Congratulations to This Year's First-Time Oscar Winners!
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All of this year's Oscar winners deserve a round of applause (particularly the men and women behind Moonlight), but we're especially excited to congratulate this year's first-time winners. Surprisingly, that includes all of the acting winners, plus some other major categories. Take a look to see which winners scored their very first Oscar and what else (if anything) they had been nominated for!
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Mahershala Ali
Ali has gained awards recognition before (he was nominated for an Emmy for his role on House of Cards), but he became the talk of the town thanks to Moonlight. After gaining his first Oscar nomination, he went on to beat out the likes of Jeff Bridges and Michael Shannon to take home the trophy.
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Viola Davis
Davis was nominated in 2009 and 2012 for Doubt and The Help, respectively, but her role in Fences earned the actress her first win!
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Casey Affleck
While he was nominated for best supporting actor in 2008 for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Affleck is a first-time winner thanks to his leading role in Manchester by the Sea.
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Emma Stone
Stone lost to Boyhood's Patricia Arquette in 2015, when she was up for supporting actress for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). While Birdman went on to win best picture, 2017 marks the La La Land star's first individual win!
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Damien Chazelle
La La Land's Chazelle became the youngest winner of the best director Oscar in 2017. While he didn't win, he was also up for best adapted screenplay in 2015 for his first major film, Whiplash.
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Tarell Alvin McCraney and Barry Jenkins
Moonlight was the work of two geniuses: McCraney, who wrote the play that the story was based on, and director Jenkins, who adapted the screenplay. Both of the first-time nominees/winners deserve credit for the best adapted screenplay win as well as Moonlight's historic best picture win!
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Kenneth Lonergan
Writer/director Lonergan knocked it out of the park with Manchester by the Sea. While he lost out on best director, he walked away with his first win: best original screenplay.