If you're like me, you sat down in front of your TV or computer last week with a microwave bag of popcorn to watch the 2017 Academy Awards (The Oscars). As a self-proclaimed film buff, I was excited to see if my favorite films of the year were going to win the awards I wanted for them. In the previous months, I'd gone out and seen most of the films that were Oscar-hopefuls and ranked them all in my head. I listened to Oscar predictions and kept up to date with one of my favorite movie review podcasts How Many Fingers Am I Holding Up? to see which films the hosts thought would win. I was mostly happy with the results of the Oscars, but especially happy with the winner of the Best Picture category.
If you somehow didn't hear what happened at the end of the Oscars (or you live in a cave with no access to the outside world), when Best Picture was announced, it was announced (incorrectly) that La La Land had won. The whole cast got on stage and three producers gave their "thank you" speeches before the presenters and staff at the Oscars realized that somehow, they'd announced the wrong winner. The presenters of Best Picture had accidentally been given the envelope for Best Actress and when they'd seen "Emma Stone- La La Land" written on it, instead of making sure with Oscar staff that it was correct, they simply announced that La La Land had won. People are unsure whether the presenters just assumed they'd been given the wrong card but La La Land had won anyway, or if they truly thought the card inside the envelope was correct, but either way, after much confusion on stage, Jordan Horowitz (one of the producers of La La Land) realized the mistake and stepped up to the mic to announce that Moonlight had won Best Picture. "This is not a joke," he clarified, and after much commotion in the crowd, the cast of Moonlight replaced La La Land on stage.
While this was an unfortunate accident, it did cost Moonlight some of the glory they deserved for winning Best Picture. Eventually, they got their awards and they got to make their speeches, but it was after a lot of commotion. While I'm glad that Moonlight won over La La Land, I would recommend that you go out and watch some of the other Best Picture nominees as well: Lion was an amazing film about a boy who gets separated from his family in India and decades later decides to track them down, and Jackie (which I saw at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville, VA) tells the story of Jackie Kennedy before, during, and after her husband's assassination. I thought both of these films were also great candidates for Best Picture.
Moonlight was definitely deserving of Best Picture. First a play written by Tarell Alvin McCraney, Moonlight is a film that tells the life story of Chiron, a boy exploring life, sexuality, and relationships in the rougher parts of Miami. The film is split into the three main chapters of his life: Chiron as a kid, Chiron as a teenager, and Chiron as an adult. This film makes you reflect on your own life and since the film was partly based on the lives of Tarell Alvin McCraney and the director Barry Jenkins, and their experiences growing up in Miami, it's an incredibly personal message they're sending to viewers.
The Oscars this year were definitely eventful but ultimately I'm glad I got to witness that small piece of award show history. We'll always look back on that night as being one of the craziest things to happen at an award show in a very long time.
