Moviefone Editorial

Tag: moonlight

  • Ryan Gosling Has a Semi-Serious Reason for Laughing Through Oscars Fiasco

    89th Annual Academy Awards - ShowObviously, Ryan Gosling won the 2017 Oscar for Best Reaction to That Hot Mess. While everyone else lost their poop through the “La La Land”/”Moonlight” Best Picture snafu, Gosling just stood on stage with the “La La Land” crowd and giggled:

    He looked so amused, like he forgot he was part of the losing movie’s team, and instead thought he was watching from home in his PJs like the rest of us.

    Gosling explained his thought process this week during a talk with Adobe CMO Ann Lewnes at the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas. As he put it, his laughter was more in relief than amusement.

    “What really was happening as I was watching, it was surreal anyway, I was watching people start to have this panicked reaction in the crowd and guys were coming on with headsets and I felt like someone had been hurt. I thought there was some kind of medical situation, and I had this worst-case scenario playing out in my head. And then I just heard ‘Moonlight’ won and I was so relieved that I started laughing.”

    Yes, it is very Hollywood to get so melodramatic over an award that a reasonable person might think there was an actual crisis, like a heart attack.

    The Gos was not even slightly upset about “La La Land” losing Best Picture:

    “Truthfully, I was also so thrilled that Moonlight won. I know the director [Barry Jenkins] … I’ve worked with them before. It’s such a groundbreaking film, made for a million dollars, and incredible achievement and I’m so happy for them that they were being recognized.”

    And he was used to losing at that point, since he lost Best Actor to Casey Affleck. But it’s not like “La La Land” went home empty-handed. Damien Chazelle won Best Director, Emma Stone won Best Actress, and the film won awards for cinematography, music score, and production design. Plus, Gosling won himself a few more memes, making him some kind of unofficial lifetime champion.

    Read People’s full post for his reaction to his cereal meme, among other things.

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  • ‘Moonlight’ Expanding to More Than 1,500 Theaters This Weekend

    MoonlightNewly crowned Oscars Best Picture winner “Moonlight” will get its moment in the sun.

    The drama — which won the award after an unprecedented snafu that erroneously honored “La La Land” first — will get a wide release to more than 1,500 theaters across the country, five months after it first opened. That’s a bigger release than the two previous Best Pictures, “Spotlight” and “Birdman,” received after their wins.

    “Moonlight” is already available on DVD and Digital HD. Last weekend, it played in 585 theaters and made $591,000. Since the movie received the Academy Award nomination on Jan. 24, its total box office has risen 39 percent. Experts predict that another $4 to $6 million will come in during the wider release.

    In addition to Best Picture, “Moonlight” won two Oscars — Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali and Best Adapted Screenplay for Barry Jenkins.

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  • ‘Moonlight’ Director Barry Jenkins Reveals His Real Best Picture Acceptance Speech

    89th Annual Academy Awards - ShowTo say that “Moonlight“‘s thunder was stolen during Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony is an epic understatement. But while the film’s Best Picture achievement may have been eclipsed by the colossal mix-up that initially had fellow nominee “La La Land” mistakenly crowned the winner, director Barry Jenkins isn’t bitter, and has revealed what he had initially planned to say had he had his proper moment in the spotlight.

    In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jenkins reflected on the chaos that occurred at the end of the ceremony, and how it immediately blocked out any sort of prepared statement he had wanted to deliver should his film have nabbed the night’s top prize. While the director — who also co-wrote the film’s screenplay, which also took home an Oscar — did make a brief acceptance speech, he told EW, “It was an imperfect situation and it was an imperfect statement that didn’t come out the right way but it is what it is.”

