“This is not a joke by the way. This is not a joke.” You know things are bad when, at possibly the most anticipated cultural moment of the year, you have to keep insisting what’s happening is not a bad skit. Yes, La La Land was announced as the winner of Best Picture at the 89th Academy Awards – but it later turned out that Moonlight had actually won the prize.
And the Academy Award for Best Picture ACTUALLY goes to… Moonlight! #Oscars pic.twitter.com/fubHaRH7Ds
— Channel 9 (@Channel9) February 27, 2017
We often talk about “Best Picture shocks”, but this was an unprecedented moment in Oscars history: an extraordinary sequence of live television that ended in the makers of La La Land, led by producer Jordan Horowitz, having to hand over the most prestigious award of the night, mid-acceptance speech, to the Moonlight team.
But Moonlight’s victory is shocking in a more significant way than the deep, horrible cringe you feel watching the La La Land team’s celebrations turn sour. It’s shocking because a genuinely original and urgent underdog film about the coming-of-age of a black gay man won Best Picture.
It’s tempting to see Moonlight’s win as part of a conversation that started last year, when the #OscarsSoWhite scandal began. But, of course, the Oscars has a much longer history of rewarding straight white stories and actors. This was the first Oscars in a decade with multiple black acting winners. Viola Davis became the first black person to receive an Oscar, Emmy and Tony for acting. Mahershala Ali became the first Muslim to win for acting, ever. In 2017.
This year’s awards saw the continuation of a split result for the Best Directing and Best Picture gongs – something that was once relatively rare but has happened almost every year since 2013. But while La La Land did still pick up six awards, and Moonlight three, there can be no doubt that this was Moonlight’s night.
“All you people out there who feel like there’s no mirror for you, that your life is not reflected… we have your back,” director Barry Jenkins said when accepting the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The biggest shock of the night wasn’t the seven-minute long fumble over who actually won Best Picture. It’s that a film about black gay love could move the voting members of an awards ceremony dogged by such a long history of racism. Oh, and that Suicide Squad is now an Oscar-winning film.
The full list of winners and nominees at the 2017 Academy Awards
Best picture
Winner: Moonlight
Arrival
Fences
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
Hidden Figures
La La Land
Lion
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight
Best director
Winner: La La Land – Damien Chazelle
Arrival – Denis Villeneuve
Hacksaw Ridge – Mel Gibson
Manchester by the Sea – Kenneth Lonergan
Moonlight – Barry Jenkins
Best actor
Winner: Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea
Andrew Garfield – Hacksaw Ridge
Ryan Gosling – La La Land
Viggo Mortensen – Captain Fantastic
Denzel Washington – Fences
Best actress
Winner: Emma Stone – La La Land
Isabelle Huppert – Elle
Ruth Negga – Loving
Natalie Portman – Jackie
Meryl Streep – Florence Foster Jenkins
Best supporting actor
Winner: Mahershala Ali – Moonlight
Jeff Bridges – Hell or High Water
Lucas Hedges – Manchester by the Sea
Dev Patel – Lion
Michael Shannon – Nocturnal Animals
Best supporting actress
Winner: Viola Davis – Fences
Naomie Harris – Moonlight
Nicole Kidman – Lion
Octavia Spencer – Hidden Figures
Michelle Williams – Manchester by the Sea
Best cinematography
Winner: La La Land – Linus Sandgren
Arrival – Bradford Young
Lion – Greig Fraser
Moonlight – James Laxton
Silence – Rodrigo Prieto
Best original score
Winner: La La Land – Justin Hurwitz
Jackie – Mica Levi
Lion – Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka
Moonlight – Nicholas Britell
Passengers – Thomas Newton
Best original song
Winner: La La Land – City of Stars by Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
La La Land – Audition by Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
Moana – How Far I’ll Go by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Trolls – Can’t Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin and Karl Johan Schuster
Jim: The James Foley Story – The Empty Chair by J Ralph and Sting
Best original screenplay
Winner: Manchester by the Sea – Kenneth Lonergan
20th Century Women – Mike Mills
Hell or High Water – Taylor Sheridan
La La Land – Damien Chazelle
The Lobster – Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou
Best adapted screenplay
Winner: Moonlight – Barry Jenkins and Alvin McCraney
Arrival – Eric Heisserer
Fences – August Wilson
Hidden Figures – Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi
Lion – Luke Davies
Best costume design
Winner: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – Colleen Atwood
Allied – Joanna Johnston
Florence Foster Jenkins – Consolata Boyle
Jackie – Madeline Fontaine
La La Land – Mary Zophres
Best make-up and hairstyling
Winner: Suicide Squad – Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson
A Man Called Ove – Eva Von Bahr and Love Larson
Star Trek Beyond – Joel Harlow and Richard Alonzo
Best documentary feature
Winner: OJ: Made in America
13th
Fire At Sea
I Am Not Your Negro
Life, Animated
Best sound editing
Winner: Arrival – Sylvain Bellemare
Deepwater Horizon – Wylie Stateman and Renee Tondelli
Hacksaw Ridge – Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright
La La Land – Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan
Sully – Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
Best sound mixing
Winner: Hacksaw Ridge – Kevin O’Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi – Gary Summers, Jeffrey J Haboush and Mac Ruth
Arrival – Bernard Gariepy Strobl and Claude La Haye
La La Land – Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee and Steve A Morrow
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – David Parker, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson
Best foreign language film
Winner: The Salesman – Iran
A Man Called Ove – Sweden
Land of Mine – Denmark
Tanna – Australia
Toni Erdmann – Germany
Best animated short
Winner: Piper – Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer
Blind Vaysha – Theodore Ushev
Borrowed Time – Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj
Pear Cider and Cigarettes – Robert Valley and Cara Speller
Pearl – Patrick Osborne
Best animated feature
Winner: Zootopia
Kubo and the Two Strings
Moana
My Life as a Zucchini
The Red Turtle
Best production design
Winner: La La Land – David Wasco and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco
Arrival – Patrice Vermette and Paul Hotte
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – Stuart Craig and Anna Pinnock
Hail, Caesar! – Jess Gonchor and Nancy Haigh
Passengers – Guy Hendrix Dyas and Gene Serdena
Best visual effects
Winner: The Jungle Book – Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R Jones and Dan Lemmon
Deepwater Horizon – Craig Hammack, Jason Snell, Jason Billington and Burt Dalton
Doctor Strange – Stephane Ceretti, Richard Bluff, Vincent Cirelli and Paul Corbould
Kubo and the Two Strings – Steve Emerson, Oliver Jones, Brian McLean and Brad Schiff
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel and Neil Corbould
Best film editing
Winner: Hacksaw Ridge – John Gilbert
Arrival – Joe Walker
Hell or High Water – Jake Roberts
La La Land – Tom Cross
Moonlight – Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon
Best documentary short
Winner: The White Helmets – Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara
4.1 Miles – Daphne Matziaraki
Extremis – Dan Krauss
Joe’s Violin – Kahane Cooperman and Raphaela Neihausen
Watani: My Homeland – Marcel Mettelsiefen and Stephen Ellis
Best live action short
Winner: Sing – Kristof Deak and Anna Udvardy
Ennemis Interieurs – Selim Azzazi
La Femme et le TGV – Timo Von Gunten and Giacun Caduff
Silent Nights – Aske Bang and Kim Magnusson
Timecode – Juanjo Gimenez
***
Now listen to Anna discussing the Oscars on the NS pop culture podcast, SRSLY:
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