Oscars Special | ‘Moonlight’ wins best picture at botched Academy Awards

Oscar winner, take two.

Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” — not, as it turned out, “La La Land” — won best picture at the Academy Awards in a historic Oscar upset and an unprecedented fiasco that saw one winner swapped for another while the “La La Land” producers were in mid-speech.

Presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway apparently took the wrong envelope — the one for best actress winner Emma Stone — onto the stage for the final prize. When they read “La La Land” as the winner, representatives for ballot tabulators PwC — formerly Price Waterhouse Coopers — realized the mistake and raced onstage to try to stop the acceptance speeches. Host Jimmy Kimmel came forward to inform the cast that “Moonlight” had indeed won, showing the inside of the envelope as proof.

“I knew I would screw this up,” said Kimmel, a first-time host, actually repeating a line of his opening monologue filled with Trump jokes and allusions.

Gasps were heard around the auditorium. Presenters, winners and Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences huddled to discuss the debacle. Beatty refused to give up the envelopes until he could hand them first to Jenkins. Chazelle and Jenkins hugged amid the chaos.

“Even in my dreams this cannot be true,” said an astonished Jenkins, once he reached the microphone. “To hell with dreams! I’m done with it because this is true.”

Backstage, Stone said she was holding her winning envelope at the time. “I think everyone’s in a state of confusion still,” said Stone. Later the actress, who pledged her deep love of “Moonlight,” added, “Is that the craziest Oscar moment of all time? Cool!”

It was, nevertheless, a shocking upset considering that “La La Land” came in with 14 nominations, a record that tied it with “Titanic” and “All About Eve.” Barry Jenkins’ tender, bathed- in-blue coming-of-age drama, made for just USD1.5 million, is an unusually small Oscar winner. Having made just over $22 million as of yesterday at the box office, it’s one of the lowest grossing best-picture winners ever — but also one of the most critically adored. “Moonlight,” released by indie distributor A24, also had some major muscle behind it, including Brad Pitt’s Plan B, which also backed the 2015 winner “12 Years a Slave.”

“It was unfortunate that things happened as they did but, goddamn, we won best picture,” the still cool and composed Jenkins told reporters.

The “La La Land” team was celebrating onstage when producer Jordan Horowitz took to the microphone to say: “There’s been a mistake. ‘Moonlight,’ you guys won best picture.” He then graciously passed his statue to the “Moonlight” producers, saying, “This is not a joke.”

“I noticed the commotion that was happening and I thought that something strange had occurred,” Jenkins said backstage. “The last 20 minutes of my life have been insane.”

“Moonlight” co-star Mahershala Ali, the supporting actor winner, said the conclusion “threw me a bit.” ‘’I don’t want to go up there and take anything from someone,” he said afterward. “It’s very hard to feel joy in a moment like that.”

In a statement, PwC apologized to each film, Beatty, Dunaway and Oscar viewers. “The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected,” said the accounting firm. PwC, which has long watched over the Oscar ballots, said it was currently investigating “how this could have happened.”

For “La La Land,” a musical in which reality repeatedly intrudes on fantasy, it was another alternate ending. “La La Land” still collected a leading six awards, including honors for cinematography, production design, score, the song “City of Stars” and best director. Chazelle, the 32-year-old filmmaker, became the youngest to win best director. “This was a movie about love and I was luckily enough to fall in love while making it,” said Chazelle, speaking about his girlfriend and Oscars date, Olivia Hamilton.

Up until the frenzied end, the telecast had seesawed between jabs at Donald Trump and passionate arguments for inclusivity. “All you people out there who feel like there isn’t a mirror out there for you, the academy has your back, the ACLU has your back and for the next four years we will not leave you alone, we will not forget you,” said Jenkins, whose film is, in three chapters, about a young black kid growing up poor and gay in impoverished Miami.

Kenneth Lonergan, the New York playwright whose last film (“Margaret”) was beset by lawsuits and conflict, won best original screenplay for “Manchester by the Sea.” “I love the movies. I love being part of the movies,” said Lonergan. After the wild ending, Lonergan deadpanned to reporters, “It turned out that we actually won best picture.”

Shortly later, Affleck — in one of the night’s most closely watched races, won best actor — his first Oscar — for his soulful, grief-filled performance in Lonergan’s film. Affleck and Denzel Washington (“Fences”) were seen as neck-and-neck in the category. An admittedly “dumbfounded” Affleck looked shocked when his name was read. “Man I wish I had something bigger and more meaningful to say,” said Affleck, who hugged his more famous brother, Ben, before taking the stage.

