$1,600 if you can tell us who took office as the 19th president of the US in 1877.

Don't feel bad — we had to look it up, too. 

But for Ken Jennings, the president's name — Rutherford B. Hayes — was easy to produce. It was June, 2004 and the first of 74 "Jeopardy" games Jennings would go on to win.

It wasn't as though Jennings was especially interested in or knowledgeable about US presidential history. But he'd found a way to make memorizing obscure facts a little easier using a strategy he calls "links in a chain."

Here's how Jennings explained the technique. 

He started with the president's name: Hayes. That reminded him of the song "Purple Haze," which reminded him of someone playing on a trombone. Then he thought of the play "76 Trombones," which led him to remember that Hayes was president in the 1870s. 

"It's just like a pulling a wallet chain out of your pocket; you're sort of reeling it in and finally the wallet comes out, but you had to go through a few steps to get there," he told Business Insider.

The "links in a chain" technique points to an overall principle Jennings learned while preparing for "Jeopardy": Information is easier to remember when you can link it to something you already know.

Today, Jennings is a freelance writer; he's written several books for kids and adults and is currently finishing up another. He recently partnered with employee-learning platform Bridge by Instructure to create an online course about memory skills. 

Jennings also recommended telling yourself a story about the obscure fact and an idea you're already familiar with.

Here's another presidential example: If you want to remember that John Quincy Adams was elected in 1824, you might tell yourself a story about the television character "Quincy" who worked a 24-hour shift.

The idea is to have fun and get a little weird — unless you're being interviewed for an article, you don't have to tell anyone what your personal links in a chain are. As long as they help you remember the information, they work.

SEE ALSO: How to memorize every US president's name in less than an hour

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A national memory champion reveals an easy way to remember a speech

When television producer Mark Burnett called Daymond John in 2008 to ask if he'd like to be on the upcoming series "Shark Tank," it was the perfect time in John's career for something new.

His clothing company FUBU was bringing in $300 million in revenue at its peak, but its popularity waned in the early 2000s. John had investments in about 10 different fashion companies, and all but two or three were severely hurt by the recession.

When Burnett called, John was already considering branching out into different industries. He took the job and the show debuted the next year.

Eight years later, John manages more than 60 "Shark Tank" companies through his company The Shark Group, and recently started a new co-working space company, Blueprint + co, partially as a way to build relationships with more seasoned entrepreneurs.

Business Insider recently met John at the New York high-rise that houses both The Shark Group and Blueprint + co, to discuss what he's learned in the past eight years as a Shark. We've also added a couple more insights from his 2016 book "The Power of Broke."

There's a lot to learn from young entrepreneurs.

John and the other Sharks are typically more hands-on than most investors, and look to partner with entrepreneurs they can mentor. But John also found that he's learning as much from his best entrepreneurs as they are from him, especially young ones — like Scholly founder Christopher Gray, who's in his early 20s.

"There are kids who are 18 years old who are communicating in a whole different way and you need to understand what's going on in their minds," John said. "How are they communicating and sharing these messages, and how can you convert that to sales?"

Companies benefit from social causes.

The model of "buy one, have one donated" popularized by TOMS shoe company has spread to many other industries, including one of John's favorite "Shark Tank" investments, Bombas socks.

"Nowadays you shouldn't have a company that is not contributing in some fashion or form or sense to a cause, because the people today who buy a product, they want to know what have you done for somebody else lately," John said.

Analytics can cut costs.

John works with his "Shark Tank" startups to run as efficiently as possible, and he's realized that "granular" online analytics can be used to keep a company focused on its target customers, and produce what they are buying, rather than producing a money-wasting stock of unsold products.

A reliable team is essential.

There's no way John could keep a close eye on each of his "Shark Tank" investments, and it's why he hires about two new Shark Group employees each season.

When John first joined the show, he was losing money on consultants and temporary employees, before he realized a close-knit, permanent team of specialists not only benefited him, but gave his entrepreneurs better guidance.

Emotions are dangerous when making deals.

In his book "The Power of Broke," John explained that when he joined "Shark Tank," he found himself getting caught up in the excitement of a bidding war with his fellow investors, even if he was seeing something he normally wouldn't want to invest in. He realized he needed to keep a steady head when considering a deal, and not let a competitive spirit or an impulse override logic.

Throwing money at a problem doesn't solve it.

In "The Power of Broke," he wrote that he lost $750,000 the first season of "Shark Tank" because he would make impulsive investments and then think he could turn around a poor company by continually injecting it with capital. He was doing the same with his own business, as well.

"I lost a bunch of money because I found myself making decisions in ways I'd never made them before," he wrote. "I was spread thin, with all these new demands on my time, so a lot of times I would just throw money at a problem and hope that would take care of it. But of course, that's not how it works, right?"

SEE ALSO: 'Shark Tank' star Daymond John looks for 5 traits before making an investment

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 'Shark Tank' star Daymond John: Making products in the US could cost consumers 25-30% more

Hollywood’s biggest night, the Academy Awards ceremony, goes down on Sunday. After months of talk about the movies lining up to be the frontrunners and millions of dollars spent by studios to campaign for them, we will finally get some closure.

"La La Land" leads the field with a record-tying 14 nominations, and we expect it to take home many of those Oscars. But there are titles including "Moonlight" and "Hidden Figures" that could play spoilers.

