Jordan Horowitz and Jimmy Kimmel react as Warren Beatty holds the card for the Best Picture Oscar awarded to "Moonlight," after announcing by mistake that "La La Land" was winner during the 89th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, the United States on Feb. 26, 2017. (Xinhua/REUTERS)
by Qianhui Wang, Huang Heng, Wei Wei
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- The 89th Academy Awards "surprised" the audience Sunday night by being not so political, not so white and not so right. The ceremony was looking classy and glamorous as usual, until the Best Picture Award announcement turned into chaos.
The presenters Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty accidently presented "La La Land" as the Best Picture while "Moonlight" was the true winner and later realized they read from a wrong card.
The Academy found out the error in the middle of "La La Land" producer's acceptance speech. This is Oscar's first incorrect announcement in its 89 years' history and would be remembered for a long time.
When Jordan Horowitz, the producer of "La La Land", held up the winner's card to the audience, explaining that "Moonlight" had just won the most important annual award of the Academy, he had to repeated saying "This is not a joke".
Despite this awkward situation "La La Land" ran into, the film still won six awards, including the Best Actress, Best Director, Best Original Song, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography and Best Production Design, becoming the biggest winner of the night.
The nominations of the Oscars this year were more diverse after two years of "Oscars so White" criticism.
(L-R) Actor Mahershala Ali, winner of Best Supporting Actor for "Moonlight," Emma Stone, winner of Best Actress for "La La Land," Viola Davis, winner of Best Supporting Actress for "Fences," and Casey Affleck, winner of Best Actor for "Manchester by the Sea" pose for group photos at press room of the 89th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, the United States, on Feb. 26, 2017. (Xinhua/Yang Lei)
Three out of four acting categories had at least one African-American nominee, and Mahershala Ali and Viola Davis won the Best Supporting Actor and Actress. Of the nine nominees of Best Picture, three were stories nominated by African-American actors and actresses, and "Moonlight" was the winner.
Ali also became the first Muslim actor to win an Oscar for his performance as Juan in "Moonlight".
Casey Affleck defeated Denzel Washington and won the Best Actor Award for his role in "Manchester by the Sea". Emma Stone won the Best Actress Award for "La La Land".
(L-R) Producers Jeremy Kleiner, Adele Romanski and director Barry Jenkins, winners of Best Picture "Moonlight", pose at press room of the 89th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, the United States, on Feb. 26, 2017. (Xinhua/Yang Lei)
"Zootopia" won the Best Animated Feature Film. The Best Foreign Language Film went to "The Salesman", whose director was absent from the ceremony in protest of the recent travel ban that President Donald Trump's administration imposed.
However, the ceremony was not as political as projected.
(L-R) Co-directors Byron Howard and Rich Moore and producer Clark Spencer, winners of Best Animated Feature Film "Zootopia", pose at press room of the 89th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, the United States, on Feb. 26, 2017. (Xinhua/Yang Lei)
Other than a few jokes Jimmy Kimmel made about President Trump, the ceremony did not have too much content related to the new president.
"I hope that the winners would keep politics out of ceremony, since the point is to recognize artistic merit and not serve as a press conference for various movement," Richard L. Anderson, an Oscar-winning sound editor, told Xinhua."
Sid Ganis, former president of the Academy, told Xinhua that the Academy was becoming more and more international.
"With members from 70 different countries and regions voted for their favorites this year, excellent new young filmmakers from the world are becoming members," Ganis said.
