Not even the most adventurous of Oscar pundits could have predicted presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway would walk onstage with the wrong envelope and accidentally name La La Land best picture, instead of actual winner Moonlight.
It was historic, it was shocking and it was great television. But what it was not was a real celebration of the achievement of Moonlight. Even the filmmakers couldn’t revel in their big moment.
“It’s hard to feel joy in a moment like that, in front of (the La La Land cast and crew),” star Mahershala Ali, who won best supporting actor for his role as a drug dealer and unlikely father figure in the film, told reporters backstage.
“The last 20 minutes of my life have been insane,” said director and writer Barry Jenkins. “I was speechless when the result was altered.”
The hubbub of such a monumental mistake on live television might make it easy to forget the things about Moonlight that helped catapult it to Hollywood’s highest honor in the first place. But that would be a huge disservice to the film.
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