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OSCARS 2017

La La Land dominates Oscars but Moonlight wins Best Picture

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- Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman wins Foreign Language honour

La La Land dominates Oscars but Moonlight wins Best Picture
The Moonlight cast and crew receive Oscar for Best Picture (© The Academy/Getty)

La La Land’s red hot winning streak of six Oscars appeared to extend to seven when presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced the film as Best Picture. Chaos reigned supreme for a few moments as the La La Land team rose for the seventh time and began acceptance speeches only for the organisers to inform them that Beatty was given the wrong envelope and in fact Moonlight was the Best Picture winner. Academy ballot counter PwC said in a statement: “We sincerely apologise to Moonlight, La La Land, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for Best Picture. The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected. We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred. We appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, ABC, and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation."

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Nevertheless, it was a strong showing for Damien Chazelle’s film that won him the Directing Oscar, Emma Stone Actress in a Leading Role, Sweden’s Linus Sandgren Cinematography, Justin Hurwitz Music (Original Score) and Music (Original Song) with lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul for ‘City of Stars’, and David Wasco Production Design.

Apart from Best Picture, Moonlight won Adapted Screenplay for director Barry Jenkins, from a story by Tarell Alvin McCraney and Actor in a Supporting Role for Mahershala Ali. Casey Affleck won Actor in a Leading Role for Manchester By the Sea while Viola Davis won Actress in a Supporting Role for Fences.

Asghar Farhadi’s France-Iran co-production The Salesman [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
won the Foreign Language Film Oscar, marking the second time the director has won this award after 2011’s acclaimed A Separation. Farhadi, who boycotted the ceremony because of the US travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, sent Iranian-American engineer Anousheh Ansari in his stead. She read out a statement from Farhadi: “I’m sorry I’m not with you tonight. My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of other six nations whom have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S. Dividing the world into the us and our enemies categories creates fear. A deceitful justification for aggression and war. These wars prevent democracy and human rights in countries which have themselves been victims of aggression. Filmmakers can turn their cameras to capture shared human qualities and break stereotypes of various nationalities and religions. They create empathy between us and others. An empathy which we need today more than ever.” The Salesman is a French majority production, led by Alexandre Mallet-Guy for Parisian outfit Memento Films (which has sold the film to many territories already), with support from Arte France Cinéma, among others.

The other European winners of the night were Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, which received the Oscar for Best Costume Design for the work of Colleen Atwood, Hungarian short film Sing by Kristof Deak and Anna Udvardy, winner in the Best Live-Action Short category, and British short film The White Helmets by Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara, winner of the Best Documentary Short Award.

The winners:

Best Picture
Moonlight – Barry Jenkins

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Emma Stone - La La Land

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Casey Affleck - Manchester by the Sea

Best Directing
Damien Chazelle - La La Land

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Mahershala Ali – Moonlight

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Viola Davis – Fences

Best Animated Feature Film
Zootopia
- Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer

Best Foreign Language Film
The Salesman [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 - Asghar Farhadi (France/Iran)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Moonlight -  Screenplay by Barry Jenkins; Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney

Best Original Screenplay
Kenneth Lonergan – Manchester By the Sea

Best Music (Original Score)
La La Land - Justin Hurwitz

Best Music (Original Song)
‘City Of Stars’ - La La Land. Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

Best Cinematography
Linus Sandgren – La La Land

Best Editing
John Gilbert – Hacksaw Ridge

Best Production Design
La La Land - Production design: David Wasco. Set decoration: Sandy Reynolds-Wasco

Best Visual Effects
The Jungle Book - Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Dan Lemmon

Best Makeup & Hairstyling
Suicide Squad - Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson

Best Costume Design
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 - Colleen Atwood

Best Animated Short
Piper - Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer

Best Sound Editing
Arrival - Sylvain Bellemare

Best Sound Mixing
Hacksaw Ridge - Kevin O’Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace

Best Documentary Feature
O.J.: Made in America - Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow

Best Documentary Short
The White Helmets - Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara (United Kingdom)

Best Live-Action Short
Sing - Kristof Deak and Anna Udvardy (Hungary)

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