Moonlight Shouldn’t Have To Share The Glory With La La Land

The morning after the epic mix-up over the Oscar for best picture, “La La Land” director Damien Chazelle and “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins met for coffee.

As it turns out, Beatty, 79, and Dunaway, 76, were given the wrong envelope by accident.

When Moonlight director Barry Jenkins eventually took to the microphone, he was visibly overwhelmed by the situation.

Box Office Mojo estimates Moonlight has already made over €20 million in the United States, and claims it’s likely to have made around the same amount across Europe by now, based on relevant figures. The unforgettable drama, lauded by critics and audiences alike, is nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Mahershala Ali), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Naomie Harris), Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing. It’s not a dream he’s allowed to have. “It’s weird to be friendly with someone but to feel like there’s a mano-a-mano thing, which I guess is the nature of the Oscars”.

“But hopefully those things are changing, and based on the response to this film, they should change, because I think people have a hunger to see themselves [represented in film]”. But now it’s happened. “Very clearly, even in my dreams this could not be true”, he said. “My love to La La Land, my love to everybody”.

So, after seeing the movie four times over the course of three months, I started on my own personal campaign trail.

Other members of the cast also felt that they had a responsibility to tell the stories of these otherwise unheard characters. “We are trying to show you, you and us, so thank you, thank you, this is for you”, said McCraney. And so there was shock, but also too, you know, I wanted to give him a hug.

The Oscar win Monday wasn’t the first big prize for “Moonlight“, which took home the best motion picture award from the 74th Golden Globes on January 8.

Unfortunately, in the midst of all the chaos, it seems as if the focus has remained on La La Land not winning Best Picture rather than Moonlight’s groundbreaking win.

“Beyond that, I didn’t want to say anything”, Jenkins admits. But something must be said. And I think there’s a lot of mutual respect. When he walked on stage, I remember sitting up and saying to @laurenhashianofficial, “What the f*cks he doing?”.

However, from a certain point of view, I can’t help but consider it one of the nicest #Oscars moments in recent memory. “I at first thought there was some kind of prank going on”.