Ben Affleck's Crew Is Represented At The Oscars

With Matt Damon and Casey Affleck both attending the Oscars this year to present and as a Best Actor nominee, respectively, will Ben Affleck be at the 2017 Academy Awards? Affleck has both won and presented at the Oscars before, but he's not a part of the official presenters list, nor is he nominated tonight for any of his 2016 films. Between Batman v. Superman and Live By Night, Affleck did spend a lot of time on the red carpet this year promoting his work, but it wasn't really reflected in critical acclaim or any awards attention.

However, after Affleck skipped the red carpet, and had no official role in the ceremony, it seemed like he might pop up during Jimmy Kimmel's monologue. After all, Kimmel, Damon, and Affleck have done lots of bits together before on Jimmy Kimmel: Live, from their dueling videos with Sarah Silverman to the time Affleck smuggled Damon onstage in a giant suit jacket. He didn't feature in the opening monologue or Kimmel's bit with Matt Damon in the opening, but surely he would have been welcome onstage had he decided to attend the ceremony.

And sure enough, while presenting the awards for Best Original Screenplay, Matt Damon brought Affleck onstage with him as a co-presenter, a nod to their dual win for Best Original Screenplay years ago for Good Will Hunting.

Of course, Kimmel continued his bit of mocking and ridiculing Damon by announcing the presentation as "Ben Affleck and guest." And the moment turned out to be well-placed, because they wound up presenting an award to Kenneth Lonergan, whose film Manchester By the Sea stars Casey Affleck — aka Ben's brother.