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Oscars: See the award ceremony's most memorable moments over the years

There have been some inspiring, amazing and awkward moments at the Oscars over the years

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Emmy Griffiths
TV & Film Editor
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This year the Academy Awards will celebrate its 91st anniversary, and what an incredible 91 years it has been. From amazing speeches to stunning gowns and surprise wins to sweeping up the awards, you never quite know what is going to happen at one of these incredibly special evenings. Of course, the show has also had its fair share of mishaps as well! See the award ceremony's most memorable moments over the years here…

READ: Why we are all obsessed with Richard E. Grant

Snow White received a life-size statuette and seven miniatures

In a special twist to the Oscar statuette, when Walt Disney was awarded an honorary Oscar for the film, they gave him one standard Oscar, and seven miniature ones to signify each of the seven dwarfs! It was certainly fitting for Walt, who earned 59 Oscar nominations over the course of his career, and won 22.

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Ben Affleck and Matt Damon win big together

Ben and Matt have always been close friends and collaborators, and perhaps one of their biggest successes was their first. Their film Good Will Hunting, which they wrote while at drama school, became a massive success critically and commercially, and was nominated for nine Oscars. The pair won for Best Original Screenplay when Ben was just 25 and Matt was 27. Ben remains the youngest person to ever win an Academy Award for screenwriting.

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When actors take it one step too far with their outfits

Of course, when you're a Hollywood A-lister presenting the Best Makeup award, you probably should go all out! Ben Stiller certainly did when he dressed as a Na'vi from Avatar. Whoopi Goldberg also presented an award dressed as Queen Elizabeth I, and Billy Crystal scared the audience with his Hannibal Lecter look!

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The historical error of the envelopes

If anything marked the ceremony of the Oscars 2017, it was the massive error that will go in history where the wrong film was read out as Best Picture. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were given the wrong card, and pronounced La La Land as the winner. Although the crew of the popular musical film burst out in jubilation and took the stage to celebrate their big night, it was actually the Barry Jenkins' film Moonlight that scooped up the big prize. The producer of La La Land, Jordan Horowitz, discovered the error and announced it to the audience, and the two casts swapped places, thus concluding the most notorious error in the history of the Oscars.

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Grace Kelly won the Oscar in 1955

Prior to becoming the Princess of Monaco in 1956, the late royal won an Oscar for her role in The Country Girl. That same year, the actress travelled to the Cannes Film Festival to present the film and it was there when newspaper editor Pierre Galante came up with the idea of organising a photo shoot of Grace with her future husband, Prince Rainier of Monaco. The couple's first meeting took place on 6 April 1955. The pair were engaged nine months later.  

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Taking a tumble

Jennifer Garner was dressed head to toe in Michael Kors with vintage jewellery from Cartier, valued at roughly £663,000, when she slid on the floor while presenting the Oscar for Best Sound Editing in 2006. She laughed off the small mishap, but it became the most talked about moment of the evening. In 2013, Jennifer Lawrence outdid her fellow actress by actually falling on the steps of the Oscars stage, and held her head in her hand for a moment of embarrassment before delivering her speech.

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Julia Roberts' memorable speech

Julia captured everyone's attention at the 2001 Oscars, not only because of her stunning Valentino black velvet vintage dress, but for the speech she made when collecting the Oscar for her role in Erin Brockovich. The Academy reportedly promised a giant flat-screen TV for the actor offering the shortest speech, however the Notting Hill actress ignored the offer and took advantage of her moment. She joked: "I already have one, so I'm going to have a good time to say some things, because I'll probably never be here again."

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Leonardo DiCaprio FINALLY wins an Oscar

After five nominations and plenty of Internet memes, Leonardo finally won an Oscar in 2016 for his role in The Revenant. It was spectacular to see the entire Dolby Theatre standing and applauding Leo after all of his nominations. His friend and Titanic co-star Kate Winslet was beside herself with his win, and teared up in the crowd during his speech.

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Films that won the most Oscars

In 1997, Titanic won 11 Academy Awards out of the 14 that it was nominated for. Before then only 1959's Ben-Hur had achieved the same amount. In 2003, The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King made history by winning all of its nominations and taking eleven awards.

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Meryl Streep's winning streak

Meryl is the most nominated actress in Oscar history, with her first nomination for The Hunter in 1979. Since then, she hasn't spent more than five years without being nominated for the Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress awards. The star won her last Oscar in 2012 for her role as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Her other two statuettes were for Best Supporting Actress in 1980 for Kramer against Kramer and in 1983 for Sophie's Choice.

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1998's memorable year

Anna Paquin and Roberto Benigni gave us two amazing moments in Oscars history! At only 11 years old, Anna won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in The Piano, and drew laughter from the audience after she was lost for words in front of the microphone. Roberto also amused the crowd after winning an Oscar for Life is Beautiful; and reacted by standing on his chair in celebration.

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The most famous 'selfie' of the Oscars

Cheese! Thanks to this word, some of the most talented actors in the world joined in on a selfie with Ellen DeGeneres, who undoubtedly managed to make everyone feel at ease in this group image. The presenter managed to get Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Bradley Cooper and Lupita Nyong'o into the snap before posting it on Twitter. In just one hour the photo was shared by more than two million people and the network collapsed. What an achievement!

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Memorable outfits

During the last 90 years of Oscar ceremonies, the red carpet has witnessed the glamour and elegance of the stars that have paraded through it. However some looks have certainly stayed in our minds, even years later. For example, who could forget Björk's swan dress, or Cher's extravagant feather headdress?

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The youngest actress to be nominated

At only nine years old, Quvenzhané Wallis was the youngest actress in history to achieve an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role in Beasts of the Wild South. Although she could not take the prize, she won us over with her adorable gown for the ceremony, complete with a bag in the shape of a dog. At the time, she said: "I'm happy, excited to be here. Although you never think that something like this will happen at my age."

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