Then there's the best actor category, which is shaping up to be one of the night's most interesting toss-ups, as it is expected to be a two-way race between Casey Affleck for "Manchester by the Sea" and Denzel Washington for "Fences."

Here are our predictions of who will win the 2017 Oscars and who could win:

The Academy Awards air on ABC on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET/4 PT.

SEE ALSO: 26 stars who shockingly still don't have Oscars

Best original score

What will win: "La La Land"
Get ready: This title will most likely get called a lot on Oscar night. And it's difficult to see a beloved musical walk away without being recognized for its score.

What could win: "Moonlight"
If there is a spoiler it's the moving strings in "Moonlight." The movie could also pull off some upsets throughout the night.

Best original song

What will win: "City of Stars" ("La La Land")
Again, it's the music that's the backbone of "La La Land," and this is a main piece.

What could win: "How Far I'll Go" ("Moana")
If Academy voters are feeling in a history-setting mood, they may go with Lin-Manuel Miranda's song. The win would make the "Hamilton" star the youngest person ever to win the famed EGOT.

Best editing

What will win: "Arrival"
Editing is important in every movie, but the use of it to deliver the powerful ending in "Arrival" should be recognized.

What could win: "Moonlight"
Used as a way to jump us forward in time with the blink of an eye, the editing in "Moonlight" is also top-notch.

I spent almost two years researching a new audio setup for my house. By way of background, I don't own any TVs and although we pay for a variety of video-steaming services, I don't watch them all that much (everybody else does, on laptops, tablets, and iPhones).

However, I do listen to a lot of music. Before I moved from Los Angeles a couple of years ago, I had a kind of evolving hybrid old-school/new-school audio setup. At any given time, there was a component hi-fi stereo plus a Wi-Fi streaming rig and of course the car radio. There were CDs and even some survivors from my once-vast vinyl record collection. There were cassette tapes. There were iTunes libraries and a stray iPod or two.

When I came back to New York, I decided to commit to a simple Bluetooth setup. So for a while, it was iPhone + Bluetooth speaker. But it wasn't a very good Bluetooth speaker. I missed the old component configuration I had lugged around for two decades, in the 1980s and 1990s. I realized that I wanted to listen to music and have it sound good.

So began the quest. Fortunately, I wasn't in a hurry. And I had reference points. It boiled down to whether I had in mind a static or dynamic listening experience. Or perhaps better stated as stationary or ambient. 

A key point of reference was my father-in-law's budget audiophile arrangement, with NAD components mated to a pair of excellent Ohm speakers. Good sounds!

But to really enjoy that setup — which I was familiar with from my own systems — you have to commit to sitting in a chair or on a couch, figuring out how to best position the speakers, and in this day and age go for an amplifier-turntable-speakers rig and start rebuilding the vinyl. It's also a wired system, so there are, you know ... wires.

The listening experience is unparalleled, of course. But as I worked through my options, I realized that I don't listen to music that way anymore — unless I'm in a car, where I get to sample no end of multi-speaker, high-end audio systems.

We listen to music holistically, and we want to fill our house with it. So you can probably guess where I'm heading here.

Yep, we took the Sonos plunge. But what an odyssey it was before we finally made that decision!

SEE ALSO: The best audio system I've ever heard in a car also sounds amazing at home

We have a kind of medium-sized, three-story house, with small and medium-sized rooms. Acoustically, the living room or family room is quite good, but it's also not an ideal place in which to locate an elaborate audio system.

We had been making do with a group of Bluetooth speakers. We had some old component systems and some refugee speakers, but they weren't going to work as the main rig.

I used to own about 500 vinyl records. But I sold them and made the switch to digital, not always with great results, audio-wise. So I explored setting up a new, vinyl-centric system.

There's no doubt about it: The Oscars are flawed. Sometimes movies that arguably deserve their due more than another, or movies that simply don't generate enough hype, go unnoticed and unrecognized with nothing more than a pity nomination. Or no nomination at all. We'll see all of that at this year's Oscars, airing on February 26.

Then there are the just terrible movies and performances that somehow manage to snag the envible trophy. 

There's a long list of actors, directors, and more who you probably think have an Oscar, but don't. Some of them have been nominated dozens of times. Some a few times. And some, tragically, not at all. 

Here we take a look at some of Hollywood's finest who somehow haven't won an Oscar already:

SEE ALSO: Hollywood stars who rejected their Oscars

Glenn Close

Between 1983 and 2012, Close has gotten herself six Oscar nominations. Her last nomination in 2012 was for “Albert Knobbs.”

Sigourney Weaver

Ripley herself got a best actress nomination for “Alien” but didn’t win. She also got a best actress nomination for “Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey” and a best supporting actress nod for "Working Girl." Weaver has said that awards shows give sci-fi films "no respect."

Annette Bening

Three nominations, yet she always gets beat by another powerful performance. Her latest nomination was in 2011 for "The Kids Are Alright." She lost to Natalie Portman for her performance in "Black Swan." In 2017, she was snubbed with no nomination for her acclaimed work in "20th Century Women."

Hollywood's finest came out for the 89th annual Academy Awards ceremony Sunday night at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Stars on the red carpet include Scarlett Johansson, Michelle Williams, Janelle Monáe (it's her first Oscars), Ryan Gosling, and Justin Timberlake and wife Jessica Biel.

Silver, gold, and white gowns turned out to be one of the biggest trends of the night. 

