Oscars 2017: Jimmy Kimmel tries - but fails - to bury the hatchet with Matt Damon

Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon continued their "feud" as the 89th Academy Awards host took aim at the actor in his opening monologue.

The host claimed he would "bury the hatchet" with Damon, whose Manchester by the Sea was up for six Oscars, before ripping into the actor.

"I would like to bury the hatchet with someone I've had issues with -- Matt Damon. ... I've known Matt for a long time now. I've known Matt so long, when I first met Matt, I was the fat one."

Kimmel went on: "He's a selfish person -- those of you who have worked with him know this. But Matt did something very unselfish and I want to commend him for it. 

"Matt, as you probably know, could have starred in 'Manchester by the Sea.' ... But he didn't. He gave that role to Casey Affleck, his childhood friend. 

"He handed what turned out to be an Oscar-caliber role over to his friend and made a Chinese ponytail movie instead. And that movie, 'The Great Wall,' went on to lose $80 million."

The banter continued through the night as Kimmel mocked Damon's 2011 We Bought a Zoo.

"The thing about Matt is, you can see how hard he’s working," Kimmel said. "It’s so effortful for him."

Once that segment wrapped up, the announcer welcomed "Ben Affleck and guest" to the stage to present the award for best original screenplay.

Damon was then repeatedly "played off" as he tried to announce the nominations for best original screenplay with his long time friend Ben Affleck.

"You can't play me off, I'm just presenting" Damon protested.

Kimmel had kicked things off earlier in the evening when he tweeted a picture of Damon arriving for the ceremony with the caption: "Dead man walking the red carpet."

The host  posted the photograph from his dressing room as he prepared to host the ceremony.

Damon, 46, didn't hold back as he spoke to ABC News on the red carpet telling them Kimmel was "talentless," adding, but "he's got an incredible group of writers who work for him".

The pair have had a long-standing feud that dates back many years and was sparked when Kimmel started signing off his popular American talk show saying: "Apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time."

Asked if he thought Kimmel was going to take aim at him during the ceremony, Damon told E! News: "It's going to probably be ugly."

He then jokingly added that despite "couples therapy", the pair hadn't sorted things out, saying: "Maybe tonight is our night."

Comedian Sarah Silverman, who used to date Kimmel, made a video with Damon in 2008 as a joke, during which she told Kimmel the pair were having an affair.

Kimmel followed it up by teaming up with Damon's best friend, actor Ben Affleck, to produce a video of their own.

The comedian explained that he first told the joke after an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! which featured particularly low-level guests, and a producer encouraged him to keep using it.

"We had a bad show. ... The guests were bad, and I was feeling pretty bad about myself at the end of the programme," he told Fresh Air's Terry Gross.  

"And I decided to say, for the amusement of one of our producers who was standing next to me ... 'I want to apologise to Matt Damon. We ran out of time.' ... And he got a kick out of it, the producer, so I just started doing it every night to amuse him."

“Matt Damon was just the first name that popped into my head. I was trying to think of an A-list star, and somebody we absolutely would not bump if he was on the show. … The legs on this bit are unbelievable to me,” Kimmel said.

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