Eleni Vasiliades: Grade 8

The 89th Academy Awards took place on February 26, 2017, in Los Angeles, California. The host of these much-anticipated oscars was Jimmy Kimmel. Everything went well throughout the show. There were numerous puns and jokes directed at President Donald J. Trump that had the audience in laughter. La La Land was the anticipated front runner for the Best Picture award.

The last award of the night was this Best Picture honor, presented by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. Prior to this moment, Emma Stone had just won the award for Best Actress in La La Land, beating Meryl Streep.

Beatty had the card in his hand and looked at it in awe and confusion. He said, “the Academy Award… for Best Picture….” Then Dunaway told Beaty he was “impossible” and read the card, “La La Land!” The whole cast of La La Land came onto the stage to accept the award. Jordan Horowitz, one of the producers, spoke first, and he thanked the cast and crew for the film. He was followed by another producer, Marc Platt. While he was speaking, viewers were able to catch people running behind the stage in confusion.

On the stage, the La La Land crew and cast were approached by a man wearing a headset and holding an envelope. Fred Berger, another producer for the film, began to speak and said, “We lost, by the way, but, you know…” The crowds’ mouths dropped in shock, and Horowitz cam back to the microphone and said, “I’m sorry, there’s a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture.” The crowd and viewers were surprised and extremely confused as to how such a mistake could have happened.

Host Jimmy Kimmel then hopped on the stage to attempt to clear the air. Many people compared this mistake to when comedian Steve Harvey announced the wrong winner for the Ms. Universe award last year. Kimmel said, “Personally, I blame Steve Harvey for this.”

Beatty then came back to the microphone and tried to clear up the confusion by saying, ”I want to tell you what happened. I opened the envelope and it said, ‘Emma Stone, La La Land.’ That’s why I took such a long look at Faye. I wasn’t trying to be funny.” Later on it was confirmed that the card that Beatty and Dunaway were handed was actually a duplicate card for Best Actress, which said “Emma Stone for La La Land.”

Finally, the Moonlight producer, Adele Romanski said, ”Thank you to the Academy. I don’t know what to say. I’m still not sure this is real.” The whole situation was confusing and can be seen from different perspectives, but for sure, the 89th Oscars was not one to miss.