See the best looks from actors and celebrities:

SEE ALSO: 26 stars who shockingly still don't have Oscars

Felicity Jones

Isabelle Huppert

Jackie Chan

The 89th Academy Awards are taking place Sunday night, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on ABC. Critical darlings and hits including "La La Land," "Moonlight," and "Hidden Figures" are vying to take the top honors in Hollywood.

Below are all the Oscar winners from the live telecast, which we'll update as the show goes on: 

Best Original Song

"Audition (The Fools Who Dream)," "La La Land"

"Can't Stop the Feeling," "Trolls"

"City of Stars," "La La Land" - WINNER

"The Empty Chair," "Jim: The James Foley Story"

"How Far I'll Go," "Moana"

Best Cinematography

"Arrival"

"La La Land" - WINNER

"Lion"

"Moonlight"

"Silence"

Best Original Score

"Jackie"

"Passengers"

"La La Land" - WINNER

"Lion"

"Moonlight"

Best Animated Feature

"Kubo and the Two Strings"

"Moana"

"My Life as a Zucchini"

"The Red Turtle"

"Zootopia" - WINNER

Best Foreign Language Film

"A Man Called Ove"

"Land of Mine"

"Tanna"

"The Salesman" - WINNER

 "Toni Erdmann"

Best Supporting Actress

Viola Davis, "Fences" - WINNER

Michelle Williams, "Manchester by the Sea"

Naomie Harris, "Moonlight"

Nicole Kidman, "Lion"

Octavia Spencer, "Hidden Figures"

Best Documentary Feature

"Fire at Sea"

"I Am Not Your Negro"

"Life, Animated"

"O.J.: Made in America" - WINNER

"13th"

Best Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali, "Moonlight" - WINNER

Jeff Bridges, "Hell or High Water"

Lucas Hedges, "Manchester by the Sea"

Dev Patel, "Lion"

Michael Shannon, "Nocturnal Animals"

Best Live Action Short 

"The Railroad Lady"

"Sing" - WINNER

"Enemies Within"

"Timecode"

"Silent Nights"

Best Documentary Short Subject

"Extremis"

"4.1 Miles"

"Joe's Violin" 

"Watani: My Homeland"

"The White Helmets" - WINNER

Best Editing

"La La Land"

"Moonlight"

"Arrival"

"Hacksaw Ridge" - WINNER

"Hell or High Water"

Best Visual Effects

"Deepwater Horizon"

"Doctor Strange"

"The Jungle Book" - WINNER

"Kubo and the Two Strings"

"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story"

Production Design

"Arrival"

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"

"Hail, Caesar!"

"La La Land" - WINNER

"Passengers"

Best Animated Short

"Blind Vaysha"

"Borrowed Time"

"Pearl"

"Pear Cider and Cigarettes"

"Piper" - WINNER

Best Sound Mixing

"Arrival"

"Hacksaw Ridge" - WINNER

"La La Land"

"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story"

"13 Hours"

Best Sound Editing

"Hacksaw Ridge"

"Arrival" - WINNER

"Deepwater Horizon"

"La La Land"

"Sully"

Best Makeup and Hair

"A Man Called Ove"

"Star Trek Beyond"

"Suicide Squad" - WINNER

Best Costume Design

"Allied"

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" - WINNER

"Florence Foster Jenkins"

"Jackie"

"La La Land"

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 Director

Denis Villeneuve, "Arrival"

Mel Gibson, "Hacksaw Ridge"

Damien Chazelle, "La La Land"

Kenneth Lonergan, "Manchester by the Sea"

Barry Jenkins, "Moonlight"

Best Lead Actress

Isabelle Huppert, "Elle"

Ruth Negga, "Loving"

Natalie Portman, "Jackie"

Emma Stone, "La La Land"

Meryl Streep, "Florence Foster Jenkins"

Best Lead Actor

Casey Affleck, "Manchester by the Sea"

Andrew Garfield, "Hacksaw Ridge"

Ryan Gosling, "La La Land"

Viggo Mortensen, "Captain Fantastic"

Denzel Washington, "Fences"

Best Picture

"Arrival"

"Fences"

"Hacksaw Ridge"

"Hell or High Water"

"Hidden Figures"

"La La Land"

"Lion"

"Manchester by the Sea"

"Moonlight"

SEE ALSO: All the looks from the 2017 Oscars red carpet

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NOW WATCH: 6 details you may have missed in the 'Stranger Things' season 2 trailer

Jimmy Kimmel certainly pulled inspiration from President Donald Trump for some biting commentary about the leader during his Oscars monologue on Sunday.

"This broadcast is being watched live by millions of Americans and around the world in more than 225 countries that now hate us," Kimmel began, referencing Trump's strained relationships with certain countries, for example Sweden. "And I think that is an amazing thing."

But the host quickly found a balance with the opening joke by making a plea to Americans for unity.

"As you know, I don't have to tell anybody, the country is divided right now. People have been telling me, 'It's time to bring people together. You have to say something to unite us.' Let's just get something straight off the top: I can't do that. There's only one Braveheart in this room, and he's not going to unite us either," Kimmel said, referring to Mel Gibson, who appeared awkward in a reaction shot.

That didn't mean that Kimmel was done with Trump, though. He soon referenced the opinion of many of the president's detractors that his policies, including his embattled travel ban affecting those from seven predominantly Muslim countries and refugees.