The show kicked off with Justin Timberlake dancing down the Dolby Theatre aisles, singing his ebullient song, “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” from the animated film “Trolls.” It was an early cue that the Oscars would steer, at least in part, toward festiveness rather than heavy-handedness. Protests, boycotts and rallies have swirled ahead of Sunday night’s Oscars. But Kimmel, in his opening monologue, quickly acknowledged that he “was not that guy” to heal a divided America.

But he pointedly led a standing ovation for the “overrated” Meryl Streep and later tweaked the president by tweeting to him on air, including telling him that Streep “says hi.”

Viola Davis, co-star of Denzel Washington’s August Wilson adaptation “Fences,” won best supporting actress. She and Ali, both widely expected winners, marked the first time in more than a decade that multiple Oscar acting honors went to black actors.

“I became an artist, and thank god I did, because we are the only profession to celebrate what it means to live a life,” said Davis, the best supporting actress winner. “So here’s to August Wilson, who exhumed and exalted the ordinary people.”

The evening’s most blunt protest came from a winner not in attendance. Best foreign film for the second time went to Asghar Farhadi, director of Iran’s “The Salesman.” Farhadi, who also won for his “A Separation,” had said he wouldn’t attend because of Trump’s travel ban to seven predominantly Muslim nations. Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian astronaut, read a statement from Farhadi.

“I’m sorry I’m not with you tonight,” it read. “My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S.”

The broadcast often veered between such strong personal statements and Kimmel’s efforts to keep things a little lighter with bits reminiscent of his late-night show. Shortly before he led a dazed, unsuspecting tour group into the theater, presenter Gael Garcia Bernal, the Mexican actor, declared: “As a migrant worker, as a Mexican, and as a human being, I am against any wall.” Rich Moore, one of the three directors of Disney’s best animated film winner “Zootopia,” described the movie as about “tolerance being more powerful than fear of the other.”

Mel Gibson’s World War II drama “Hacksaw Ridge” was, surprisingly, the evening’s first double winner, taking awards for editing and sound mixing. Gibson, for a decade a pariah in Hollywood, was seated front and center for the show, and was a frequent presence throughout.

Ezra Edelman’s “O.J.: Made in America” took best documentary, making it — at 467 minutes — the longest Oscar winner ever, beating out the 1969 Best Foreign Language Film winner “War and Peace” (431 minutes). Edelman’s documentary, while it received an Oscar-qualifying theatrical release, was seen by most on ESPN as a serial, prompting some to claim its place was at the Emmys, not the Oscars.

Edelman dedicated the award to the victims of the famous crime, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. “This is also for other victims, victims of police violence, police brutality,” Edelman said. “This is their story as it is Ron and Nicole’s.”

The “OscarsSoWhite” crisis of the last two years was largely quelled this season by a richly diverse slate of nominees, thanks to films like “Moonlight,” “Fences” and “Hidden Figures.” A record six black actors are nominated. For the first time ever, a person of color is nominated in each acting category.

“I want to say thank you to President Trump,” Kimmel said in the opening. “Remember last year when it seemed like the Oscars were racist?”

The nominees follow the efforts by Academy of Motions Pictures Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs to diversify the membership of the largely white, older and male film academy. “Tonight is proof that art has no borders, no single language and does not belong to a single faith,” said Isaacs. Jake Coyle, Los Angeles, AP

A snafu for the ages tops Oscar’s notable moments

Let’s hope they all just went out and had a stiff drink together and laughed about it.

As for us, forget everything that came before it — the political barbs and the calls for inclusiveness, the emotional crescendos and the floating cookies. The moment we’ll be discussing for years to come will be the Great Mistake of Oscars 2017, when “La La Land” was shockingly named the best picture winner, to be corrected only after the film’s producers had made joyful speeches. Only then was the rightful winner, “Moonlight,” announced.

A dance party to start

Justin Timberlake had promised a politics-free opening and he delivered, getting the party going with a high-energy medley. He started in the lobby and danced through the aisles as he sang his Oscar-nominated song “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” high-fiving people like Denzel Washington and getting A-list actors up and dancing. Kimmel joked that if Timberlake’s former ‘N Sync bandmates were watching, they’d probably let him back into the band.