    Now that he’s had some time to reflect on his film’s achievement, he told the magazine what he had wanted to say all along. Here’s how he explained it to EW:

    “[Moonlight playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney] and I are this kid. We are Chiron,” he says, referring to his background as a child from Liberty City, Miami, whose mother once struggled with drug addiction. “And you don’t think that kid grows up to be nominated for eight Academy Awards. It’s not a dream he’s allowed to have. I still feel that way. I didn’t think this was possible. But now I look at other people looking at me and if I didn’t think it was possible, how are they going to? But now it’s happened. So what I think of possibility, let’s take it off the table. The thing has happened.”

    Jenkins also had more complimentary things to say about “La La Land” producer Jordon Horowitz, who was the one to announce the mistake, and insist that the “Moonlight” filmmakers take the stage to accept their rightful awards. The director said that that moment in particular helps soften any sort of hard feelings about Sunday night.

    “It will be remembered and I think in a beautiful way,” he told EW of the odd confluence of events.

    We applaud Jenkins for revealing himself to be such a gracious, classy person in the midst of such an surreal ordeal. (His brand new status as an Oscar winner probably doesn’t hurt his optimistic attitude, either.)

    [via: Entertainment Weekly]

  • Oscars 2017: Jimmy Kimmel Reveals What Went Down During Best Picture Chaos

    89th Annual Academy Awards - ShowIn what he calls “the weirdest TV finale since ‘Lost,’” Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel is finally speaking out about what went down during the huge mix-up that led to presenters accidentally awarding “La La Land” with the Best Picture prize, when it should have actually gone to “Moonlight.” According to Kimmel, the entire bizarre event was just as chaotic in person as it looked on television.

    During his monologue on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Monday night, the host broke down the snafu in detail, revealing that he was sitting in the audience watching the presentation, since he planned to end the show while doing one final bit with Matt Damon. But that bit never happened, because while the “La La Land” team was in the midst of accepting the award, Kimmel noticed the show’s stage manager come out onto the stage, something that never happens.

    The host realized he should probably go up on stage, too, but still didn’t know what was going on. That’s when “La La Land” producer Jordan Horowitz took the mic to reveal that “Moonlight” had actually won.

    “It was kind of scary, in a way,” Kimmel said. ” … He’s standing there holding an Oscar that they’re now going to take away from him, and my first instinct was to tell him to run — take that Oscar and get out. But he didn’t. So now there’s mass confusion. The audience is confused, the people standing around me are confused, I assume everyone at home is confused, and I’m probably supposed to do something, because no one’s doing anything. And then Warren Beatty steps up to explain.”

    Later, Kimmel and Beatty powwowed backstage (co-presenter Faye Dunaway, meanwhile, “got the hell out of there,” Kimmel said. “She wanted no part of this.”), where the presenter showed the host the incorrect Best Actress envelope and the pair tried to figure out how Beatty got that card in the first place. The rest of the night, the host said, was spent being accosted at the after parties by people clamoring to know what had happened.

    While some of the pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together, Kimmel’s account is a great firsthand summation of the confusion and chaos that viewers saw on their screens Sunday night. While he pledged in his Oscars sign-off that he would never return to host, we kind of hope that he gets the chance to do so, if only to enjoy a less-crazy finish than the one he witnessed. Then again, at least he’s got a killer story to tell for the rest of time.

    [via: Jimmy Kimmel/Twitter]

  • Oscars 2017: The Academy Apologizes for Best Picture Snafu, Vows to Investigate

    89th Annual Academy Awards - ShowThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has finally Oscars, apologizing for the mix-up that accidentally awarded the Best Picture prize to “La La Land” instead of the actual winner, “Moonlight.”

    In the statement, the Academy said that accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers had taken full responsibility for the error, in which one of the two PwC representatives stationed backstage at the ceremony handed presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway the wrong envelope. The Academy pledged to launch an investigation into the snafu, and also apologized to the filmmakers from both features, as well as Beatty and Dunaway and viewers at home.

    Here’s the full statement:

    “We deeply regret the mistakes that were made during the presentation of the Best Picture category during last night’s Oscar ceremony. We apologize to the entire cast and crew of La La Land and Moonlight whose experience was profoundly altered by this error. We salute the tremendous grace they displayed under the circumstances. To all involved — including our presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, the filmmakers, and our fans watching worldwide — we apologize.

