SANTA MONICA — After an initial flub in which “La La Land” was mistakenly presented with the Best Picture Award, “Moonlight” officially took home the honors at the 89th Academy Awards last night.
Hollywood legends and presenters, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, were on stage holding what appeared to be the winning envelope for the category, but slight hesitation was apparent on Beatty’s face after he viewed the contents of the envelope. Dunaway then took the envelope and announced that “La La Land” had won.
The team behind the successful musical had already begun their acceptance speeches when Jordan Horowitz, one of the producers, realized the mistake and found the correct envelope onstage. Seeing that “Moonlight” was written on the envelope, Horowitz went up to the mic to address the situation and presented the award to the rightful recipient. Beatty then went up to the mic and apologetically explained that he had been handed the wrong envelope.
Amidst the confusion, “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins graciously accepted the award, saying:
“There was a time when I thought this movie was impossible because I couldn’t bring it to fruition, I couldn’t bring myself to tell another story so everybody behind me on this stage said ‘no” that is not acceptable. So I just want to thank everybody up there behind me, everybody out there in that room, we didn’t do this, you guys chose us. Thank you for the choice, I appreciate it so I just want to thank everybody up there behind me.”
The film was also awarded Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali) and Best Adapted Screenplay.
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