Last year the Oscars suffered just about the biggest mix-up it was even possible for it to suffer when the wrong Best Picture winner was read out. The result was that when it was finally revealed that the gay-themed Moonlight was the real winner, in the confusion the makers of the movie didn’t get to give the speeches they’d planned and say what they wanted to.
The Academy gave director Barry Jenkins and the film’s producers the chance to receive their Best Picture award properly at this year’s ceremony, they declined as it couldn’t recapture the moment they had lost. However, at SXSW Jenkins has revealed what he would have said.
He starts with a shout-out to Tarell McCraney, whose wrote the play the movie was based on. Here’s the speech, as reprinted by Deadline, “Tarell and I are Chiron. We are that boy. And when you watch Moonlight, you don’t assume a boy who grew up how and where we did would grow up and make a piece of art that wins an Academy Award — certainly don’t think he would grow up to win Best Picture. I’ve said that a lot and what I’ve had to admit is that I placed those limitations on myself. I denied myself that dream — not you, not anyone else — me. And so, to anyone watching this who sees themselves in us, let this be a symbol, a reflection that leads you to love yourself. Because doing so may be the difference between dreaming at all and somehow, through the Academy’s grace, realizing dreams you never allowed yourself to have.”
After Moonlight picked up the Best Picture Oscar this year, many were wondering what movie director Barry Jekins would do next (he also picked up the Best Screeplay Academy Award. It’s taken him a few months to decide, but now it’s been announced he’s set to helm an adaptation of James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk, according to 
Well, writers have something new to include when it comes to Oscars biggest gaffes and bloopers – and this one will probably top the list for a very long time. Faye Dunaway read out that La La Land had won the Best Picture Oscar, the producers came up to the stage, and then, partway through the acceptance speeches, they were interrupted to be told, actually no, it was Moonlight that was the big winner.
Each year the day before the Oscars, the Independent Spirit Awards are held, which were set up as the equivalent of the Hollywood-centric Academy Awards but for movies made outside the mainstream. This year the big winner was Moonlight, which picked up five gongs.
The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association Dorian Award winners have been announced, and not too surprisingly, a lot of love has gone to Moonlight. The melancholy gay-themed drama, adapted from Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play about three phases of a man’s life, won five Dorians, including Film of the Year, LGBTQ Film of the Year, Director and Screenplay for Barry Jenkins and Best Film Actor for Mahershala Ali. Trevante Rhodes, who was nominated for Actor alongside Ali, was given the ‘We’re Wilde About You!’ Rising Star Award (named for the group’s patron saint, Oscar Wilde).
While Moonlight has been getting exceptional reviews, it looks like a lot of people have been underestimating its box office potential – probably because they presumed its gay and African-American themes would limit its appeal (which is also probably why it wasn’t picked up by a major distributor). However, it’s surprised many by scoring an exceptional $103,675 per screen average on its first weekend of release in the US.
Moonlight is one of the movies anticipated indie movies of the year, with some suggesting it has potential to be an awards contender. It’s already set to get a pretty prestigious debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in a couple of months time.