'Moonlight' wins topsy-turvy night
LOS ANGELES — The 89th Academy Awards got off on the right foot, with a song and dance, but ended with the most stunning mistake ever to befall the esteemed awards show when the best picture Oscar was presented to the wrong movie. Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, holding an incorrect envelope, wrongly presented the top prize to “La La Land,” instead of “Moonlight.”
The moment at the conclusion of the Sunday night show was so jaw-dropping, it eclipsed everything else in a ceremony that was packed to the brim with Donald Trump jabs, fun stunts, heartfelt positivity and a stunning upset by “Moonlight” over what had been a “La La” juggernaut throughout award season. Yet somehow, even the embarrassing moment pivoted into grace.
There's no denying, though, that “Moonlight's” win over “La La Land” was a massive upset, made only more pointed by the envelope gaffe. Chazelle's candy-colored musical was widely presumed to be a shoo-in for the top prize after its record-tying 14 nominations and a relative sweep of award season. The film still won six Oscars, including best director for Chazelle, who at 32 became the youngest ever to take the prize, and for score, song (“City of Stars”) and actress to Emma Stone.
The actress, who pledged her deep love of “Moonlight,” said later, “Is that the craziest Oscar moment of all time? Cool!”
The academy usually throws awards at films that gaze lovingly at Hollywood, but Barry Jenkins' heartfelt coming-of-age drama seduced academy voters in the end — a subtle tide change perhaps informed by both a prickly political climate and an urgent imperative to honor more diverse films after two consecutive years of OscarsSoWhite.
Diversity could be found in every corner of the awards this year, with supporting acting wins for “Moonlight's” Mahershala Ali and “Fences”' Viola Davis, although the best actor category proved to be a bit of an upset when Casey Affleck won for “Manchester by the Sea” over Denzel Washington of “Fences.”
The improvement followed efforts by Academy of Motions Pictures Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs to diversify the membership of the largely white, older and male film academy. “Tonight is proof that art has no borders, no single language and does not belong to a single faith,” said Isaacs.
Davis gave a particularly powerful speech in which she praised the late “Fences” playwright August Wilson who, she said, “Exhumed and exalted the ordinary people.” Host Jimmy Kimmel said later that Davis, “Just got nominated for an Emmy for that speech.”
Ezra Edelman, whose nearly eight-hour epic “O.J.: Made in America” took best documentary, dedicated the award to the victims of the famous crime, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
Rich Moore, one of the three directors of Disney's best animated film winner “Zootopia,” described the movie as about “tolerance being more powerful than fear of the other.”
The majority of speeches were moving and personal and generally in praise of art's ability to create empathy in the world, including Jenkins' in his win for adapted screenplay, who said, “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.” But not one speech came close to Meryl Streep's Golden Globes barnburner.
“Personally, I didn't say anything because my head was completely blank,” Affleck said backstage of his not political speech.
Instead, politics stayed largely with Kimmel, who kept his barbs coy and irreverent, stating at the start that he wasn't the man to unite the country.
The host peppered the evening with digs at President Trump, at one point asking the crowd to stand for the “overrated Meryl Streep.”
List of winners for the 89th annual Academy Awards presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.Best Picture: “Moonlight.”Actor: Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea.”Actress: Emma Stone, “La La Land.”Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali, “Moonlight.”Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, “Fences.”Directing: Damien Chazelle, “La La Land.”Foreign Language Film: “The Salesman,” Iran.Adapted Screenplay: “Moonlight,” screenplay by Barry Jenkins, story by Tarell Alvin McCraney.Original Screenplay: Kenneth Lonergan, “Manchester by the Sea.”Production Design: “La La Land,” Production Design: David Wasco; Set Decoration: Sandy Reynolds-Wasco.Cinematography: Linus Sandgren, “La La Land.”Sound Mixing: “Hacksaw Ridge,” Kevin O'Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace.Sound Editing: “Arrival,” Sylvain Bellemare.Original Score: “La La Land,” Justin Hurwitz.Original Song: “City of Stars” from “La La Land,” music by Justin Hurwitz, lyrics by Ben Pasek and Justin Paul.Costume Design: Colleen Atwood, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”Documentary (short subject): “The White Helmets,” Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara.Documentary Feature: “O.J.: Made in America,” Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow.Film Editing: “Hacksaw Ridge,” John Gilbert.Makeup and Hairstyling: “Suicide Squad,” Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson.Animated Feature Film: “Zootopia,” Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer.Animated Short Film: “Piper,” Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer.Live Action Short Film: “Sing,” Kristof Deak and Anna Udvardy.Visual Effects: “The Jungle Book,” Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Dan Lemmon.