‘Moonlight’ makes mark in Oscar history
SHINE. Actor Mahershala Ali won Best Supporting Actor for his work in ‘Moonlight.’ He won the first award presented that evening and is the first Muslim actor to win such an award. The film portrays the story of a gay black man growing up in Miami and learning to deal with what comes around in the LGBTQ community.
Hollywood is known for its glamorous events and ceremonies. In particular, the spotlight shines the brightest during awards season. The 2017 Oscars were held on February 26 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
The crowd favorite film “La La Land” entered the event with 14 nominations, with viewers expecting big wins for the film. The movie ended up winning for Best Actress (Emma Stone), Best Director (Damien Chazelle), Best Original Music Score (Justin Hurwitz), Best Cinematography (Linus Sandgren), and Best Production Design (David Wasco and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco).
“I feel like ‘La La Land’ was meant to sweep the Oscars because the concept that Old Hollywood style is really appealing,” said Nikhil Sekar, 11.
Awards ceremonies are not complete without some confusion. When announcing the Best Picture winner, presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were given the wrong envelope, announcing the winner to be “La La Land” when in fact “Moonlight” had won.
“The mistake was really embarrassing, almost as awkward as Steve Harvey at the Miss Universe competition,” said Max Snyder, 11.
The mistake left several actors and actresses speechless at the snafu, and Twitter exploded with commotion. It is now being considered one of the most infamous moments in Oscar history.
“It was a pretty funny moment, but it is also pretty wrong because in modern times we should not have such issues occurring, especially at such a big event,” Sekar said.
In the previous year, the awards show was criticized for its lack of diversity, prompting the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. However, this year featured seven people of color out of the 20 nominees.
“Moonlight” became the first film with an all-black cast to win an Oscar for Best Picture. The overwhelming diversity of this year’s Academy Awards showed a great improvement from last year.
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