte proved that the Academy Awards of 2017 were clearly in honour of the fools who dream.
There is always something extraordinary about the Academy Awards. They speak of impeccable tales woven into the golden fabrics of genuine emotions and the glorious culmination of years of perseverance. They always have a brilliant mastery over nuances, maintaining that exactitude of predictability and surprise which all come together and crown the golden lady as the greatest award on the planet.
Here we are with a list of every brilliant tale which made the 89th Academy Award the most enduring of all:
1.Jimmy Kimmel
Oscar hosts have always tried to do something out of the box. Remember Neil Patrick Harris’s stunts and Chris Rock’s gaffe over the last two years? But not this time.
In sync with this year’s trend of having talk show giants hosting the award show, the Oscars had Jimmy Kimmel from ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’. Opening the show with the splashy performance of Justin Timberlake’s ‘Can’t stop the feeling’, followed only by his signature monologue, appeal for unity, and the few well curated jokes now and then throughout the night, Kimmel ensured that he did what he wast best at. Whether he joked Mel Gibson, Matt Demon or Meryl Streep, he made sure to toe the line at all times.
2. The not-anymore-white Academy
Oscars 2017 shall well be remembered for the three winners from the black community it had. With Moonlight’s Mahershala Ali for Best Supporting Actor, Fences’ Viola Davis for Best Supporting Actress, Director-producer Ezra Edelman for Best Documentary Feature and Moonlight’s Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney for Best Adapted Screenplay, it was well evident that the award is not all-white anymore. Cherry on the pudding was the fact that Mahershala Ali is the first person from the Muslim community to win the prize. Also noteworthy is Viola Davis becoming the first black woman to win an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony in her brilliant acting career. At the podium, she seemed to be heaving with emotion, almost out of breath, and yet her words were clear and her sentences deftly paced. When she made her observation with “You know, there’s one place that all the people with the greatest potential are gathered”, followed by a pause, and then the next line, “One place, and that’s the graveyard”, she quietly validated herself as one of the most deserving Oscar winners of all time.
3. A night of Moonlight
The tale of a poor black gay man simply surviving in the drug and poverty of Miami, an ordinary life of the sort that is portrayed so infrequently as to seem extraordinary, took the world by storm as it lunged ahead of the seemingly obvious winner La La Land and the gruelling reality and individual pain of Moonlight won over the dreamworld of La La Land. This small scale, individual film was not only a huge win for the black community, it was a major triumph for queer narratives in Hollywood. Being the first LGBTQ themed, all black film to win the Academy, the victory can be seen as Academy’s departure from the ‘winner takes it all’ era.
4. Not all rosy with La La Land
The city of stars did not shine just for La La Land as it became the first movie to not to win the award for the best picture in spite of as many as 14 nominations. All the same, Emma Stone was awarded best actress for her portrayal of Mia, winning over Natalie Portman and Meryl Streep. Damien Chaziel, aged only 32, emerged as the best director, and one of the youngest recipients of the golden statuette. The movie also won the awards for Best Original Score, Best Original Song and Cinematography. But what was heartbreaking was the fiasco at the podium when La La Land had almost won the best film award. As Vox later clarified, “The night’s biggest award — Best Picture — was handed to the wrong film, presumed front runner La La Land , because presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were given the wrong envelope. It bore the name of La La Land’s Emma Stone, who had won Best Actress moments before. The three credited producers for La La Land were almost through their triumphant speeches — indeed, the third, Fred Berger , was in the middle of speaking — when producer Jordan Horowitz was forced to take the microphone and say the film had lost to Moonlight.”
5. O.J.: Made in America
Not only did this ESPN-produced project win the award for Best Documentary Featur, but with a running time of seven hours and 47 minutes, it became the longest work in history to win an Oscar. While La La Land declared a sense that musical comedies still possess magic, O.J.: Made in America made us believe in the beauty of long, yet meaningful films.
Nikhil Kumar
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Image Crdits: digitalspy.com
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