    For the last 83 years, the Academy has entrusted PwC to handle the critical tabulation process, including the accurate delivery of results. PwC has taken full responsibility for the breaches of established protocols that took place during the ceremony. We have spent last night and today investigating the circumstances, and will determine what actions are appropriate going forward. We are unwaveringly committed to upholding the integrity of the Oscars and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.”

    No word yet on whether the Academy will drop PwC following this major mess-up. Stay tuned.

    [via: Variety]

  • Oscars 2017: ‘Moonlight’ and ‘La La Land’ Filmmakers Share the Love After Awkward Mix-Up

    89th Annual Academy Awards - ShowIn what must have been one of the most humiliating moments of his life, “La La Land” producer Jordan Horowitz had to tell the world on Sunday night that his movie did not, in fact, win Best Picture at the Oscars, after it was initially mistakenly announced as the victor instead of actual Best Picture honoree “Moonlight.” But Horowitz and “Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins have proven that even such a surreal, embarrassing moment can have a positive outcome, especially when both winner and loser are so gracious toward one another.

    The filmmakers were the picture of poise and mutual respect Sunday night (and early Monday morning, as the show stretched into the wee hours) as the surreal event played out on the telecast. No fewer than three producers from “La La Land” had already given acceptance speeches, thinking they were Best Picture winners, when presenter Warren Beatty, host Jimmy Kimmel, and show producers stormed the stage with the correct envelope (no, not the one declaring “Lemonade” the winner) to try to explain what happened.

    Horowitz could have slunk away to stew about the embarrassing turn of events, but instead, he snatched the envelope declaring “Moonlight”‘s victory and took it upon himself to reveal the true winner. As a clearly uncomfortable Kimmel joked that he wished everyone from both “La La Land” and “Moonlight” could get a statuette, Horowitz insisted on presenting Jenkins and the other “Moonlight” producers with their rightful prizes, telling the host, “I’m going to be really thrilled to hand this to my friends from ‘Moonlight.’”

    While some internet commentators have noted that Horowitz didn’t exactly do anything revolutionary — after all, he didn’t win that Oscar, and should have just handed it over anyway without any special recognition for doing do — Jenkins counted himself among those impressed by the producer’s poise during such an awkward (and surely pretty painful) moment. In a backstage interview after the broadcast, Jenkins told reporters, “the folks from ‘La La Land’ were so gracious. I can’t imagine being in their position and having to do that. … I wasn’t speechless because we won. I was speechless because I — it was so gracious of them to do that.”

    In a tweet sent out later that night, the director reflected on what the event must have felt like for Horowitz, writing that he had “much respect” for the producer. As Horowitz tweeted in reply, that feeling went both ways.

    In an interview with The Washington Post, Horowitz further elaborated on what was going through his mind as the mistake unfolded, insisting that he didn’t think he did anything extraordinary.

    “That moment on stage was not about anything but moving the spotlight to where it should have rightfully been. … [S]etting it right was in my mind the only option,” he told the Post. ” … All I know is there was a moment when I knew and it needed to be corrected. There was just so much confusion. I think people needed to see that piece of paper. There needed to be some real definitive clarity and truth in that moment.”

    No one will ever forget the awkwardness that went down during the 2017 Oscars, but we’re glad that Horowitz and Jenkins’s heartwarming mutual respect and friendship will also be a part of that story.

