Diversity Wins The Night As ‘Moonlight’ Takes Best Picture At 2017 Oscars

Barry Jenkins, foreground left, and the cast accept the award for best picture for “Moonlight” at the Oscars on Sunday at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
Barry Jenkins, foreground left, and the cast accept the award for best picture for "Moonlight" at the Oscars on Sunday at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Chris Pizzello / Invision/Associated Press
Barry Jenkins, foreground left, and the cast accept the award for best picture for “Moonlight” at the Oscars on Sunday at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
Barry Jenkins, foreground left, and the cast accept the award for best picture for "Moonlight" at the Oscars on Sunday at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Chris Pizzello / Invision/Associated Press

Diversity Wins The Night As ‘Moonlight’ Takes Best Picture At 2017 Oscars

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If you called it a night as soon as  La La Land was announced best picture, you didn’t get the whole story.  Moonlight, in fact, took home that prize.

In a shocking end-of-night twist,  La La Land was incorrectly announced as best picture. In the midst of the celebration,  La La Land‘s cast and crew were all smiles as they gathered on stage.

But then, mid-speech, one of  La La Land‘s producers, Jordan Horowitz, had to break the news.

“There’s a mistake. ’ Moonlight,’ you guys won best picture,” Horowitz said. He added, “This is not a joke.”

He then held up the card to the cameras and handed off the award to  Moonlight most graciously, as confusion swept the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Presenters Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty had mistakenly announced  La La Land as the winner. Though it’s still unclear what led to the mishap, Beatty says he was reading from what appeared to be the best actress envelope, with both  La La Landand star Emma Stone’s name printed on the card.

“What have you done?” Jimmy Kimmel chided Beatty.

Beatty explained onstage, “I opened the envelope and it said Emma Stone,  La La Land. That’s why I took such a long look at Faye [Dunaway] and at you — I wasn’t trying to be funny.”

Watch: Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in the biggest #Oscars flub ever.

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The night wasn’t a complete letdown for  La La Land, which had been favored to win big. The glitzy romance musical led the field with six Oscars, including best director (Damien Chazelle) and best actress (Emma Stone), out of a record-tying 14 nominations. Coming-of-age drama  Moonlight took home three wins, including best supporting actor (Mahershala Ali), and  Manchester By The Sea won best original screenplay (Kenneth Lonergan) and best actor (Casey Affleck).

Winners or not, the 89th Academy Awards nomination roster already looked significantly more diverse than in recent seasons. For the first time in Oscars history, a black actor was nominated in every acting category in the same year.

After two straight years of picking nominations that lacked any people of color in an acting category, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences seems to have turned the tide some this year. The Academy has upped the diversity of its membership in response to last year’s protests — and it shows.

Three films honored in the best picture category in particular — Fences, Hidden Figures and Moonlight — all feature mostly black characters filled by at least one nominated actor or actress, from Moonlight‘s Oscar rookie Mahershala Ali (also featured in Hidden Figures) to two-time winner Denzel Washington (Fences). African-American filmmakers dominate the documentary feature slot.

But out of all 24 categories, glitzy romance musical La La Land is favored to win big, with 14 nominations in 13 categories (a record tie with Titanic‘s and All About Eve‘s 14 nominations). The coming-of-age drama Moonlight shares the second-most nominations with sci-fi thriller Arrival.

As you kick back and tick off your Oscar pool picks, leave it to us to complete the full nomination list below as the winners are handed their golden statuettes.

We’ve marked the winners in bold.

2017 Nominations

BEST PICTURE

Arrival

Fences

Hacksaw Ridge

Hell or High Water

Hidden Figures

La La Land

Lion

Manchester by the Sea

Moonlight

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea

Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge

Ryan Gosling, La La Land

Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic

Denzel Washington, Fences

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Isabelle Huppert, Elle

Ruth Negga, Loving

Natalie Portman, Jackie

Emma Stone, La La Land

Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Mahershala Ali, Moonlight

Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water

Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea

Dev Patel, Lion

Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Viola Davis, Fences

Naomie Harris, Moonlight

Nicole Kidman, Lion

Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures

Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Kubo and the Two Strings

Moana

My Life as a Zucchini

The Red Turtle

Zootopia

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Arrival

La La Land

Lion

Moonlight

Silence

COSTUME DESIGN

Allied

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Florence Foster Jenkins

Jackie

La La land

DIRECTING

Damien Chazelle, La La Land

Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge

Barry Jenkins, Moonlight

Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea

Denis Villenueve, Arrival

DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)

Fire at Sea

I Am Not Your Negro

Life, Animated

OJ: Made In America

13th

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)

Extremis

4.1 Miles

Joe’s Violin

Watani: My Homeland

The White Helmets

FILM EDITING

Arrival

Hacksaw Ridge

Hell or High Water

La La Land

Moonlight

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Land of Mine, Denmark

A Man Called Ove, Sweden

The Salesman, Iran

Tanna, Australia

Toni Erdmann, Germany

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

A Man Called Ove

Star Trek Beyond

Suicide Squad

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

Jackie

La La Land

Lion

Moonlight

Passengers

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

“Audition (The Fools Who Dream),” La La Land

“Can’t Stop the Feeling,” Trolls

“City of Stars,” La La Land

“The Empty Chair,” Jim: The James Foley Story

“How Far I’ll Go,” Moana

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Arrival

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Hail, Caesar!

La La Land

Passengers

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

Blind Vaysha

Borrowed Time

Pear Cider and Cigarettes

Pearl

Piper

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

Ennemis Interieurs

La Femme Et Le TGV

Silent Nights

Sing

Timecode

SOUND EDITING

Arrival

Deepwater Horizon

Hacksaw Ridge

La La Land

Sully

SOUND MIXING

Arrival

Hacksaw Ridge

La La Land

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

VISUAL EFFECTS

Deepwater Horizon

Doctor Strange

The Jungle Book

Kubo and the Two Strings

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

Arrival

Fences

Hidden Figures

Lion

Moonlight

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

Hell or High Water

La La Land

The Lobster

Manchester by the Sea

20th Century Women

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