The Rises and Slumps of the 90th Annual Academy Awards

This January 16, 2016 photo shows the four Academy Award statuettes Katharine Hepburn received during her career. The actress won the Best Actress Oscar for her roles in 1933’s “Morning Glory,” 1967’s “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” 1968’s “The Lion in Winter,” and 1981’s “On Golden Pond.”

The 90th Annual Academy Awards took place at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, and it provided a lot highlights and memories for most audiences to remember.

Nominees for the awards were announced January 23 among 24 different categories, with The Shape of Water having the most nominations at 13. Dunkirk was nominated for eight Oscars, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri had seven nominations.

To start the show off, host Jimmy Kimmel gave an impressive monologue by taking jabs at last year’s mix-up when La La Land was incorrectly announced as Best Picture, while also going into more controversial topics like the recent sexual harassment cases in Hollywood and the Time’s Up movement.

Sam Rockwell won the first Oscar award of the night for Best Supporting Actor. He played the role of troubled police officer Jason Dixon in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Mark Bridges won the Oscar for Best Costume Design for his work in Phantom Thread. He previously won in the same category for the 2011 film The Artist. Bridges made further headlines after he won a free jet ski presented in the style of The Price is Right at the beginning of the ceremony. The designer told Entertainment Tonight that his 36-second speech was actually supposed to be longer.

“That was an accident,” Bridges said. “I really had things to say… I forgot a sentence and now look – I got me and Helen Mirren on a jet ski and now I have a jet ski.”

Film directors Bryan Fogel and Dan Cogan won the next Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Their movie, Icarus, consists of Fogel and a Russian scientist coming across an Olympic cheating scandal and finding out about Russia’s secret doping program for sports.

Rita Moreno made quite an entrance when she announced the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, which went to director Sebastián Lelio for his film A Fantastic Woman, which features a transgender woman attempting to fight for her right to be herself. It was the first movie from Chile to win the award.

Allison Janney, a versatile name in both film and TV, won her first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Tonya Harding’s mother, LaVona Golden in the biographical movie I, Tonya, which follows the life of the famed figure skater and her connection to the attack of Nancy Kerrigan during the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

“I did it all by myself,” Janney joked during her acceptance speech. “Okay, nothing further from the truth.”

Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac, and Kelly Marie Tran from Star Wars: The Last Jedi announced the Oscars that were awarded for animation, with a cameo appearance by BB-8. The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film was won by Dear Basketball, which is based of a letter Kobe Bryant wrote to the Players’ Tribune while announcing his retirement from the NBA. Later on, Lee Unkrich and Darla K. Anderson won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature for their work on Coco. This was Disney’s sixth consecutive win in this category, and the ninth win overall for Pixar.

Coco would later go on to win a second Academy Award for Best Original Song, with “Remember Me,” which was used a couple of times throughout the film’s runtime.

Despite the movie’s low box-office turnout, Blade Runner 2049 won the Oscar for both Best Visual Effects and Best Cinematography. The latter award was accepted by Roger Deakins, who was nominated 13 previous times for his work in movies like The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, and Skyfall.

Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405 received the Academy Award for the Best Documentary – Short Subject. The movie is centered on a woman named Mindy Alper, who turns her struggles with anxiety into works of art.

For Best Live Action Short Film, the award was won by The Silent Child, which is based off of actress Rachel Shenton’s own experiences as the daughter of a parent who became deaf. Shenton plays the role of a social worker who teaches a young girl who’s deaf to use sign language to communicate with others.

The history books for the Oscars were rewritten after 89-year-old James Ivory became the oldest Academy Award winner upon accepting the Best Adapted Screenplay award for Call Me by Your Name. The Best Original Screenplay award was won by Jordan Peele for writing Get Out, making him the first African-American to win the award in that category.

Darkest Hour, a film about Winston Churchill and his first days in office during World War II, won the Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. Gary Oldman, who played Churchill in the movie, won the Oscar for Best Actor.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri won its second Academy Award of the night, with Frances McDormand winning for Best Actress. She previously won the award for playing Marge Gunderson in Fargo. While McDormand delivered her speech, she called on every woman in the building to stand up and remind them that they have stories to tell and projects that need financing.

“I have two words to leave with you tonight, ladies and gentlemen; inclusion rider,” McDormand said to conclude her speech with much applause.

The Oscars for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing all went to the blockbuster Dunkirk. The film ended up walking away with the second-most awards of the night, with three.

The Shape of Water ended up winning four Oscars at show’s end for Best Production Design, Best Original Score, Best Director with Guillermo de Toro, and Best Picture. For the latter, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway presented the award for the second consecutive year, this time without incident. The new black envelope even read “Best Picture” in large, gold print to prevent confusion.

As time went on, however, the Oscars couldn’t slip past a couple of surprises and controversies.

Jimmy Kimmel, Gal Gadot, and a bunch of Oscar presenters and nominees crashed a screening of A Wrinkle in Time at a nearby theater, while also bringing a giant sandwich and hot dog cannons with them. One lucky moviegoer even got the opportunity to introduce Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph to the Oscar stage, who in turn were going to announce the winners for Best Documentary Short Subject and Best Live Action Short Film.

Meanwhile, many people who support the #MeToo movement weren’t pleased at some of the results. After two notable people won their Oscars, they decided to comment on their past offenses.

Best Actor winner Gary Oldman was accused of allegedly choking his ex-wife while she was trying to call 911 in a case that went back 17 years ago, but he has since denied all allegations and the charges against him were dropped. Kobe Bryant, on the other hand, was charged for sexual assault on a hotel employee back in 2003. After many sponsorship deals were terminated, Bryant’s case was dismissed when the accuser refused to testify. He later apologized to her for the incident and settled for an undisclosed amount in a separate civil lawsuit.

This also marks the fourth consecutive year that ratings for the Oscars have dropped. 26.5 million people watched the live telecast on ABC, not including those who have watched the show live on their digital and mobile devices, making this the lowest rated Academy Awards in recent memory.

In the meantime, the Academy Awards will continue to strive amongst film audiences and moviegoers for generations to come.