An ovation for “overrated” Meryl

In his monologue, Kimmel made pointed barbs about nemesis Matt Damon, and the age of best director nominee (and eventual winner) Damien Chazelle, 32, of “La La Land.” But he saved his most pointed jokes for the actress President Donald Trump famously called “overrated” — the much-decorated Meryl Streep, nominated for the 20th time. Kimmel said Streep had “stood the test of time for her many uninspiring and overrated performances” and “phoned it in for more than 50 films.” Streep, who has been unstinting in her criticism of Trump, received a standing ovation.

A real “hidden figure” makes an appearance

She said only two words — “thank you” — but it was a stirring moment. Former NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, 98, an inspiration for the film “Hidden Figures,” was wheeled onstage to a thunderous ovation. She was introduced by Taraji P. Henson, who played her, and the other two actresses who played female black mathematicians in the Oscar-nominated picture, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae.

A historic night for Viola Davis

Viola Davis gave one of the more emotional speeches of the night when she won best supporting actress for “Fences.”

“I became an artist, and thank God I did, because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life,” she said, in tears.

Davis had previously won a Tony award in the same role in the August Wilson play, also starring opposite Denzel Washington. “Here’s to August Wilson who exhumed and exalted the ordinary people,” she said.

A win — on the 21st try

If there was extra applause for the sound editing award, it was because Kevin O’Connell had won on his 21st try — after not being in contention since 2007. It had been the longest losing streak in Oscar history. O’Connell won for his work on “Hacksaw Ridge.”

“I can’t even tell you the experience that it was for me,” O’Connell said backstage, of finally winning. “It’s the greatest feeling I’ve had in my entire life.”

A political speech, in absentia

The most political speech of the night came from a winner who wasn’t present. When “The Salesman” from Iran, directed by Asghar Farhadi, won best foreign-language film, Iranian astronaut Anousheh Ansari accepted the award on his behalf; Farhadi had stayed home to protest Trump’s travel ban. “My absence is out of respect for the people of my country,” Farhadi said in the statement, “and those of other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S.”

It was the second Oscar for Farhadi, who previously won in the same category for “A Separation” in 2012.

“Dividing the world into the ‘us’ and ‘our enemies’ categories creates fear,” he said. “A deceitful justification for aggression and war.”

Gary gets hitched — sort of

Not all Hollywood bus tours are worth their while. THIS one was.

An unsuspecting group of tourists got a trip right into the Oscar ceremony. Kimmel told the Dolby Theatre audience that the group was told they were going to stop at an exhibit of Oscar gowns and tuxedos. “But we didn’t tell them,” Kimmel said, “that people would be in them.”

The lights went down in the theater, then came up as the group walked in to cheers from Hollywood’s royalty.

Among the group was Gary Cole of Chicago who quickly became a trending hashtag on Twitter — #GaryFromChicago — and the Chicago Bulls offered him tickets to a game.

Cookies from heaven

At the Golden Globes, they serve dinner. At the Oscars, people are hungry. And so Kimmel and producers delivered candy, popcorn, and later, cookies too, which came soaring down from the rafters in little bags. Kimmel quipped that maybe to save time, the Oscars should be handed out this way next year. (Would that have prevented the best-picture snafu, one wonders?)

Nice one, Mom

Winners often thank their moms, but Benj Pasek, one of the best original song winners from “La La Land,” had an especially endearing shoutout for his mother. “I want to thank my mom who is amazing and my date tonight and she let me quit the JCC soccer league to be in a school musical,” he said. “So this is dedicated to all the kids who sing in the rain and all the moms who let them.” Another mom who had a good night: Lin-Manuel Miranda’s, who heard Kimmel announce to the world that her son was an American national treasure. (Miranda, an original song nominee for “Moana,” was denied his EGOT, however, when he lost to “City of Stars” from “La La Land.”

Hollywood flubs its lines, big time

yes, Chazelle won best director for his exuberant direction of “La La Land.” Casey Affleck won best actor for his searing performance in “Manchester By the Sea,” and Emma Stone for her luminous work in “La La Land.” But then… came that mess-up of blockbuster proportions, when Warren Beatty was somehow handed the wrong envelope. Now we know why Beatty had such a strange look on his face as his presenting partner Faye Dunaway read the name of the winner — “La La Land.” Then came the correction, and gasps, and whistles, and general chaos.

As a stunned “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins said: “Oh, my goodness.”