"I want to say thank you to Mr. Trump," Kimmel said. "Remember last year when the Oscars were considered racist? That's done. Thanks to him."

Kimmel also had to recognize the ongoing war of words between Trump and celebrated actress Meryl Streep. Trump called Streep "overrated" after her impassioned speech criticizing him at the Golden Globes.

"We are here tonight to honor great actors, but we're also here to honor the actors who seem great, but actually really aren't," Kimmel joked of Streep, who's nominated for her 20th Oscar this year. "Of all the 'great' actors here in Hollywood, one in particular has stood the test of time for her many uninspiring and overrated performances... Meryl Streep has phoned it in for more than 50 films over the course of her lackluster career."

Even Trump's daughter wasn't safe from Kimmel's hits. He also poked fun at her ailing apparel business, which was recently dropped by Nordstrom and other retailers.

"Nice dress, by the way," Kimmel told Streep. "Is that an Ivanka?" 

While expressing how special the Oscars are, Kimmel took a final jab at Trump during his monologue by making fun of the president's love of tweeting, especially in the early-morning hours.

"We're at the Oscars, the Academy awards," Kimmel said. "You're nominated, you got to come, your families are nominated, your friends. Some of you will be able to come up here on the stage tonight and give a speech that the president of the United States will tweet about in all caps during his 5 a.m. bowel movement tomorrow."

Watch Kimmel's opening monologue below:

SEE ALSO: Here are all the winners of the 2017 Oscars

DON'T MISS: The surprising earliest TV gigs of 18 Oscar-worthy actors

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 'I inherited a mess': Watch Trump's full speech at CPAC 2017

In one of the most dramatic moments of the 2017 Oscars, the director of the best foreign language film, Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, had Iranian-American engineer Anousheh Ansari accept the award on his behalf and read a prepared statement that protested President Donald Trump.

Farhadi boycotted the awards show in response to Trump's immigration ban, barring citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, as well as refugees from coming to the United States.

“I’m sorry I’m not with you tonight,” Farhadi's statement read. “My absence is out of respect for the the people of my country and those of the other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S.

“Dividing the world into the us and our enemies categories creates fear, a deceitful justification for aggression and war," Ansari said onstage, as she continued to read Farhadi's statement. 

Farhadi's statement closed with him giving praise to his fellow filmmakers who "break stereotypes."

“They create empathy between us and others,” he said in the statement. “An empathy that we need today more than ever.”

Watch Ansari read the entire statement below:

SEE ALSO: Here are all the winners of the 2017 Oscars

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's what Johnny Depp reportedly spends $2M a month on

Viola Davis won the best supporting actress Oscar for her role in "Fences" on Sunday night, her first win after being nominated two previous times, and she didn't downplay her win as she went onstage and gave a moving acceptance speech.

"We are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life," she said of the importance of being an actor.

"So here's to August Wilson, who exhumed and exalted the ordinary people," she added, referring to the playwright of the stage play on which her movie is based.

The win makes Davis the first black woman to win at least one competitive acting award at the Oscars, Emmys, and Tonys. She won an Emmy in 2015 for lead actress in a drama series for "How to Get Away With Murder," and in 2001 she won a Tony for "King Hedley II" (she won another in 2010 for the Broadway version of "Fences").

Watch Davis' Oscar-winning speech below:

SEE ALSO: Jimmy Kimmel brutally mocks Trump on Oscars opening

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 'Raindrops, drop tops': Alex Trebek raps the No. 1 hit 'Bad and Boujee'

It was two years ago when filmmaker Ezra Edelman got the offer from ESPN Films’ senior vice president and executive producer Connor Schell:

“I want you to do a five-part movie on O.J. Simpson,” he was told.

The network has found success with its the award-winning “30 for 30” documentary series, which looks at particular sports moments and figures. But for Simpson's story, Schell wanted a deep-dive that put the life, career, and celebrity of the man under a microscope.

“I said, ‘I don’t want to do this,’” Edelman told Business Insider. “Because I lived through this and what could I say about this that someone else hasn’t said.”

Then a few days later Edelman was in L.A. and told some friends about the offer. They scolded him for not saying yes immediately. “They said to me, ‘Are you crazy?’” Edelman recalled. “Out there it’s different in terms of the story and what it means to people.”

Edelman eventually agreed to do it. Titled “O.J.: Made In America,” the close to eight hour movie (which ESPN broke into a five-part miniseries) doesn’t just recount the main points of Simpson’s career and infamous fall from grace, but also dissects Los Angeles’ relationship with law enforcement, specifically in African-American communities, which the movie points out could have played a factor into why Simpson was found not guilty in the “Trial of the Century.” 

Looking back on making the film, which won the best documentary Oscar on Sunday night, Edelman told Business Insider he couldn't pinpoint one moment that was the hardest to pull off. “Everything about this was exponentially harder” than anything he’d done before.

But one particularly hard part was was getting anyone to talk for the film.

Edelman knew he wasn’t going to get O.J. to talk (who is currently serving a 33-year sentence in Nevada), and attempts to get Simpson’s first wife, Marguerite L. Whitley, or his loyal friend Al Cowlings (who was the driver of the white Bronco during the infamous chase from police in 1994) on camera never materialized. But the interviews the film have are incredibly insightful and in some cases brought revelations to the surface that the general public never knew about Simpson or the murder trial.

