The 2017 Academy Award Winners!

The winners of my "favorite categories" at the 89th Academy Awards ceremony from last night are...!

Best Picture

• Arrival
• Fences
• Hacksaw Ridge
• Hell or High Water
• Hidden Figures
• La La Land
• Lion
• Manchester by the Sea
• Moonlight

Best Director

• Arrival (Denis Villeneuve)
• Hacksaw Ridge (Mel Gibson)
• La La Land (Damien Chazelle)
• Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan)
• Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)

Best Actor

• Manchester by the Sea (Casey Affleck)
• Hacksaw Ridge (Andrew Garfield)
• La La Land (Ryan Gosling)
• Captain Fantastic (Viggo Mortensen)
• Fences (Denzel Washington)

Best Actress

• Elle (Isabelle Huppert)
• Loving (Ruth Negga)
• Jackie (Natalie Portman)
• La La Land (Emma Stone)
• Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep)

Best Supporting Actor

• Moonlight (Mahershala Ali)
• Hell or High Water (Jeff Bridges)
• Manchester by the Sea (Lucas Hedges)
• Lion (Dev Patel)
• Nocturnal Animals (Michael Shannon)

Best Supporting Actress

• Fences (Viola Davis)
• Moonlight (Naomie Harris)
• Lion (Nicole Kidman)
• Hidden Figures (Octavia Spencer)
• Manchester by the Sea (Michelle Williams)

Best Original Screenplay

• Hell or High Water
• La La Land
• The Lobster
• Manchester by the Sea
• 20th Century Women

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Arrival
• Fences
• Hidden Figures
• Lion
• Moonlight

Best Animated Feature

• Kubo and the Two Strings 
• Moana
• My Life as a Zucchini
• The Red Turtle
• Zootopia

Best Production Design

• Arrival
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• Hail, Caesar!
• La La Land
• Passengers

Best Costume Design

• Allied
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• Florence Foster Jenkins
• Jackie
• La La Land

Best Cinematography

• Arrival
• La La Land
• Lion
• Moonlight
• Silence

Best Film Editing

• Arrival
• Hacksaw Ridge
• Hell or High Water
• La La Land
• Moonlight

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• A Man Called Ove
• Star Trek Beyond
• Suicide Squad

Best Original Score

• Jackie (Mica Levi)
• La La Land (Justin Hurwitz)
• Lion (Dustin O'Halloran and Hauschka)
• Moonlight (Nicholas Britell)
• Passengers (Thomas Newman)

Best Original Song

• La La Land ("Audition (The Fools Who Dream)")
• Trolls ("Can't Stop the Feeling!")
• La La Land ("City of Stars")
• Jim: The James Foley Story ("The Empty Chair")
• Moana ("How Far I'll Go")

Best Visual Effects

• Deepwater Horizon
• Doctor Strange
• The Jungle Book
• Kubo and the Two Strings
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Best Sound Mixing

• Arrival
• Hacksaw Ridge
• La La Land
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
• 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

Best Sound Editing

• Arrival
• Deepwater Horizon
• Hacksaw Ridge
• La La Land
• Sully

Beauty and the Beast: The Best Movie of 2017?

Following the start of spring semester at George Mason, I had always hoped that things would get better than last year. This week on Monday night, the second Beauty and the Beast trailer went online, and I was so excited that I clicked on the link to view it on the ComingSoon.net web article to see what else I can expect from the live-action version of the 1991 Disney animated classic.

As always, Emma Watson never fails to impress me with her beautiful accent which made me feel absolutely sure that she will deliver an enchanted performance as Belle like Lily James did as Cinderella. But by the time the theme song was heard, I was left with nothing but full of nostalgic happiness. From what I've learned about this new take from bringing back the original music and songs written by Alan Menken, along with the still-and-always faithful elements and the memorable scenes and exact quotes that everybody will surely notice when compared with the traditionally-animated film, it is possible that this year's Beauty and the Beast might be the biggest movie of 2017 until Star Wars: The Last Jedi! Hard to believe that Ariana Grande and John Legend would actually pull off singing such a timeless and magical song as Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson have!

While different as they may be from how we used to remember, I know that Emma Watson (Belle), Dan Stevens (The Beast), Ewan McGregor (Lumiere), Ian McKellen (Cogsworth), Emma Thompson (Mrs. Potts), Luke Evans (Gaston), Josh Gad (Lefou), and Kevin Kline (Maurice) will do an astounding job and bring back what made Beauty and the Beast a huge masterpiece in Disney history! The same way that last year's The Jungle Book have successfully achieved (aside from being a $966 million hit) by bringing our favorite lovable characters to life as anything but cartoon characters! I can only hope that Emma Watson will impress me with her singing voice in her musical number scenes and deliver the same kind of feeling we got from Paige O'Hara, as does the "Be Our Guest" sequence sung by Ewan McGregor's Lumiere! This will certainly be an enchanted tale as old as time once Spring Break begins in 2 months! I can't stop thinking about what my experience in seeing the first movie I've seen from my childbirth more than 25 years ago will be like when brought to life by live-action movie stars as opposed to the stars of the Broadway Musical Theatre! Emma Watson will always look so beautiful to me whether in her pink Yule Ball dress or in her gorgeous yellow dress! Bring it on!