Jimmy Kimmel graced us with his presence to host the evening, and as you might expect the night was full of inappropriate jokes and the bullying of Matt Damon (they have a thing).
Everything seemed to be going very smoothly until the evening took a turn for the worse as the last award of the night was incorrectly read out, resulting in what can only be described as onstage pandemonium as we watched the La La Land cast give away their shiny new Oscars to the Moonlight cast, who were the actual winners; dramatic to say the least, but that’s show business for you.
Best Supporting Actor
Winner: Mahershala Ali
The Cinematic Explorer Pick: Lucas Hedges
Though Moonlight was more than deserving of the win, this being one of Lucas Hedges’ very first performances, I can’t help but feel Manchester By The Sea has been somewhat neglected this awards season. Especially when given the emotional depth Hedges’ threw into his essentially orphaned character.
Best Makeup and Hair-styling
Winner: Suicide Squad
The Cinematic Explorer Pick: Suicide Squad
Fair play to the Suicide Squad for going against all odds and actually picking up a prize, though admittedly, not what one would perhaps consider a worthwhile award for the films reputation.
Best Costume Design
Winner: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
The Cinematic Explorer Pick: Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them
This film was totally deserving of the award, after all, pulling off the look of the American Wizarding World in the early 20th century is no easy feat.
Best Sound Editing
Winner: Arrival
The Cinematic Explorer Pick: Sully
Alien noises may be the winning sound according to the Academy Awards, but I would personally say that recreating the sound of a plane crash was a little bit more of a difficult task.
Best Sound Mixing
Winner: Hacksaw Ridge
The Cinematic Explorer Pick: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
I have no real reason for picking this as my winner except from the fact that I really enjoy listening to the Star Wars soundtracks whilst studying.
Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Viola Davis – Fences
The Cinematic Explorer Pick: Viola Davis -Fences
After that remarkable acceptance speech she gave at the Oscars, I can’t but feel she is deserving of the award; what a woman. I would have given her an award based on that speech alone.
Best Animated Feature
Winner: Zootopia
The Cinematic Explorer Pick: Zootopia
Yes, finally, this film, with all its tiny and beautifully produced details has been recognised. I can’t even begin to explain how happy I am that it has managed to stand up against the likes of Moana.
Best Production Design
Winner: La La Land
The Cinematic Explorer Pick: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
If it seems like I’m obsessed with the Fantastic Beasts film, it’s because I am. Quite frankly I’m struggling to understand how it didn’t win the award considering the production designers literally brought an imaginary world to fruition.
Best Visual Effects
Winner: The Jungle Book
The Cinematic Explorer Pick: The Jungle Book
I wholeheartedly concur with this decision. The time and effort that went into creating The Jungle Book is nothing short of inspiring, especially when the outcome of the production was so flawless.
Best Film Editing
Winner: Hacksaw Ridge
The Cinematic Explorer Pick: Moonlight
With explosions and body parts flying everywhere I’m sure that the editing process for Hacksaw Ridge wasn’t exactly easy, but I still think Moonlight should have taken the award.
Moonlight spans three generations and so the editing process must have been extremely demanding, and yet still the movement from one to scene to the next flows seamlessly.
Best Song
Winner: Audition – La La Land
The Cinematic Explorer Pick: How Far I’ll Go – Moana
It is of course not surprising to me that La La Land took the award, but I had hoped that Moana would have been honoured for its original songs.
Best Original Screenplay
Winner: Manchester by the Sea
The Cinematic Explorer: Manchester by the Sea
This award was utterly deserved, what a film. Not only does it tackle the fragility of family but is unwavering in it’s use of inexhaustible emotion.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Winner: Moonlight
The Cinematic Explorer Pick: Hidden Figures
Hidden Figures was based on a historical biopic that inspires and delights it’s viewers and it should have, in my opinion, taken this award.
Best Director
Winner: Damien Chazelle – La La Land
The Cinematic Explorer Pick: Damien Chazelle – La La Land
You know what, this one time, I actually agree that La La Land deserved to win. Damien is only 35 years of age, making him the youngest director in history to win the award, which I think is thoroughly deserved given the success of the film.
Best Actor
Winner: Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea
The Cinematic Explorer Pick: Viggo Mortensen – Captain Fantastic
Why oh why can’t they just give an award to Captain Fantastic already?! It’s such a great film, and it really has gone under the radar in terms of awards this year. Mortensen definitely deserved to win this.
Best Actress
Winner: Emma Stone – La La Land
The Cinematic Explorer Pick: Meryl Streep – Florence Foster Jenkins
Meryl was so brilliant in Florence Foster Jenkins that it genuinely annoys me that La La Land outshone her on this occasion.
Best Picture (Otherwise known as the most awkward award of the night)
Winner: La La Land
Winner: Moonlight
The Cinematic Explorer Pick: Fences
Two words: Viola Davis.
The Cinematic Explorer 