Oof, wow, that was interesting. If you didn't see or, somehow, didn't already find out from another source, the Best Picture announcers Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway (marking the 50th anniversary of their iconic cinematic duo in the Oscar-winning (but not Best Picture-winning) film BONNIE AND CLYDE) made a boner that will not be soon forgotten when they announced the wrong movie as the winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture. As Beatty, frankly looking confused the whole time he was up there, prolonged the moment of the announcement after opening the envelope containing the name of the winning film, Dunaway snapped it from him, glanced at it and announced "La La Land". It was the expected winner, having swept up the top prizes at numerous preceding awards, and it had already won 6 of its record 14 Academy Award nominations that evening, including Best Director for Damien Chazelle, a category closely tied to Best Picture. A couple of acceptance speeches from the producers of LA LA LAND had already been given when LA LA LAND producer Jordan Horowitz stepped forward to begin the incredibly awkward correcting of the mistake. It would have been one thing if an upset had been falsely announced and it was then revealed that the movie everyone expected to win had actually won, but it was the other way around. To clarify that this was in no way a prank, the camera zoomed in on the card to show that it did, indeed, bear the title MOONLIGHT above the names Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner. On the one hand, it's still just a silly awards show/pageant that Hollywood throws for itself and in the end, it doesn't really matter that much. Every freaking year when the Oscars roll around, myself and anyone with anything to say about the Oscars has to restate that stupid point to mitigate whatever it is we're trying to say, but it's like the Super Bowl is just a game. People get invested in bullcrap because it's easier and more fun than getting invested in things that really matter, myself included so much. "What did you do, Warren??" ceremony host Jimmy Kimmel asked Beatty, half-jokingly. Beatty gave reasoning about seeing Emma Stone's name on the card (reportedly, he'd initially been given a Best Actress care for which she'd won, and that's why he stalled). I'm not upset about MOONLIGHT winning, but I liked LA LA LAND a little bit more and definitely kind of sad for them. They'll be fine, but in a more abstract sense, I kind of feel for the movie. Both LA LA LAND and MOONLIGHT are really good movies, and on the one hand, MOONLIGHT winning gives a spotlight to the rare and complex portrait of gay and black identity. In the last seven Academy Awards, only one of the Best Picture winners even had a single major black character in it, and that was 12 YEARS A SLAVE, obviously a movie about slavery. That's obviously not a good track record, and it culminated in #OscarsSoWhite last year. Then there's the famous and much lamented upset at the 78th Academy Awards when Academy voters turned down the most famous of gay films (and yet, ironically, one of the least gay of gay films) BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and gave the top prize to the trite race drama CRASH. So if the Academy goes with a movie about a gay black man's coming of age, that's not exactly a bad turn of events. The thing about MOONLIGHT, at least in my perspective, is that it's a good solid movie with some exceptional onscreen performances, all in the service of a tremendously under-served subject, but as a whole, the movie doesn't strike me as unique in and of itself. It's artistic, independent fare with intimate handheld photography, gritty urban landscapes and downcast moods. Where it shines is in the acting, most notably that of Mahershala Ali as a sympathetic, realistic crack dealer who deals with the guilt of what he does and becomes a mentor and father figure for young Chiron, and also Trevante Rhodes as the adult Chiron, toughened and withdrawn after years of pain when the opportunity to love comes back into his life.
LA LA LAND is a hybrid of something very traditional, a big and colorful show business musical romance, with a fresh and contemporary edge. It's not raw like MOONLIGHT. It's big, polished and peppy, with only a few roughened edges here and there, without the weight of a movie like MOONLIGHT. LA LA LAND entertains thoroughly, blurring the line between the cynicism of harsh reality ever present in a movie like MOONLIGHT and the candy-colored good feelings of classic Hollywood, while clearly embracing the latter. LA LA LAND has been the front-runner to win since before the race even got started, so there has been an inevitable backlash, but I'm little surprised at the level of some of that backlash and the vitriol and sense of schadenfreude that followed the Oscar mix-up. People stressed right now, and politics permeates into everything, which in most ways is good and connotes a strong sense of social consciousness, but the effort to make the LA LA LAND and MOONLIGHT awards competition is misguided and weird. Both movies get plenty of spotlight by being nominated in the first place, and while it's all about perspective regarding whether or not you like one movie more than another, there's not a "good guy" and a "bad guy" here. Neither one them is Steve Bannon. They're both Hillary Clinton; incredibly qualified films, except that LA LA LAND is a little more like Hillary Clinton because it gets a lot of hateful backlash and aggressive scrutiny about things that matter and a lot of things that don't. In any case, while a movie like MOONLIGHT can do a lot of good in representing and encouraging empathy for an underrepresented portion of society, I have a hard time seeing it maintaining as strong a reputation in years to come. LA LA LAND will have a devoted following and have a lasting cultural presence, while MOONLIGHT (and for that matter, last year's exceptional but somewhat overlooked Best Picture-winner, SPOTLIGHT) will be a hidden gem. What's really suspicious though is how two years in a row the Academy has managed to split the awards for Best Film Editing, Best Directing and Best Picture three different ways, despite those awards being traditionally closely correlated. Plus, while the Academy may enjoy spreading the love around, how they can vote in such synchronicity to ensure each of these three major awards go to three different movies doesn't make sense. Besides, how can you say the best movie of the year doesn't have the best directing and film editing? It's absurd. In any case, I thought SWISS ARMY MAN was the best movie of last year.
Winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture: MOONLIGHT
My Prediction: LA LA LAND
BEST DIRECTOR
Winner: Damien Chazelle for LA LA LAND
My Prediction: Damien Chazelle
At age 32, Damien Chazelle is the youngest person ever to win an Academy Award for Best Director, beating by a matter of months the previous record held by Norman Taurog, who won at the 4th Academy Awards for his 1931 comedy SKIPPY.
BEST ACTOR
Winner: Casey Affleck for MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
My Prediction: Casey Affleck
BEST ACTRESS
Winner: Emma Stone for LA LA LAND
My Prediction: Emma Stone
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Winner: Mahershala Ali for MOONLIGHT
My Prediction: Mahershala Ali
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Winner: Viola Davis for FENCES
My Prediction: Viola Davis
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Winner: MANCHESTER BY THE SEA by Kenneth Lonergan
My Prediction: MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Winner: MOONLIGHT by Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney
My Prediction: MOONLIGHT
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Winner: ZOOTOPIA
My Prediction: ZOOTOPIA
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Winner: THE SALESMAN
My Prediction: THE SALESMAN
I haven't seen any of the nominees in this category, but Iran's THE SALESMAN moved to the front of the pack when President Trump's attempted Muslim ban would have prevented Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi from attending. Even after the courts struck down Trumps executive order, Farhadi made a point of protest by not attending, and the Academy voters made a point of protest by awarding him his second Oscar (he previously won for his 2011 film A SEPARATION).
BEST DOCUMENTARY - FEATURE
Winner: O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA
My Prediction: O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA
BEST DOCUMENTARY - SHORT
Winner: THE WHITE HELMETS
My Prediction: WATANI: MY HOMELAND
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Winner: SING
My Prediction: ENNEMIS INTERIEURS
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Winner: PIPER
My Prediction: PIPER
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Winner: LA LA LAND
My Prediction: LA LA LAND
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Winner: "City of Stars" from LA LA LAND
My Prediction: "Audition" from LA LA LAND
BEST SOUND EDITING
Winner: ARRIVAL
My Prediction: LA LA LAND
BEST SOUND MIXING
Winner: HACKSAW RIDGE
My Prediction: LA LA LAND
Originally, I was guessing HACKSAW RIDGE for both sound categories and figured it had to win at least one of them, but then I got thinking that of course LA LA LAND is going to win as much as it reasonably can. Should have stuck with the original plan.
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Winner: LA LA LAND
My Prediction: LA LA LAND
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Winner: LA LA LAND
My Prediction: LA LA LAND
BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Winner: SUICIDE SQUAD
My Prediction: STAR TREK BEYOND
Academy Award-winner SUICIDE SQUAD. Ugh, gross. Of course, the Best Makeup category has always attracted some of the more unlikely nominees, even if they rarely win. For instance, there's Academy Award-nominee JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA, and Academy Award-nominee NORBIT, and Academy Award-nominee CLICK, and Academy Award-nominee THE TIME MACHINE (the one with Guy Pearce). Personally, I think the Academy Award-winning remake THE WOLFMAN is kind of fun, if not exactly finessed or particularly intelligent.
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Winner: FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM
My Prediction: LA LA LAND
Although not a part of the main series, FANTASTIC BEASTS is the first film in the Harry Potter or rather, J.K. Rowling Wizarding World franchise to win an Oscar, and it deserves it.
BEST FILM EDITING
Winner: HACKSAW RIDGE
My Prediction: LA LA LAND
In addition to the Best Picture mix-up, this was the other surprise of the night. There were other predictions I got wrong, but this was the one that really seemed out of place, seeing that this usually goes with a Best Picture-winner, and HACKSAW was not a front-runner in that race, and it doesn't do anything particularly special to earn it either. I liked HACKSAW RIDGE, but this one is pretty weird.
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Winner: THE JUNGLE BOOK
My Prediction: THE JUNGLE BOOK
I got 15 out of 24 right. It's not terrible.
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