LOS ANGELES, Calif. 鈥� Call it the most stunning twist听in听Oscar history.
Presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced “La La Land” as Best Picture, only for producer Jordan Horowitz to stop in the middle of his acceptance speech听and announce that the rightful winner was actually “Moonlight,”听the result of an Oscar envelope error at The Dolby Theatre.
“Is this the craziest Oscar moment ever?” Emma Stone asked rhetorically backstage with 海角精品黑料.
PwC, the accounting and consulting firm that has handled the balloting process at the Academy Awards for 82 years, has apologized for听the mix up.
In a way, it was just like the end of the movie “La La Land,” whose lovers got to dance a giant dream ballet and watch “what could have been,” only to snap back to reality in a moment of bittersweet loss. But amid the chaos, let’s not let the confusion overshadow a truly historic win for听“Moonlight.”
“I f***ing love ‘Moonlight,'” Stone said graciously. “I think it’s one of the best films of all time.”
Indeed, the听inventive indie flick “Moonlight” won three Oscars on the night, including Best Adapted Screenplay for Barry Jenkins (screenplay) and听Tarell Alvin McCraney (story) about a young听African-American male struggling with his sexuality over three different phases of life in urban Miami.
It’s now officially the first LGBT film to win the Oscar for Best Picture — a feat that groundbreakers like “Philadelphia” (1993) and “Brokeback Mountain” (2005) could not pull off decades ago.
“I never thought it would be seen by so many people, or even better, that听so many people would see themselves in it,” Jenkins said backstage. “The last 20 minutes of my life have been insane.听I’ve watched the Academy Awards and I’ve never seen that happen. … Hot damn, we won Best Picture!”
The film also won Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali, playing a Cuban crack dealer who听becomes a father figure to a bullied youth. Ali becomes the first Muslim ever to win an Oscar.
“After all these years of reading scripts, ‘Moonlight’ is the best thing that ever came across my desk,” Ali said backstage. “Idris (Elba) and David Oyelowo left me a job. Very, very kind of them.”
On the whole, it was still a big night for “La La Land,” which won the most awards with six, including Best Director for Damien Chazelle, who at age 32 became the youngest Best Director winner in Oscar history.
Chazelle’s former听college roommate,听Justin Hurwitz, won for Best听Original Score and Original Song with “City of Stars,” edging out Lin-Manuel Miranda for “How Far I’ll Go” (“Moana”).听“La La Land” also won Best听Cinematography,听Best Production Design and the aforementioned Best Actress for Stone.
Meanwhile, Casey Affleck won Best Actor as a deeply grieving uncle in the haunting “Manchester By the Sea,” which also won Best Original Screenplay for writer/director Kenneth Lonergan.
“I think Ben and I are the only two brothers to both win Oscars,” Affleck said backstage of his brother Ben Affleck, who won for writing “Good Will Hunting” before his Best Picture winner “Argo.”
After winning at the Globes, Affleck held off a听late听surge by SAG Award winner听Denzel Washington for his role as a bitter Pittsburgh family man in August Wilson’s play-to-film adaptation “Fences.”
“Fences” did, however, win for Viola Davis, who was a lock for Best Supporting Actress. This makes Davis the first听black woman to win an Emmy, Oscar and Tony for acting.听Whoopi听Goldberg is a rare member of the EGOT club — Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony — but her Tony came for producing a play.
“Every moment of this film is about the beauty of just听living and breathing and being human, not being didactic, not being a walking social message,” Davis said backstage. “I just want to represent me! Living, breathing, failing, getting up in the morning, dying! August was the inspiration.”
In the technical categories, “Hacksaw Ridge” won Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing for its World War II battle sequences, while “Arrival” won Best Sound Editing for its alien atmosphere.
“The Jungle Book” won Best Visual Effects for creating lifelike CGI animals; “Suicide Squad” won Best Makeup & Hairstyling for its superhero stylings;听“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” won Best Costume Design; “Zootopia” won Best Animated Feature and “Piper” won Best Animated Short.
The night only got occasionally political, as Jimmy Kimmel roasted President Donald Trump’s claims that Meryl Streep was “overrated.”听Iranian filmmaker听Asghar Farhadi听chose not to attend over the administration’s travel ban, despite winning Best Foreign Language Film for “The Salesman.” Similarly, a cinematographer for the intense Syrian civil war doc short “The White Helmets” also didn’t show.
The Best Feature-Length Documentary went to Ezra Edelman’s “O.J. Made in America,” as Edelman paid tribute to听Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman during his acceptance speech.
In the end, it was quite the turnaround from last year’s #OscarsSoWhite controversy. As Jenkins accepted his award, he said, 鈥淎ll you people out there who feel like there’s no mirror for you, that your life is not reflected, The Academy has your back.鈥� Read that again. “The Academy has your back.”
What a difference a year makes.
See the full list of winners below:听
Best Picture: 鈥淢oonlight.鈥�
Actor: Casey Affleck, 鈥淢anchester by the Sea.鈥�
Actress: Emma Stone, 鈥淟a La Land.鈥�
Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali, 鈥淢oonlight.鈥�
Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, 鈥淔ences.鈥�
Directing: Damien Chazelle, 鈥淟a La Land.鈥�
Foreign Language Film: 鈥淭he Salesman,鈥� Iran.
Adapted Screenplay: 鈥淢oonlight,鈥� screenplay by Barry Jenkins, story by Tarell Alvin McCraney.
Original Screenplay: Kenneth Lonergan, 鈥淢anchester by the Sea.鈥�
Production Design: 鈥淟a La Land,鈥� Production Design: David Wasco; Set Decoration: Sandy Reynolds-Wasco.
Cinematography: Linus Sandgren, 鈥淟a La Land.鈥�
Sound Mixing: 鈥淗acksaw Ridge,鈥� Kevin O鈥機onnell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace.
Sound Editing: 鈥淎rrival,鈥� Sylvain Bellemare.
Original Score: 鈥淟a La Land,鈥� Justin Hurwitz.
Original Song: 鈥淐ity of Stars鈥� from 鈥淟a La Land,鈥� music by Justin Hurwitz, lyric by Ben Pasek and Justin Paul.
Costume Design: Colleen Atwood, 鈥淔antastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.鈥�
Documentary (short subject): 鈥淭he White Helmets,鈥� Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara.
Documentary Feature: 鈥淥.J.: Made in America,鈥� Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow.
Film Editing: 鈥淗acksaw Ridge,鈥� John Gilbert.
Makeup and Hairstyling: 鈥淪uicide Squad,鈥� Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson.
Animated Feature Film: 鈥淶ootopia,鈥� Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer.
Animated Short Film: 鈥淧iper,鈥� Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer.
Live Action Short Film: 鈥淪ing,鈥� Kristof Deak and Anna Udvardy.
Visual Effects: 鈥淭he Jungle Book,鈥� Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Dan Lemmon.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