    [via: Barry Jenkins, Jordan Horowitz, The Washington Post]

  • Oscars 2017: Best Picture Mix-Up Inspires Hilarious Envelope Meme

    89th Annual Academy Awards - ShowLast night’s epic mix-up at the Oscars — where “La La Land” was incorrectly announced as the Best Picture winner, before producers stepped in to reveal that “Moonlight” had actually been awarded the honor — will go down as one of the weirdest, most surreal moments in Academy Awards (and awards shows in general) history. And as is typical with such a buzzworthy, jaw-dropping moment, the internet took it upon itself to turn the fiasco into a hilarious meme, imagining what else could really have been printed on that now-infamous Oscars envelope that was mistakenly handed to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

    Twitter users flooded the social media site with their quickly Photoshopped jokes, inserting other 2016 films like “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and Beyonce’s “Lemonade” as the real Best Picture winners. Others took the opportunity to imagine the envelope declaring their loyalty to snubbed favorites (Amy Adams should have nabbed a nomination for “Arrival”) or that certain non-movie events went the other way, too (we’re looking at you, current POTUS and the most recent Super Bowl champs).

    Perhaps the best meme came courtesy of comedian Abbi Crutchfield, who saw the real truth behind last night’s blunder.

    Whatever the true reason for such an awkward awards show fail (accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has promised to investigate how the wrong envelope ended up in Beatty and Dunaway’s hands), it’s always comforting to know that social media will deliver on the laughs.

  • Oscars 2017: Ryan Gosling Had the Best Reaction to Best Picture Snafu

    89th Annual Academy Awards - Red CarpetHey girl, it’s just a silly awards show. Take your cue from Ryan Gosling and laugh off the Oscars 2017 mistakes. Gosling’s many Winona-level expressions turned the night into one giant meme factory, culminating in the most appropriate reaction to the “La La Land” vs. “Moonlight” Best Picture oops.

    The Gos was in his own la la land all night. He dodged the candy falling from the sky, kissed a stranger about to be wed by Denzel Washington, and looked bemused as his fellow “La La Land” peeps both won and sort-of-won Academy Awards.

    Emma Stone won Best Actress in a Leading Role for “La La Land,” and her name unexpectedly came up again when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced “La La Land” as Best Picture before revealing it should’ve been “Moonlight.” Beatty said his card said “Emma Stone, ‘La La Land’” on it.

    On stage, Stone was clearly shocked by the quick change from “La La Land” to “Moonlight,” and she was seen saying, “Oh my god”:

    Backstage, Stone reacted to the idea that Beatty and Dunaway had her Best Actress card, telling the press:

    “I also was holding my Best Actress in a Leading Role card that entire time. I don’t mean to start stuff, but whatever story that was…”

    But — as Deadline pointed out — Pricewaterhouse has two envelopes for every winner, so somehow the ill-fated Best Picture tag team of Beatty and Dunaway ended up being handed the copy of Stone’s win. The accounting firm apologized for their mistake.

    Not looking chill about the error? “La La Land” director Damien Chazelle:


    You also have to appreciate the audience’s expressions (Matt Damon! Michelle Williams! The Rock!) while the whole thing played out:

    But you know who seemed fine with it? Gosling. Photos caught him giggling as the rest of the “La La Land” team looked shocked:

    And why not?

    Gosling was up for Best Actor, but lost to Casey Affleck, and his reaction to that was also noteworthy:

    He was just a joy to watch all night:

    Very true. Perhaps he was the Leo we needed this year.

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  • Oscars 2017: The 10 Best and Worst Moments

    Oscars 2017 Best and Worst MomentsSo, now you know why you have to watch the Oscars until the bitter end.

    The evening’s last-minute shocker wasn’t just “Moonlight‘s” upset Best Picture Oscar win over “La La Land,” but the way it went down, with presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announcing the wrong movie. Not their fault, apparently, but still … Steve Harvey must be feeling pretty smug right now. (Actually, he’s not.)

    It was really a shame, since the 89th Academy Awards show was otherwise pretty hard to find fault with. Jimmy Kimmel was a funny host, the speeches were mostly free of shrill political rhetoric, the “In Memoriam” montage snubbed only one major figure (sorry, Garry Shandling), and even the Art Deco stage set was gorgeous. And yet, the final gaffe is going to be all that anyone can talk about for a while. Which is unfortunate, since there were a lot of moments from Sunday’s Oscars, good or bad, that were memorable.