A major reveal is that Simpson’s father was gay. Edelman said he uncovered this from the research he did, but it was one of Simpson’s childhood friends in the film, Calvin Tennyson, who willingly brought it up.

“Calvin was my first interview for the movie, it was back in October of 2014,” said Edelman. “I was going to bring up his dad. I didn’t know that he knew [he was gay], it wasn’t something O.J. talked about. But he brought it up and told a story about [O.J.’s] father very organically.”

Then there was getting some of the jurors from the Simpson murder trial on-camera. Again, insight that's never been made public. The movie features two, but it took months of conversations — even one of the film’s producers gardening with one of them whenever she’d visit L.A. — to gain their trust.

But Edelman wanted to show that even though there were eight black women on the jury, it was far from a slam-drunk win for Simpson and his “Dream Team” of lawyers.

“So much of this story is about what we reduce it to. ‘Oh, there were eight black women jurors.’ What was striking about them is the way they look at the evidence, and the people, they think completely differently, that’s important to see,” Edelman said.

A revealing comment one of the jurors gives about the case is that she voted not guilty during the trial because the police officers who beat Rodney King didn’t go to jail.

“It’s interesting to have someone give voice to something they had on their minds during the case,” said Edelman. "But did I ever think she was going to answer that way? No."

However, out of all the surprises Edelman got while the making of the movie, nothing was more shocking than what district attorney William Hodgman presented him with. Hodgman was on the prosecution during the Simpson trial and, while being interviewed by Edelman, he presented crime scene photos of the murders of Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

"Again, we had to convince him to sit down and talk, and when he realized that we were serious and not sensationalists, he came and gave this presentation about how he believes the murders happened and went through the photos," said Edelman. "They had never been shown to the public, and I asked him if he would trust us enough to let us show them."

The photos are extremely graphic, showing the enormous cuts that Simpson and Goldman sustained during the attack. There were loud gasps when the audience at the film's first-ever showing at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival saw them presented on screen.

What Edelman quickly realized is that Simpson still fascinates audiences, especially the murder trial that happened 21 years ago (in a weird coincidence, FX is airing the much anticipated "The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story" next week). When asked if he believes Simpson committed the murders, Edelman said his opinion doesn't matter.

"I knew I had to satisfy that part of the narrative, but I want you to evaluate what you think of the evidence and make your own decision," he said. "I don't want to take away from the larger point of the movie, which is about more than whether this guy's guilty of murder."

SEE ALSO: We watched the new ESPN documentary on O.J. Simpson and there are some explosive revelations.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Skinnygirl founder Bethenny Frankel has some great advice for working moms

Many of you may be wondering how a documentary produced by ESPN and made as a series for TV, "O.J.: Made in America," won an Oscar on Sunday night.

As the docuseries' director Ezra Edelman said during his acceptance speech for best documentary feature, the path to ESPN's first Oscar nomination and win, and the first ever Oscar win for a TV series, was "untraditional."

"First of all, ths is incredible," Edelman said. "I want to thank the Academy for acknowledging this untraditional film. I want to thank ESPN for allowing us the canvas and the time to tell this story. This is the only way it could be told."

So how does a TV series end up winning an Oscar?

The series had to fulfill the Academy's requirement that submissions for nominations have a theatrical run. In this case, ESPN combined the five 90-minute episodes for an all-day experience that debuted in movie theaters in New York City and Los Angeles on May 20 for about two weeks, ahead of its June 11 TV premiere on ABC. 

The decision was made after a successful premiere during last year's Sundance Film Festival.

"It was solidified at Sundance, as we saw the audience engaged for almost eight hours, how powerful the experience is," ESPN Films' senior vice president and executive producer Connor Schell told Business Insider.“It led us to decide we should really show it in theaters.”

Getting the series as a film into theaters was the first challenge. ESPN also had to make sure that film critics at the New York Times and the LA Times reviewed the movie, and they did. It also had to play four times a day – a tough rule to meet due to the film's eight-hour duration. Schell told us that ESPN brokered an agreement with the Academy to show it twice a day, with three brief intermissions during each showing in order to stay eligible.

By the way, "O.J.: Made in America" wasn't the first time ESPN Films has tried to give one of its docs a chance for an Oscar. In 2010, it had an Oscar-qualifying run for “The Two Escobars,” but it didn’t get nominated.

The docuseries follows the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson while also delving into the bubbling, decades-long issues between African-Americans and the Los Angeles Police Department, which flared during Simpson's murder case.

For Edelman, the documentary's combined movie and TV audiences have clear advantages beyond winning prestigious awards. The extra exposure offers a chance to spread a message of justice to the largest potential viewing audience.

"I wouldn't be standing here tonight if not for two people who aren't here with us: Ron Goldman, Nicole Brown," Edelman said on Sunday of the victims of the 1994 crime for which Simpson was tried. "This is for them and their families. It is also for others, the victims of police violence, police brutality, racially motivated violence, and criminal injustice. This is their story, as well as Ron and Nicole's. I'm honored to accept this award on all of their behalf."

Jason Guerrasio contributed to this article.

SEE ALSO: Jimmy Kimmel brutally mocks Trump in Oscars opening

DON'T MISS: The surprising earliest TV gigs of 18 Oscar-worthy actors

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 'Hollywood is known for being far to the left': Sean Spicer talks about Trump's plans during the Oscars

Jimmy Kimmel, host of the 89th annual Academy Awards, just tweeted at President Donald Trump during the ceremon, after making note of the fact that Trump has still not weighed in on the awards online.

