After gaffe, Moonlight tops Oscars
Diversity biggest winner; Trump-bashing unites Academy
Coming-of-age drama Moonlight won the best picture Oscar on Sunday, but not before the film industry’s biggest night was marred by one of the worst fiascos in its history, as La La Land was mistakenly handed the award first.
Until the final minute, the film industry’s biggest night had run smoothly, marked by plenty of political statements — mainly jabs at President Donald Trump — and light-hearted jokes from host Jimmy Kimmel.
The evening also represented a move towards burying the #OscarsSoWhite controversy of the past two years, with two of the four acting prizes and a handful of other major awards going to African American nominees.
But the stunning final stumble was a nightmare of a Hollywood ending that no one wanted to see.
Tinseltown legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, stars of 1967 crime classic Bonnie and Clyde, and both past Oscar winners, were meant to give the best picture Oscar to Barry Jenkins’s film.
But, after the pair were apparently handed the wrong envelope, she mistakenly called it for La La Land, Damien Chazelle’s nostalgic musical.
Scenes of confusion and embarrassment followed after the La La Land crew — already on stage and delivering speeches — suddenly realised the mistake and announced themselves that Moonlight had actually won.
Beatty, the 79-year-old veteran actor and director, said he’d been given the wrong envelope — the one containing the card announcing La La Land star Emma Stone’s best actress win.
Eventually, PwC, the accounting firm responsible for tabulating Oscar ballots and safeguarding the results until they are announced, apologised and admitted Beatty’s version was true.
Indian actor Om Puri, who died in January, was among those honoured at the Oscars during the ‘In Memoriam’ montage
Mahershala Ali, who won the best supporting actor award, became the first Muslim actor to win an Oscar
“We sincerely apologise to Moonlight, La La Land, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for Best Picture,” the company said in a statement.
“The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and, when discovered, was immediately corrected,” it added.
“We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred.”
Moonlight was a shock winner for best picture, after favourite La La Land had taken six prizes, including best director and best actress.
Los Angeles: The African-American coming-of-age tale Moonlight won the Oscar for best picture on Sunday on a big night for Hollywood diversity that was overshadowed by an embarrassing onstage gaffe over the top award. In a mishap that caused uproar and confusion, presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway initially announced that romantic musical La La Land, the presumed favourite for best picture, had won. It was the first time in living memory that such a major mistake had been made at the Academy Awards. It even eclipsed the prior three hours of a show peppered with jokes about US President Donald Trump. PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm responsible for tabulating Oscar ballots, apologised for the “error” admitting that the presenters were handed the wrong envelope. “We sincerely apologise to Moonlight, La La Land, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for Best Picture,” the company said in a statement. “We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred,” the firm added. As the casts of both films stood awkwardly on stage, Beatty explained he had been given the wrong envelope to open. Officials from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were not immediately available to comment. Moonlight about a young boy struggling with poverty and his sexuality in Miami, also brought a supporting actor Oscar for first timer Mahershala Ali, a best adapted screenplay statuette.
Viola Davis won for her supporting role as a long suffering housewife in African-American family drama Fences.
The recognition for both the actors and their films made a stark contrast to the 2016 Academy Awards, when no actors of color were even nominated.
Moonlight producer Adele Romanski said she hoped the movie would inspire “little black boys and brown girls and other folks watching at home who feel marginalized”.
La La Land went into the Oscars with a leading 14 nominations and emerged with six, including for its score and theme song City of Stars. La La Land director Damien Chazelle, 32, became the youngest person to ever win a best director Oscar. Elsewhere, Manchester by the Sea star Casey Affleck was named best actor winning his first Oscar despite 2010 sexual harassment allegations that resurfaced during awards season. Affleck denied the allegations, which were settled out of court.
Iranian film The Salesman won the Best Foreign Language Film prize, but director Asghar Farhadi skipped the Hollywood gala in protest at a travel ban by US President Donald Trump.
In a statement read at the Oscars in his name, Farhadi said he was staying away in solidarity as people had been “disrespected” by Trump’s policy.
— Agencies