One reason many people are apprehensive about sitting down and watching the Academy Awards (often a 4+ hour event) is that film and cinematography can seem, at times, too high-brow to be relevant or as relevant as award ceremonies like the Grammy Awards or the Emmys. In addition, it is a little harder to work in engaging performances for the Oscars than it is for, say, the Grammys, which is all about music and musical performances. However, this year, the Oscars included amazing performances, fantastic nominees, Jimmy Kimmel's unique brand of dry humor, Trump roasts, and a lot of important discussion about representation in film. If you didn't watch the 89th Academy Awards (or even if you did), this list of highlights should give you a feel for what the star-studded night was like this year.
1. Justin Timberlake's Opening Number
Everyone in the house was getting down to this high-energy performance of "Can't Stop the Feeling," which had super cool choreography, by the way.
Watch the full performance here.
2. Kimmel's Opening Monologue
Besides throwing shade at Matt Damon and poking fun at some of the nominees, Kimmel commented on the current political climate while still keeping it light. He finished his speech by mocking Trump and orchestrating a standing ovation for "underrated" actress Meryl Streep.
Watch Kimmel's monologue here.
3. Mahershala Ali's First Oscar
Mahershala Ali took the first Oscar of the night for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He remained extremely gracious and humble, giving thanks to his teachers and his wife, and attributing his success to the concept that an actor's responsibility is to the character, not to himself.
Watch Mahershala Ali's acceptance speech here.
4. Katherine Johnson
Before presenting the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, the women from Hidden Figures (Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe) brought Katherine Johnson, former NASA mathematician and the inspiration for Hidden Figures, onto the stage. In response to all the praise, Johnson, 98, said a simple, "Thank you very much."
5. Performances from "Moana"
After a humorous introduction from The Rock, who plays Maui in Moana, Lin-Manuel Miranda rapped an original introduction to his original song "How Far I'll Go," which was then beautifully sung by Auli'i Cravalho, who (very professionally) continued to sing when a dancer accidentally hit her in the head.
Watch the entire performance here.
6. Viola Davis's Speech
After winning the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her part in Fences, Viola Davis gave a beautiful, moving speech in which she lauded acting as the one profession that celebrates living a life.
Watch Viola Davis's acceptance speech here.
7. Prominent Iranian-Americans Accepted Oscar for Asghar Farhadi
Two successful Iranian-American scientists, Anousheh Ansari and Firouz Naderi, accepted the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film on behalf of Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who chose not to go to the Oscars in order to protest Donald Trump’s recent travel ban.
Watch Ansari, a prominent business woman in addition to being an astronaut and engineer, deliver Farhadi’s statement here.
8. Sting's Emotional Performance
Just after the acceptance of Farhadi's Oscar, Dev Patel introduced Sting. The artist performed his Oscar-nominated original song “The Empty Chair” from documentary Jim: The James Foley Story, a documentary about journalist James Foley, who was working as a correspondent during the Syrian Civil War. Foley worked hard to make the Syrian people’s hardships known, but he was tragically captured and killed by ISIS terrorists for doing this noble work.
Watch here.
9. Tourists Meet Celebrities
In a humorous prank-like bit, Jimmy Kimmel arranged to surprise a group of tourists by bringing them to the Academy Awards to meet celebrities. However, those tourists thought they were seeing a special exhibit of Oscar dresses and gowns. The result was as oddly entertaining as anticipated.
Watch here.
10. Seth Rogen's Tribute
Rogen payed tribute to Back to the Future, a movie that inspired him in a lot of ways, and took the stage with Back to the Future star Michael J. Fox. They entered in a DeLorean (with Rogen in "future shoes") and, to top it all of, gave a hilarious rendition of "The Schuyler Sisters" from Hamilton.
Watch this moment here.
11. Kimmel Tweeted at Trump
Joking about the fact that Trump had not tweeted about the Academy Awards or the nominees all night, Kimmel tweeted, "Hey @realDonaldTrump u up?" and "@realDonaldTrump #Merylsayshi."
Watch Kimmel tweet from the Oscars here.
12. Mean Tweets
Playing off of his previous stunt of tweeting Trump, Kimmel had Oscar nominees read mean tweets about themselves. By doing an Academy Awards version of Mean Tweets, Kimmel brought a popular segment from his talk show to the big screen.
Watch the Oscars edition of Mean Tweets here.
13. Performances from "La La Land"
John Legend sang two beautiful songs from La La Land ("City of Stars" and "Audition") while dancers did beautiful choreography on the stage around him.
Watch the full performance here.
14. Emma Stone's First Oscar
Emma Stone won her very first Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She expressed gratitude to her fellow nominees, who she praised as women she admires and looks up to, and to the Academy as well as her family. To close her speech, she also emphasized the importance of continuing to grow through hard work.
Watch Emma Stone's acceptance speech here.
15. "Moonlight" Mix-Up
When it finally came time to announce the Academy Award for Best Picture, the presenters read, "La La Land" from the envelope they were given. While the people involved in La La Land were giving their acceptance speech, it was revealed that the wrong card had been read and the real winner was Moonlight, a true masterpiece. The people from Moonlight gave a wonderful speech about representation being able to inspire marginalized people and closed the Academy Awards on that very important note.
Watch here.
In conclusion...
This year, the Academy Awards was filled with humor and entertaining performances. The stage was graced not only by the presence of the nominees, but also by that of amazing scientists. Lastly, and most significantly, the 89th Oscars was filled with talk of hope, representation, and societal change for the better.