In one tweet, Kimmel asked Trump, "u up?" and in another he let the president know that Meryl Streep "says hi." (Kimmel asked for Streep's approval of the message from the Oscars stage.)

The first tweet already has over 190,000 retweets as of this writing, and got thousands within seconds. Trump has not respodned to either of the tweets yet.

Trump called Meryl Streep "overrated" in response to her speech at the 2017 Golden Globes criticizing the president. He has also live-tweeted his thoughts, mostly negative, about the Oscars in years past.

See Kimmel's tweets below.

SEE ALSO: Jimmy Kimmel brutally mocks Trump in Oscars opening

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Less than a mile from Pixar Studios in Emeryville, California, there's a calming stretch of beach that animator Alan Barillaro visits often. Three years ago, while walking along that Pacific shore, Barillaro came on an idea that has become the latest great Pixar work.

It's "Piper," the short film that showed before the hit "Finding Dory," and won the best animated short Oscar on Sunday.

At the time Barillaro, 41, was heavily involved in what Pixar calls a “Tools” session. It’s when animators basically spend time messing around with the company’s proprietary software to see the ways they can implement new tools for their projects.

Barillaro didn’t get into specifics of the session when he talked to Business Insider recently, but Pixar CCO John Lassetter wasn’t that into it anyway. But the character Barillaro created for the test had promise.

Starting out with the crow from “Brave,” Barillaro transformed that into one of the tiny sandpiper birds he saw constantly on his trips to the beach running back and forth from the tide.

With the encouragement of Lasseter and “Finding Dory” director Andrew Stanton, Barillaro found himself working on storyboards about the sandpiper.

“I got to be totally honest,” Barillaro told Business Insider, “it was outside all of the normal development structure of the studio.”

Barillaro, who has been at Pixar since he was 18, has worked on almost every level at the studio — animator on "Monsters, Inc.," supervising animator on "The Incredibles" and "Brave" — but having never directed before, he was searching for advice.

“I assumed with directing, I would get the secrets of how to do it from Andrew and John, the tools they use to guide themselves,” but then he realized something else about those filmmakers' talent.

“What I found I was lacking was how personal they take their work and being honest in what you’re trying to say,” Barillaro said.

He spent a year with storyboard artists trying to formulate his sandpiper, which he named Piper. What he came up with was a baby sandpiper who is no longer being fed by his mother, so he has to overcome his fear of the water to get his own meals.

Lasseter was impressed by the progress and greenlit the project to be Pixar’s latest short for "Dory."

Barillaro said it was working with Stanton as animation supervisor on “WALL-E” that made him understand how to make a compelling and personal six-minute short about a sandpiper and his mother with absolutely zero dialogue.

“People have to remember, when we start these things, we have no idea how we’ll pull it off,” Barillaro said. “I remember reading the script for ‘WALL-E’ and going to Andrew’s office and reading act one and couldn’t believe we were going to tell a love story between two robots with no dialogue. I felt I was taking lessons learned from that film and applying them to mine.”

It took just over a year and a half to do the animation for “Piper,” which included close to 7 million feathers created for the sandpipers and billions of sand pebbles to make up the beach.

“At some point you just realize numbers haven’t been created to count how many we did,” Barillaro said of the sand pebbles.

But seeing as “Piper” was born from a Tools session, Barillaro wanted to push the animation technology at Pixar as far as he could. The short uses the new render software that Stanton also used in “Finding Dory,” and to get the sandpiper feathers and the rushing tide to look right, animators — who totaled up to 40 — did almost everything by hand, as opposed to having the software create simulations.

“We pushed the rendering power to its limit in this film,” Barillaro said.

But with all Pixar projects, short or long, focus on the story is paramount. And Barillaro’s biggest challenge was finding a way to have Piper and his mother carry a conversation without it looking too human.

Dialogue that was written by Barillaro guided the team initially, but by year three of production, they had to figure out how to make Piper and his mom communicate on their own.

“I was very passionate about not humanizing the story and not going to gestures that are very human, like using hands,” Barillaro said. “One time I asked the animator to do a head shake for the bird, like a human saying ‘no.’ And what I appreciated was a note that John gave me saying, ‘I know it’s hard, but look for another gesture.’ His encouragement to keep looking and not going for the easy one, that meant a lot.”

Barillaro finally handed off “Piper” a few weeks ago — literally hours before the deadline to have the short attached to “Finding Dory” when it plays in theaters. He admits it’s a bittersweet feeling.

“It’s the moment you feel you know how to do it,” he said.

But he also knows that at Pixar, there’s always something else to tackle.

“You come back to the office the next day and after all those years being a bird, now you have to be a monster or a fish,” he said.

Watch a clip from “Piper” below:

SEE ALSO: RANKED: Every Pixar movie from worst to best

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NOW WATCH: Meet the genius behind all your favorite Pixar and Disney movies

Warren Beatty was mistakenly given the wrong envelope to announce the winner for best picture at Sunday's Academy Awards in a moment that will go down as not just the biggest Oscars screw-up, but one of the biggest awards snafus ever.

But after the madness of sorting out that it was "Moonlight," not "La La Land," that won best picture, the big question was how Beatty and fellow presenter Faye Dunaway could have been given the envelope for best actress in a leading role, which went to Emma Stone, when that award had already been given out.

