A storyteller’s life is fueled by imagination wrapped in the realities of the human experience and then sharing their re-imaginings with the world.
The 89th Academy Awards helped share the essence of that Sunday night as we saw real stories filled with truth and emotion grace the screens. Fending off a year that stampeded Hollywood with #OscarsSoWhite, an attack on the academy’s lack of diversity, this year’s Oscars turned the tables and highlighted the brilliance of films Moonlight, Fences and Hidden Figures. History was made in several ways but there were also a few “wow” moments that we still don’t understand.
Below, we highlight a few ear-grabbing quotes and heart hitting reactions from the night:

Performance by actor in supporting role Male: Mahershala Ali for Moonlight
This marked Ali’s first nomination and win! The actor also made history as the first Muslim to win an Oscar. He was nearly in tears when he stepped up to receive his well-deserved honor.
Well deserved, #MahershalaAli! #Oscars pic.twitter.com/ZCFFziGTi4
— RollingOut (@RollingOut) February 27, 2017
“My grandma would want me to button up.” Teachers, professors, one thing that they consistently told me is that “It’s not about you. It’s about these characters. You’re in service to these stories and characters.”
Performance by actor in supporting role Female: Viola Davis for Fences
“There’s one place where all the people with the greatest people gather – and that’s the graveyard. I want to exhume the stories of the people who dreamed. Big. And never saw those dreams come 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.”
Congrats to #ViolaDavis – she’s the first Black actress to win an Emmy, Tony AND an #Oscar (for acting) – just one award away from an EGOT! pic.twitter.com/ssYeEKqQq0
— EBONY MAGAZINE (@EBONYMag) February 27, 2017
Best Adapted Screenplay – Tarell McCraney and Barry Jenkins for Moonlight based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue
This marked the first nomination and win for the duo!
“Be in love with the process, not the results.” – Barry Jenkins
We still do not understand how Denzel Washington lost “Best Actor” to Casey Affleck.
It was a sure surprise that once again the brilliance of Denzel Washington went without a trophy for his adaptation, direction and lead acting in the award-winning screenplay Fences, from the August Wilson play of the same name. Washington was snubbed and the Oscar went to actor Casey Affleck for Manchester By The Sea. Spike Lee, who directed the legendary star in Malcolm X, where he was also snubbed of an Oscar, couldn’t let that pass without expressing his true feelings about the scenario.
Speak Spike!
Via @SpikeLee on IG: Lighting Strikes For The Second Time. Robbed For The Second Time. Dats Da Truth, Ruth. By Any Means Necessary. #Oscars pic.twitter.com/tfrq5DifFl
— EBONY MAGAZINE (@EBONYMag) February 27, 2017
The result left “Uncle Denzel” in tears. And we totally understand, we shed a few as well.
The most notable moment of the night came during the announcement of the Best Picture.
Steve Harvey reacts to #Oscars Best Picture mix-up: “What’d I miss?”: https://t.co/QL6qLgeXRe pic.twitter.com/FOSHMxxsPH
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) February 27, 2017
But in the end… Moonlight won it baby!
This was literally me when they announced La La Land and then Moonlight really won pic.twitter.com/9ztFCH8ZNG
— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) February 27, 2017
“But to hell w/ dreams, I’m done w/ it because this is true” – Barry Jenkins on #Moonlight‘s Surprising #Oscars win: https://t.co/oIxAJuDfPq pic.twitter.com/V44ljJRNYq
— EBONY MAGAZINE (@EBONYMag) February 27, 2017
Whaaaaaaa??!congratulations Moonlight! My favorite #Oscars in memory!!
— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) February 27, 2017
As we watched and celebrated alongside Mahershala, Viola and the entire cast of Moonlight, a line from Chicago artist, theMIND’s album Summercamp, was on mental replay: “we’re bigger than they told us we were.”
A post shared by The Art Of Blackness (@theartofblackness) on
Congratulations!