Wow….did that just happen? The better question is, How in the Hell did that happen? How exactly did Warren Beatty announce “La La Land” as the “Best Picture” winner, only to have it reversed in favor of “Moonlight” moments later when “La La Land'” producer Jordan Horowitz?
Warren Beatty claims there was a mix-up with the envelopes, but that’s not what Emma Stone says: (click on her image below).
In fact, here are her exact words when the media asked her to comment on being involved in the greatest Oscar scandal of all time. “I don’t mean to start stuff, but whatever story that was, I had that card. So I’m not sure what happened,” Stone said. In other words, Warren Beatty couldn’t have been handed Emma Stone’s envelope, if Emma Stone was clutching onto it backstage.
Accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers claims there are always two envelopes for each winning category – a statement they made during BBC interview earlier in the week, so it is conceivable the mix-up was valid.
Hmmm, sounds like we’ve got a healthy conspiracy theory brewing. Here’s a quick clip of the debacle:
In any case, “Moonlight,” a $1.5 million dollar independently financed coming-of-age film about a gay black teenager in a rough neighbor in Miami, became the smallest budgeted film to ever win “Best Picture” at the Oscars, Should you be wondering what the next smallest budget to win the “Best Picture,” was, that would be “Precious,” (released in 2009 and won the “Best Picture” Oscar in 2010), which had a $10 million budget.
“Moonlight,” which was released on October 21, 2016, has earned $21,520,324 at the box office domestically, and another $3,689,457 internationally, giving it a combined box office total of $25,209,781.
Furthermore, in addition to “Moonlight,” earning the “Best Picture” award, it also won two more Oscars; Mahershala Ali won for “Best Actor in a Supporting Role,” and director Barry Jenkins won the “Best Adapted Screenplay,” Oscar alongside Tarell Alvin McCraney, who based the script on his own play, “Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue.”
Minority artists had a big night at the 89th annual Academy Awards. In addition to Moonlight’s well-deserved wins, Viola Davis won the “Best Actress in a Supporting Role,” Oscar for “Fences,” and Ezra Edelman won “Best Feature Film Documentary” for “O.J.: Made in America.” Additionally, here are other key points on how the evening parted from the status quo:
- The 2017 edition of the Academy Awards marked the first time that black actors were nominated in each of the four major acting categories.
- Six black actors were nominated in the top four acting categories.
- Four of the five “Best Documentary” nominees were black, including the winner, Ezra Edleman for “O.J.: Made in America,” which, at 467 minutes, also set the record for being the longest film to ever win an Oscar.
After the outcry of #Oscarsowhite in 2015, the Academy invited 683 new Academy Members; from 59 different countries; 41% of which are women and 46% of which are non-white. But, never in a million years did I think the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would correct itself in front of millions of viewers on TV and countless streaming services, but they did and I, for one, am thankful. So, things are changing, ever so slowly, but markedly, which is good.
On that note, I’ll wrap up today’s article. By the way, Should you be as so kind to lend me your ears, please check out the iTunes link to my podcast, Limping on Cloud 9. Additionally, here is a link to our website: Limping on Cloud 9. I’d like to once again thank you for lending me your eyes.