    Best Musical Number89th Annual Academy Awards - ShowThe song-and-dance moments are usually the draggiest part of the Oscars, but this year’s numbers were actually pretty lively, from the poised 16-year-old Auli’i Cravalho proving that “Moana” should have been a live-action musical with her stirring “How Far I’ll Go,” to John Legend proving that he should have had Ryan Gosling‘s part in “La La Land” with his medley of “City of Stars” and “Audition.” But we’ll give the performance trophy to Justin Timberlake, who opened the show with a rendition of his “Trolls” tune “Can’t Stop the Feeling” that was energetically staged and brought the Dolby Theatre crowd instantly to its feet. Really, the whole show could have used more of JT’s seemingly boundless energy and charm; could he please host next year?

    Best Kimmel JokeABC's Coverage Of The 89th Annual Academy AwardsKimmel’s monologue nicely walked the line of deflating stars’ egos without being overly mean-spirited — except toward Donald Trump (whom he thanked for making us forget that last year, it was the Oscars that seemed racist) and faux Kimmel nemesis Matt Damon (too many barbs to mention). More generally, he mocked Hollywood for not discriminating by national origin, just by age and weight. But his best joke was his most economical one-liner. Neatly summarizing the racial politics of “Hidden Figures” and “La La Land,” Kimmel observed that 2016 was the year “that black people saved NASA and white people saved jazz.”

    Worst Kimmel JokeUS-OSCARS-SHOWIn a year when so many awards were handed out to the FX mini-series “The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” it was nice to finally hear someone accept an O.J.-related trophy (in this case, Best Documentary honoree O.J.: Made in America”) and remember to pay homage to murder victims Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson. So it was pretty crass that Kimmel followed that moment by quipping that the incarcerated football legend would also get a prize tonight, an extra slice of bologna on his sandwich. The Dolby Theatre crowd booed that one pretty loudly, though Kimmel recovered by acknowledging that he’d just squandered all his good will.

    Best Surprise Guest89th Annual Academy Awards - ShowNo, not Michael J. Fox and his “Back to the Future” DeLorean, though both are welcome visitors to any movie-fan event. Rather, it was Katherine Johnson, the real-life heroine played by Taraji P. Henson in “Hidden Figures.” The former NASA mathematician briefly joined Henson and co-stars Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae on stage, earning a standing ovation just for showing up. The wheelchair-bound 98-year-old appeared frail and didn’t say much (just “Thank you very much”), but her presence alone was enough to underscore the theme of this year’s ceremony, which was inspiration.

    Worst Viral Stunt89th Annual Academy Awards - ShowIt’s an awards-show requirement these days for the host to go out into the audience and do something seemingly spontaneous that forces the gathered dignitaries to sacrifice their dignity for a few moments that will end up immortalized as GIFs. Usually, that involves sitting on laps or photobombing selfies, but this time, it involved Kimmel bringing in a busload of Hollywood tourists who had no idea that the collection of Oscar gowns they’d been told they were going to see was being worn by real, live celebrities at the real, live Oscars, and that their own astonishment would be broadcast to the world on live TV.

    Fittingly, the tourists seemed not at all star-struck or even all that impressed, though there was a nice moment when engaged Chicago couple Gary and Vicki got Vicki’s favorite actor, Denzel Washington, to pretend to officiate over their wedding. Despite being made Kimmel’s unwilling victims in front of an audience of hundreds of millions, the tourists came through with aplomb. Rather, it was the celebrities who appeared embarrassed — at being treated like commodities or zoo animals and, in Jennifer Aniston‘s case, being cajoled by Kimmel to fork over a pair of sunglasses from her pocketbook as a wedding gift.

