The Academy Awards outdid themselves this year and we all need at least a week to catch our breaths to discuss everything that went down. Moonlight took home the top award of the night Best Picture after a confused Faye Dunaway announced La La Land as the winner. We’re still not sure exactly who made the mistake behind-the-scenes, but both of these films really deserved to win.
“Moonlight” & “La La Land” Shine at the Oscars
For his role in this coming-of-age story from a dysfunctional family growing up in Miami, Mahershala Ali was awarded the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. This marks the first time a muslim actor has ever won an Oscar. During his speech, he thanked his teachers and professors saying, “One thing they consistently told me was that it wasn’t about you. It’s not about you, it’s about these characters, you are a servant. You’re in service to these stories and these characters.”
Moonlight also won for Best Adapted Screenplay for Barry Jenkins and Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney.
Emma Stone beat Meryl Streep for the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Mia in the musical La La Land. Stone had a lot to celebrate Sunday night after her film won a total of six gold statuettes including Best Director for Damien Chazelle, Best Cinematography for Linus Sandgren, Best Production Design, and Original Score.
Mel Gibson’s Manchester By The Sea did not go empty handed by any means. Casey Affleck was honored with the Oscar for Best Lead Actor, Best Original Screenplay for Kenneth Lonergan, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound Mixing.
Moana missed out on Oscar gold twice when Zootopia took home Best Animated Feature and Lin-Manuel Miranda lost to La La Land in the Original Song category. If Miranda would have won, he would’ve become the youngest EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner and only the second ever Latino to be honored with all four.
Another big winner was Viola Davis who took home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in Fences. She said, “You know, there is one place that all the people with the greatest potential are gathered and that’s the graveyard. People ask me all the time — what kind of stories do you want to tell, Viola? And I say exhume those bodies. Exhume those stories — the stories of the people who dreamed big and never saw those dreams to fruition, people who fell in love and lost.”
