2017 Academy Award Winners & Round-Up

http://www.reviewsfromabed.com/2017/02/2017-academy-award-winners-round-up.html
It is easy, as a member of an unofficial community of online film lovers, to forget that the majority of America and some parts of the rest of the world tune into the Oscars in order to see some of the most famous movie stars on the planet act like normal people and reward themselves or better yet, recognize the best of what they had to offer from the previous year, and not because they've actually seen many of the films. There was a little less of that this year with Hidden Figures, Arrival, and La La Land all pulling in pretty good box office numbers (though it was actually less than last years combined Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, and The Revenant totals), but it was with some of the second tier nominees such as Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, and even Hell or High Water that had time to gestate with mainstream audiences due to their earlier release dates and home video releases or the presence of a genuine movie star like Denzel Washington that there seemed a little more familiarity with many of the nominated films this year. Of course, on the other end of the spectrum one can pnly hope that the light the Academy Awards has shone on films like Moonlight, Manchester by the Sea, Lion, and Jackie will only increase their visibility in the crowded marketplace and help them to find wider audiences as each are certainly worthy of as much. As for the ceremony itself, Jimmy Kimmel turned out to be an inspired choice as not only did he opt to let Justin Timberlake handle the opening number duties singing his hit, "Can't Stop the Feeling," from Trolls which was nominated in Best Original Song, but for allowing the tone to be set for a fun and rather care-free night that culminated with one of if not the biggest Oscar snafu in history. Of course, if you've looked at any news this morning what is largely being reported on is the Best Picture mix-up which originally gave the honor to La La Land, but was then given to Moonlight after someone from PricewaterhouseCooper, who count the votes and determine the winners, informed those accepting on behalf of La La Land, Jimmy Kimmel, and presenter Warren Beatty. It was a weird turn of events.

Of course, there was more to the ceremony than just that final award and the serious blunder that will forever overshadow everything else there is to say about this year's awards. For starters, the Academy also messed up in another rather glaring way as the "In Memoriam" segment included the correct name of an Australian costume designer, Janet Patterson, who did indeed pass away this past October, but the picture that accompanied her name was not Ms. Patterson. In fact, it was a photograph of Jan Chapman, a producer who is alive and well despite those who know her likely now concerned she is not. What might be worse is the fact family and friends of Patterson will now forever have to deal with the their friend and family member being misrepresented on her industry's biggest stage-her actual face not widely being associated with her name much less her work, but with a mistake. While one might imagine two such mishaps might bring a dour mood to the nights proceedings there was plenty to keep this a more light-hearted affair such as the Hollywood Tourists bit where Kimmel and his crew brought unknowing passengers from a sightseeing tour into the middle of the ceremony under the guise they were visiting an Oscar exhibit. If any of these passengers were adept to pop culture going-ons they might have suspected something was up, but I highly doubt they could have guessed what was actually in store for them. This was a bit that could have gone terribly wrong, but watching it live it was rather exhilarating to watch and see who these tourists might get to encounter that they might be a fan of-there wasn't an ounce of condescention to the bit, but more a celebration of all walks of life coming together-which seemed to be a theme for the night in general. Couple this with the expected, but always funny ragging of Matt Damon by Kimmel who took things to new heights in their Oscar telecast and it wasn't a terrible way to spend three and a half hours.

 
In the major categories all of the choices were fairly obvious sans how the Best Picture/Best Director combo would shake out...though it was always going to be between La La Land and Moonlight. The biggest competition of the night was that of Casey Affleck versus Denzel Washington in the Best Actor category. Washington had made serious moves over the final days leading up to the ceremony and many expected the multi-hyphenate to steal the prize away from Affleck. Affleck had been the favorite all awards season and had walked away with several statues including the Golden Globe and the Critic's Choice in the same category, but those sexual harassment charges that resurfaced where the actor had to settle out of court with two different women were looming ever larger the closer it got to Hollywood's biggest night. This was especially curious in light of how resurfaced rape accusations against Nate Parker rendered The Birth Of A Nation dead on arrival after a blistering debut at Sundance in 2016 (the same venue where Manchester debuted). Several were not happy with Affleck's win, but most notably was that of Brie Larson who presented Affleck with the statue and won last year for playing a victim of sexual abuse. Many have noted Larson didn't clap for Affleck after announcing his name and though it is hard to tell from the official clip if such a story is accurate it is certainly understandable. Elsewhere, the biggest surprise of the night might have actually come in the Editing category where I'd picked La La Land to win as part of its sweep, but thought Moonlight might either take it or this is where the Academy would give Hell or High Water a tip of the hat considering it had no chance of beating out Manchester by the Sea for Best Original Screenplay (despite me really rooting for it). And then, of course, there is the joke of a category that was Best Make-Up where Suicide Squad can now claim itself an Oscar winner where movies such as Jackie and Lion cannot. Mad, mad, world.  



That's it for this year's round-up. What were your thoughts on the show at large? Entertained? Bored to tears? Let me know in the comments section and check out the full list of winners (highlighted in Orange) below.