    Best Speech89th Annual Academy Awards - ShowDo you suppose that organizations keep giving awards to Viola Davis just to hear her speeches? Not that she didn’t deserve an Oscar, her first, for her supporting role in “Fences,” but not even the bravest orchestra conductor would have dared ruin her moment by trying to play her off the stage while she was at hear tearful, dramatic, impassioned best. “You know, there is one place that all the people with the greatest potential are gathered,” she began, “and that’s the graveyard.” Then she went on to thank her fellow artists, particularly her “Fences” colleagues, for telling “the stories of the people who dreamed big and never saw those dreams to fruition, people who fell in love and lost.” She added, “I became an artist and thank God I did, because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life.” If you needed a justification for why anyone should watch an evening’s worth of Hollywood self-congratulation, this was it.

    Second Best SpeechABC's Coverage Of The 89th Annual Academy Awards“Hacksaw Ridge” sound mixer Kevin O’Connell finally won his first Oscar on his 21st nomination, thus ending the longest losing streak in Oscar history. He recalled that his mom, Skippy O’Connell, got him his first industry job (she was a secretary in the sound department at 20th Century Fox) and told him how he could express his gratitude: “You can work really hard, and someday you can win yourself an Oscar, and you can stand on the stage, and you can think me in front of the whole world.” Alas, she didn’t live long enough to see him fulfill that pledge, but he said he was sure she was looking down proudly from beyond.

    Worst Running Gag89th Annual Academy Awards - ShowKimmel’s candy drop was actually pretty cool the first time, with those gossamer parachute payloads of Red Vines and Junior Mints wafting down upon hungry celebrities like those lovely airborne jellyfish creatures from “Avatar.” The second time, with Lemonheads and Mike & Ikes, seemed redundant, but at least it involved the adorable “Lion” star Sunny Pawar. By the third time, when Kimmel dropped cookies and donuts and threatened to drop coffee as well, it became clear why the show is nearly four hours long.

    Best MontageTOPSHOT-US-OSCARS-SHOWGive credit to the compilers of all the clips. The four montages of acting winners from throughout Oscar history were stirring and inspirational. So were the tributes to Shirley MacLaine (who inspired Charlize Theron with her performance in “The Apartment“) and Meryl Streep (who inspired Javier Bardem with her work in “The Bridges of Madison County“). And even the spoof of those same montages late in the show, with Kimmel mocking Damon’s performance in “We Bought a Zoo,” was funny. But the best montage was the one of filmgoers from around the world talking about how much movies mean to them, how they make viewers feel empathy for others, and how they make people from different countries feel closer to one another. There were a number of speeches throughout the evening, most of them implied reactions to President Trump’s policies, that called for tolerance and cross-cultural understanding, but this montage made the best case for movies as a means of transcending our differences — and for the Oscars as a fitting tribute to that mission, and not just as a night of the privileged honoring the pampered.

    Worst BlooperUS-OSCARS-SHOWSo, apparently, all that hemming and hawing that Beatty and Dunaway did while opening the envelope to read the Best Picture winner’s title wasn’t just the seventysomething stars having a senior moment or vamping to generate suspense. As Beatty explained later, he’d been handed a duplicate Best Actress envelope, whose card read, “Emma Stone — ‘La La Land.’” The “Bonnie and Clyde” actors were understandably perplexed, but eventually, Dunaway read the “La La Land” part of the card to the world. Two of the musical’s three producers gave acceptance speeches before the mistake was discovered and the correct envelope containing “Moonlight”‘s title opened and showed to the cameras. The “Moonlight” crew were gracious about the error, but still … someone at PricewaterhouseCoopers is sooooo fired.

  • Oscars 2017: ‘Moonlight’ Wins Best Picture

    Moonlight best pictureAnd the Oscar for Best Picture goes to … “Moonlight.”

    After a VERY confusing envelope-related mix-up (Emma Stone in “La La Land?”), “Moonlight” took home top honors, beating out the presumed (and almost) winner “La La Land.” In addition to Best Picture, “Moonlight” took home Best Adapted Screenplay, and Mahershala Ali took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the movie.

    “Moonlight” is in theaters now.