Beatty said onstage that the card he was given had Stone's name. Screenshots from the telecast prove he's right:

But Stone told the press room afterward that she was holding onto the best-actress envelope while she was onstage with the "La La Land" cast and producers when it was announced as best picture.

"I also was holding my 'best actress in a leading role' card that entire time. So whatever story ... I don't mean to start stuff, but whatever story that was, I had that card," Stone told reporters, in a line that quickly spawned conspiracy theories on social media. "So I'm not sure that happened. And I really wanted to talk to you guys first."

We can lay the theories to rest. It turns out that PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm in charge of vote-counting for the Oscars, shows up with two sets of envelopes announcing the winners. Employees of the firm stand on opposite sides of the stage and hand the sealed envelopes to the presenters before they go out.

So it seems Leonardo DiCaprio, who presented the Oscar for best lead actress to Stone, walked onstage from a different side than Beatty and Dunaway did, leading to the duplicate being used.

Why the need for duplicates? In an interview with MarketWatch before the Oscars, Brian Cullinan, one of the PwC accountants in charge of the envelopes, said it's to make sure Los Angeles traffic doesn't prevent getting the envelopes to the ceremony.

"We have two briefcases, that are identical, and we have two entire sets of winning envelopes. [Fellow accountant] Martha [Ruiz] carries one of those briefcases, I carry the other. We go to the show separately with police escorts. I used to think it was for our security, it's really for the briefcase. [Laughs] We take different routes to get there just because of the kinds of things that can happen in L.A. traffic. We want to make sure that no matter what happens, one of us gets there. We've never really had a problem with that."

But there are still unanswered questions, like why the PwC accountants didn't act quicker to fix the error when "La La Land" was incorrectly named the winner. It was a good couple of minutes before "La La Land" producer Jordan Horowitz stopped everything and revealed that the best-picture card said "Moonlight."

Deadline reports that one of the accountants told a stage manager about the error, and that person then went onstage with the correct card.

PwC issued a statement late Sunday night saying it was "currently investigating how this could have happened."

SEE ALSO: We looked into the $100,000 gift bag Oscar nominees take home, and it's beyond extravagant

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NOW WATCH: 'It was a disrespectful moment to "La La Land"': Watch cast and crew from 'Moonlight' react to the Oscars mix-up

John Oliver, the host of HBO's "Last Week Tonight," set his sights during Sunday night's episode on the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the healthcare law better known as Obamacare.

The HBO political commentator and comedian broke down the major parts of the GOP's replacement plan and railed against it.

Oliver pointed to key points from a Republican fact sheet that went out to House GOP members last week. He broke down various parts of the proposal, from high-risk pools to Medicaid block grants. He said coverage was likely to be lacking, citing new Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price's plan to replace the ACA.

"Tom Price once proposed a tax credit of $1,200 for people aged 18 to 35 and $3,000 to people 50 and up, which is roughly a third of the cost of the most bare-bones plans on the market today," Oliver said. "A tax credit that small helps cover your health insurance the way a thong covers your dad's a-- — it doesn't — and there's something fundamentally wrong about that."

Oliver also called out the lack of detail in the Republican guidelines, citing the use of a placeholder at the end of one draft of a bill. (The bill is not finalized, however.)

"If you need any more proof of how unprepared Republicans are right now, let me show you one of the draft bills they circulated," Oliver said. "It is just seven pages long and it end abruptly with the word 'placeholder.'"

Oliver concluded by saying the timeline for a Republican replacement was growing shorter, since insurance companies must submit plans for their 2018 exchange coverage in April.

"Insurers are going to need an answer soon, so ticktock motherf------ because you don't get to placeholder your way out of this one again," Oliver said.

Watch the full segment here:

SEE ALSO: Americans have flipped their opinion on Obamacare right as Republicans are set to repeal it

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With each generation of video game consoles, a handful of new, major franchises are born.

During the last generation — when the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii dominated — the "Gears of War" franchise exploded, the "Uncharted" series defined the PlayStation 3, and "Wii Sports" defined Nintendo's Wii.

Right at the end of the last generation, in 2014, a new franchise surprised gamers everywhere by taking a long-existing property — the Lord of the Rings — and turning it into something brilliantly modern and fresh. That game was "Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor," a stylish and gritty third-person action game in the vein of "Assassin's Creed."

Despite generic trappings and a long-worn property in the Lord of the Rings, the game was a smashing success. It was beautiful, fun to play, and had a surprisingly well-done story. Far from generic, it was a breath of life into a worn out genre.

And in 2017, "Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor" is a getting a big new sequel: "Middle-earth: Shadow of War" is scheduled to launch for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on August 22.

There's only one piece of art for the game available thus far, with a promised gameplay reveal on March 8.

If you're a returning fan from the first game, you may be glad to hear that both Talion and Celebrimbor are back as the main playable characters in "Shadow of War." The plot isn't unlike the film series: unite a divided Mordor against the forces of Sauron, all using a unique ring that grants magical powers. 

The first trailer is out now, with a bigger gameplay reveal coming next week. Check it out right here:

SEE ALSO: YouTube's biggest star is in hot water over anti-Semitic 'jokes' — here's what's going on

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NOW WATCH: 5 hidden features only PlayStation 4 power users know about

Netflix and Amazon both scored Oscar wins on Sunday, marking the first time any streaming service has triumphed at the Academy Awards.

