The 89th Academy Awards, or “Oscars”, went on and off the screen with a bang, from Justin Timberlake’s opening act “Can’t Stop the Feeling” to the best picture award mix up between La La Land and Moonlight. The 2017 Oscars will go down as one of the most memorable, hilarious, and talented Oscars of all time. The host, Jimmy Kimmel, did a great job keeping the Oscars funny and lighthearted even though he couldn’t help himself when it came to Matt Damon, his “nemesis”.  It almost seemed that in every chance he got, Kimmel picked-on Damon to get a quick laugh. There were, of course, keeping with the Hollywood mindset, a lot of political stabs and jokes about President Trump. However, trying to stay positive, Kimmel did express this statement at the beginning of the show, “If every person watching this show took a minute to reach out to one person you disagree with, someone you like and have a positive, considerate conversation… not as liberals or conservatives but as Americans... we could make America great again! We really could; it starts with us.”

The first award was given to actor Mahershala Ali from Moonlight for best supporting actor. Best supporting actress was Viola Davis in Fences.  Davis gave the most powerful speech of the night stating, "Thank you Academy. You know, there's one place that all the people with the greatest potential are gathered. One place. And that's the graveyard. People ask me all the time: 'What kind of stories do you want to tell, Viola?' And I say… exhume those bodies. Exhume those stories. The stories of the people who dreamed big and never saw those dreams to fruition. People who fell in love and lost. I became an artist and thank God I did because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life.” Even Jimmy Kimmel thought her speech deserved an Oscar!

In between awards and commercials, music was performed by all the nominees for “Best Song”, which gave some much needed entertainment and variety to the extra-long show. For an added laugh, Jimmy Kimmel even surprised some Hollywood tourists by bringing them into the theater during the show! The tourists were so busy snapping selfies and pointing out celebrities, I thought they’d never get them out of the theater. I’m sure that’s one vacation tour they will never forget!

Some other main awards throughout the evening were best actor, best actress, best original screenplay, and the infamous best picture. Best actor went to Casey Affleck for Manchester by the Sea. He was speechless when his name was called but stumbled through thanking various people. Best actress was given to Emma Stone for La La Land. In her speech, she graciously thanked her co-star “…and Ryan Gosling, thank you for making me laugh and for always raising the bar and for being the greatest partner on this crazy adventure. To our whole crew, everyone that put their heart and soul into this film, I -- I'm going to find you all individually, and I'm going to thank you.” Best original screen play went to Kenneth Lonergon for writing Manchester by the Sea. In his acceptance speech, he thanked Casey Affleck and his whole cast repeatedly.

Finally, the best picture went to Moonlight after a major mix up brought the whole cast and crew of La La Land up front.  The Oscar trophies were handed out and the acceptance speeches were started when, two long minutes later, they discovered there was a problem-- the wrong movie was announced!  Moonlight was supposed to be given the Oscar for best picture. Surprisingly, the cast of La La Land were all good sports about giving their Oscars to the cast of Moonlight. The whole crowd was confused and speechless. It appeared to be a “technical difficulty” with the famous red envelopes, placing blame on the often-overlooked accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCooper, who caused the mix up. That firm has worked with the Academy Awards for 83 years and is “looking into” why the mix-up happened.

As always, the Academy Awards did not lack Hollywood drama.  In a hurried, impromptu closing after the 3 ½ hour show, Jimmy Kimmel took the blame and ended the night by saying, “Well, I don’t know what happened; I blame myself for this. Let’s remember, it’s just an award show.  I mean uh, we hate to see people disappointed, but the good news is we got to see some extra speeches. We have some great movies, um, I knew I would screw this show up, I really did. Thank you for watching.  I’m back to work tomorrow night to my regular show. I promise… I’ll never come back. Goodnight.”