Picture


Directing
  • Denis Villeneuve, “Arrival”
  • Mel Gibson, "Hacksaw Ridge"
  • WINNER: Damien Chazelle, “La La Land”
  • Barry Jenkins, “Moonlight”
  • Kenneth Lonergan, “Manchester by the Sea”
Actor in a leading role
  • WINNER: Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea”
  • Andrew Garfield, “Hacksaw Ridge”
  • Ryan Gosling, “La La Land”
  • Viggo Mortensen, “Captain Fantastic”
  • Denzel Washington, “Fences”
Actor in a supporting role
  • WINNER: Mahershala Ali, “Moonlight”
  • Jeff Bridges, “Hell or High Water”
  • Lucas Hedges, “Manchester by the Sea”
  • Dev Patel, “Lion”
  • Michael Shannon, “Nocturnal Animals”

Actress in a leading role:
  • WINNER: Emma Stone, “La La Land”
  • Natalie Portman, “Jackie”
  • Ruth Negga, “Loving”
  • Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins
  • Isabelle Huppert, “Elle
Actress in a supporting role
  • WINNER: Viola Davis, “Fences”
  • Naomie Harris, "Moonlight"
  • Nicole Kidman, “Lion”
  • Octavia Spencer, “Hidden Figures”
  • Michelle Williams, “Manchester by the Sea”


  •  “Lion,” by Luke Davies
  •  “Arrival,” by Eric Heisserer
  •  WINNER: “Moonlight,” by Barry Jenkins
  •  “Hidden Figures,” by Theodore Melfi and Allison Schroeder 
  •  “Fences,” by August Wilson
Original screenplay
  •  WINNER: “Manchester by the Sea,” by Kenneth Lonergan
  •  “Hell or High Water,” by Taylor Sheridan
  •  “La La Land,” by Damien Chazelle
  •  "20th Century Women," Mike Mills
  •  “The Lobster,” by Efthymis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos
Cinematography
  • Bradford Young, “Arrival”
  • WINNER: Linus Sandgren,“La La Land”
  • Greig Fraser, “Lion”
  • James Laxton, “Moonlight”
  • Rodrigo Prieto, “Silence”
Documentary feature
  • “Fire at Sea”
  • “I am Not Your Negro”
  • “Life, Animated”
  • WINNER: “OJ: Made in America”
  • “13th”
Documentary short:
  • “Extremis”
  • “4.1 miles”
  • “Joe’s Violins”
  • “Watani: My Homeland”
  • WINNER: “The White Helmets”
Foreign language film:
  • “Toni Erdmann,” Germany
  • WINNER: “The Salesman,” Iran
  • “A Man Called Ove,” Sweden
  • “Tanna,” Australia
  • “Land of Mine,” Denmark
Sound editing
  • WINNER: Sylvain Bellemare, “Arrival”
  • Wylie Stateman and Renée Tondelli, “Deepwater Horizon”
  • Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright, "Hacksaw Ridge”
  • Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan, “La La Land”
  • Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman, “Sully”

Sound mixing
  • Bernard Gariépy Strobl and Claude La Haye, “Arrival”
  • WINNER: Kevin O’Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace, "Hacksaw Ridge”
  • Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee and Steve A. Morrow, “La La Land”
  • David Parker, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”
  • Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Mac Ruth, “13 Hours"
Original score
  • WINNER: Justin Hurwitz, "La La Land"
  • Mica Levi, "Jackie"
  • Nicholas Britell, "Moonlight"
  • Volker Bertelmann and Dustin O'Halloran, "Lion"
  • Thomas Newman, "Passengers"
Original song
  •  WINNER: “City of Stars” (“La La Land”)
  • “How Far I’ll Go” (“Moana”)
  • “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” (“La La Land”)
  • “The Empty Chair” (“Jim: The James Foley Story”)
  • “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” (“Trolls”)
Production design
  • Patrice Vermette, Paul Hotte, "Arrival"
  • Stuart Craig, Anna Pinnock, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”
  • Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh, "Hail, Caesar!" 
  • WINNER: David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds-Wasco, "La La Land" 
  • Guy Hendrix Dyas, Gene Serdena, "Passengers" 
Visual effects:
  • Craig Hammack, Jason Snell, Jason Billington and Burt Dalton, “Deepwater Horizon”
  • Stephane Ceretti, Richard Bluff, Vincent Cirelli and Paul Corbould, “Doctor Strange”
  • WINNER: Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Dan Lemmon, “The Jungle Book”
  • Steve Emerson, Oliver Jones, Brian McLean and Brad Schiff, “Kubo and the Two Strings”
  • John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel and Neil Corbould, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”
Makeup and hairstyling
  • Eva von Bahr and Love Larson, “A Man Called Ove”
  • Joel Harlow and Richard Alonzo, “Star Trek Beyond”
  • WINNER: Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson, “Suicide Squad”
Costume design
  • Mary Zophres, "La La Land"
  • Madeline Fontaine, "Jackie"
  • Consolata Boyle, "Florence Foster Jenkins"
  • WINNER: Colleen Atwood, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"
  • Joanna Johnston, "Allied"
Film editing
  • Joe Walker, “Arrival”
  • WINNER: John Gilbert, “Hacksaw Ridge”
  • Jake Roberts, "Hell or High Water"
  • Tom Cross, “La La Land”
  • Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon, “Moonlight”
Live-action short
  • "Ennemis intérieurs," Selim Azzazi
  • "La femme et le TGV," Timo von Gunten
  • "Silent Nights," Aske Bang, Kim Magnusson
  • WINNER: “Sing,” Kristof Deák, Anna Udvardy 
  • "Timecode," Juanjo Gimenez
Animated short film
  • "Blind Vaysha”
  • "Borrowed Time"
  • "Pear Cider and Cigarettes"
  • "Pearl"
  • WINNER: "Piper"
Animated feature film
  • “Kubo and the Two Strings”
  • “Moana”
  • “My Life as a Zucchini”
  • “The Red Turtle”
  • WINNER: “Zootopia”

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