But the awards that each won underscore the huge difference in how Netflix and Amazon are tackling the movie market, and how the industry has responded.

Amazon was the big winner on Sunday, with its gritty indie "Manchester by the Sea" winning best original screenplay and best lead actor (Casey Affleck), and Iran's "The Salesman" winning best foreign-language film.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was in the audience and even got a good-natured joke about Amazon's shipping thrown his way by host Jimmy Kimmel.

Netflix won the documentary short-subject category with "The White Helmets," which chronicles the neutral rescue workers in Syria who have saved 80,000 people.

Amazon isn't bucking tradition

Amazon's wins in high-profile categories — and its nomination for best picture — underscore the difference between its movie strategy and that of Netflix, its main rival. Though Amazon is a streaming service, all its films get theatrical releases because Amazon is willing to keep the movies off its online platform for the traditional length of time.

Netflix, conversely, has angered movie theaters by insisting that its movies be available to stream on Netflix the day they are released in theaters. Theater execs have railed against this practice and have largely refused to show Netflix's movies.

Netflix has hit back. In October, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said he thought the state of film was a "real tragedy" and that movie theaters were "strangling the movie business."

Still, Netflix's poor relationship with movie theaters puts the company in a tough position, since many filmmakers prize having a traditional theatrical release for their films, even if it's not a wide one.

Amazon has avoided this issue altogether by sticking to the established release timing. And the company has been rewarded. "Manchester by the Sea" grossed more than $40 million at the US box office, making it a "commercial success" in its category, according to Variety. And now it has won two prestigious Oscars as well as received a best-picture nod.

Last year, Netflix pushed hard during awards season for "Beasts of No Nation" but was ultimately snubbed by the Academy.

Documentary prowess

In the documentary categories, however, Netflix has shined at the Oscars.

Netflix's first Oscar nomination went to "The Square" in 2014 for best documentary feature. In that category, Netflix got another nom for "Virunga" in 2015 and two last year for "What Happened, Miss Simone?" and "Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom."

This year, "13th," Netflix's documentary that explores racial inequality in the US and the prison system, was nominated, though it didn't win. (That honor went to ESPN for "O.J.: Made in America.")

Netflix's one Oscar win this year was for best short-subject documentary for "The White Helmets."

Netflix has been embraced by the Academy in the documentary categories, where it's not fighting a big battle against theater owners and entrenched distribution methods. As Netflix's content production continues to ramp up and it releases more Oscar hopefuls, we'll see how much of an effect that has on the industry's most prestigious awards show.

SEE ALSO: Netflix explained why its movie selection has gotten so skimpy

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In a historic mishap at the 89th annual Academy Awards on Sunday night, the award for best picture was mistakenly awarded to “La La Land” after presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were handed the wrong envelope.

In the middle of the "La La Land" producers giving their speeches, the enthusiastic group was interrupted on the stage and told that the award was actually supposed to go to “Moonlight.” In the middle of the chaos, producer Jordan Horowitz clarified the error and asked the "Moonlight" team to come up to accept their rightful award.

"This is not a joke," Horowitz said.

It was a huge moment in Oscars history. It was also incredibly awkward and confusing, to the point where it felt like Jimmy Kimmel was just pranking everyone. 

And it’s all summed up in this star-studded image that is being widely circulated on social media:

Here's another photo showing some confused celebrity faces:

SEE ALSO: RANKED: The 20 best new TV shows right now, according to critics

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NOW WATCH: 'It was a disrespectful moment to "La La Land"': Watch cast and crew from 'Moonlight' react to the Oscars mix-up

"Moonlight" director Barry Jenkins, producer Adele Romanski, actor Naomie Harris, and actor Trevante Rhodes react to the confusion over best picture at the 89th annual Academy Awards.

Full Transcript: 

RHODES: But I just feel like that moment was – it was a disrespectful moment to “La La Land” because that was an incredible production, made by a bunch of incredible people, and I think on the Academy’s part and the people who were directly involved in the moment, that was disrespectful. But — no, that would be disrespectful to us to allow that to take away from the moment that we’re having right now.  

HARRIS: You know, it was a strange moment. It was very awkward. I think it was awkward for “La La Land” and that’s a shame for them. I think our producers didn’t have an opportunity to say everything that they wanted to say. You know, it, it was a very strange moment. It’s a shame that it happened — but I don’t know, I don’t, you know, — these things happen and we just have to take the positives. The positive is: we won.

JENKINS: We spent a lot of time with those guys, and so I felt — it was a ridiculous mix of emotions. I thought they were very gracious in what happened. And because I spent so much time with Jordan I knew he meant what he was saying. And so there was shock, but also too, you know, I wanted to give him a hug. I think — I’m pretty sure it’s the first thing I did when I went up on stage. But things happen, you know. You make a film, the boom comes into the shot. Nobody does it on purpose. It just happens, we’re human beings, you know. We’re not perfect. And so, it was an imperfect way to get, for us, the perfect result.

ROMANSKI: No, no, no, they were super, super gracious about it. And we love them and it’s been a long time that we’ve been on this tour with them. And we’ve gotten to know them very well. And I think there’s a lot of mutual respect. I think that any one of the teams that might have been up there tonight in the same situation, would’ve handled, handled it as gracefully as they had, and, and, we certainly I hope would have if it was a reverse situation.

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