OSCARS SHOCKER
Best picture: ‘La La Land’ ... er ... ‘Moonlight’
Lots of people claimed they were going to skip the Academy Awards broadcast Sunday night, anticipating a lot of Hollywood elites complaining about President Donald Trump.
Good plan on their part, if that’s what they were worried about.
Terrible plan, if you wanted to see the weirdest development in the history of the Oscars, in which presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway named “La La Land” best picture, and, after a few speeches, officials came on stage and said, no, “Moonlight” was the real winner.
Once again, willful ignorance means you missed out.
Host Jimmy Kimmel got political from the start (after Justin Timberlake started the show with a musical number). But he wasn’t in-your-face strident; he was funny. And relevant. What’s more, the Academy didn’t just talk the talk, it walked the walk, with actors of color — one a Muslim — winning awards.
If people really did skip for political reasons (one suspects some hatewatched, to have something to complain about), that’s a shame. It means the people who most needed to hear these messages didn’t.
On the cinematic front, “La La Land” still had a big (if not a record-setting) night, winning six awards, including best director for Damien Chazelle and best actress for Scottsdale native Emma Stone. (Stone thanked Bobb Cooper, formerly of Valley Youth Theatre, during
her acceptance speech.) While those winners didn’t get political, Kimmel did from the start.
“This broadcast is being watched live by millions of Americans and around the world in more than 225 countries that now hate us,” he said, and later thanked Trump for taking pressure off the Academy Awards by comparison: “Remember last year, when the Oscars were considered racist?”
Some of the presenters made overt political statements. Gael Garcia Bernal said, “As a Mexican, as a Latin American, as a migrant worker, as a human being, I am against any form of a wall that wants to separate us.”
Some winners did, too. Irianian director Asghar Farhadi, whose “The Salesman” won best foreign film, skipped the ceremony “out of respect for the people of my country and those of other six nations whom have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S.,” Iranian-American Anousheh Ansari, who accepted the award for him, read from a statement. “Dividing the world into us and our enemies categories creates fear — a deceitful justification for aggression and war. These wars prevent democracy and human rights in countries which have themselves been victims of aggression.”
Barry Jenkins, accepting the award for best adapted screenplay for “Moonlight,” the story of a black boy struggling with poverty and sexual identity growing up in Miami, said, “All you people out there who feel like your life is not reflected, the Academy has your back; the ACLU has your back. For the next four years, we will not leave you alone. We will not forget you.”
But the Academy made its biggest statements where it counted: with its winners. They didn’t have to make political statements in their speeches (and they didn’t). They made them simply by winning. Mahershala Ali won best supporting actor for “Moonlight,” while Viola Davis won best supporting actress for “Fences.” That’s two black actors in two black-themed films. This, after two consecutive years in which no actors of color were even nominated in any acting category.
What’s more, Ali is Muslim, the first Muslim actor ever to win.
This wasn’t just talking about change, about becoming more diverse, about coming together in some theoretical way. This was concrete progress.
So, if you skipped the show because you didn’t want to see someone with a big platform and a massive audience say things you didn’t want to hear, fine. Your loss. The rest of us liked it just fine.
Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.