Moonlight wins best picture
Oscars end in confusion after La La Land wrongly named winner.
LOS ANGELES — Moonlight won the best picture trophy Sunday at the Academy Awards in an upset that followed Warren Beatty at first reading the wrong winner.
Shock and chaos spread through the Dolby Theatre when producers of La La Land were stopped in the middle of their acceptance speeches to be informed that Beatty had incorrectly read La La Land as the winner. “I wasn’t trying to be funny,” Beatty explained, saying he had seen the name Emma Stone from La La Land when he opened his envelope.
Host Jimmy Kimmel came forward to inform the cast that Moonlight had indeed won, showing the inside of the envelope as proof. “I knew I would screw this up,” said Kimmel, a first-time host. “I promise to never come back.”
Producer Jordan Horwitz then graciously passed his statue to the Moonlight producers.
Up until the chaotic end, the telecast had seesawed between jabs at President Donald Trump and passionate arguments for inclusivity, with awards going to La La Land, Moonlight and Manchester by the Sea.
Damien Chazelle’s celebrated musical La La Land, up for a record-tying 14 nominations, took a while to start cleaning up. But it did as the night went on, winning for cinematography, production, score, song for “City of Stars,” and best actress for Stone. Chazelle, the 32-yearold filmmaker, also became the youngest to win best director.
Barry Jenkins, the writer-director of Moonlight, and Tarell Alvin McCraney, whose play it was based on, also won for adapted screenplay. “All you people out there who feel like there isn’t a mirror out there for you, the academy has your back, the ACLU has your back and for the next four years we will not leave you alone, we will not forget you,” said Jenkins.
Kenneth Lonergan, the New York playwright whose last film — Margaret — was beset by lawsuits and conflict, won best original screenplay for Manchester by the Sea. “I love the movies. I love being part of the movies,” said Lonergan, who then thanked his star. “Thank you Casey Affleck, Casey Affleck, Casey Affleck.”
Shortly after, in one of the night’s most closely watched categories, Affleck won best actor — his first Oscar — for his soulful, grief-filled performance in Manchester by the Sea. Affleck and Denzel Washington (Fences) were seen as neck-and-neck
in the category. An admittedly “dumbfounded” Affleck looked shocked when his name was read.
“Man, I wish I had something bigger and more meaningful to say,” said Affleck, who hugged his more famous brother, Ben, before taking the stage.
The show kicked off with Justin Timberlake dancing down the Dolby Theatre aisles, singing his ebullient song, “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” from the animated film Trolls. It was an early cue that the Oscars would steer, at least in part, toward festiveness rather than heavy-handedness. Protests, boycotts and rallies swirled ahead of Sunday night’s Oscars. But Kimmel, in his opening monologue, quickly acknowledged that he “was not that guy” to heal a divided America.
He pointedly led a standing ovation for Meryl Streep, whom he jokingly called “overrated,” in reference to a Trump tweet. He later tweaked the president by tweeting to him on air, including telling him that Streep “says hi.”
The wins for Viola Davis, who co-starred in Washington’s August Wilson adaptation Fences, and Mahershala Ali, the Moonlight co-star, were both widely expected. Their awards marked the first time in more than a decade that multiple Oscar acting honors went to black actors.
“I became an artist, and thank God I did, because we are the only profession to celebrate what it means to live a life,” said Davis, the best supporting actress winner. “So here’s to August Wilson, who exhumed and exalted the ordinary people.”
Ali won best supporting actor for Moonlight. He glowed on the stage as he informed the crowd that he and his wife, Amatus Sami-Karim, welcomed a daughter four days earlier. The actor thanked his wife for “being such a soldier through the process.”
A blunt protest came from a winner not in attendance. Best foreign film for the second time went to Asghar Farhadi, director of Iran’s A Salesman. Farhadi, who won in a previous year for A Separation, had said he wouldn’t attend because of Trump’s travel ban that applies to seven predominantly Muslim nations. Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian astronaut, read a statement from Farhadi.
“I’m sorry I’m not with you tonight,” it read. “My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S.”
The broadcast often veered between such strong personal statements and Kimmel’s efforts to keep things a little lighter.
Presenter Gael Garcia Bernal, the Mexican actor, declared: “As a migrant worker, as a Mexican, and as a human being, I am against any wall.” Rich Moore, one of the three directors of Disney’s Zootopia, the winner for best animated film, described the movie as about “tolerance being more powerful than fear of the other.”
Mel Gibson’s World War II drama Hacksaw Ridge was the evening’s first double winner, taking awards for editing and sound mixing.