Oscar viewers sit and eat during a 89th Academy Awards viewing party at Rojo. Photo by Ian Keel/Photo Editor
Jason Grover
Life & Style Editor
Confusion reigned on stage as the apparent Best Picture winners, “La La Land,” delivered their thank you speeches.
The announcers for the “Best Picture” category, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunnaway, were evidently sent to the stage with the wrong envelope. When Beatty showed confusion at the contents of the envelope, which read “Emma Stone: La La Land,” Dunnaway grabbed the envelope and announced “La La Land” as the winner.
The cast and crew of “La La Land” were on stage before the mistake was caught. When Academy Awards personnel appeared on stage, it became clear that a mistake had been made.
“Guys, guys, I’m sorry. There’s been a mistake,” “La La Land” producer Jordan Horowitz told the crowd. “‘Moonlight,” you guys won best picture.”
The gaffe was particularly unfortunate considering the racial implications. “Moonlight” features a predominantly African-American cast and an African-American director, Barry Jenkins. In contrast, the cast and crew of “La La Land” are predominantly white.
“How do you misread ‘Moonlight?’” said Jervaughn Hunter, a biomedical engineering major. “It’s embarrassing.”
The Academy came under fire for a lack of diversity among nominees in both 2015 and 2016. Some criticized the Academy for overlooking pictures like F. Gary Gray’s N.W.A. biopic “Straight Outta Compton.” Some went so far as to call for a boycott of the 2016 Oscars because of the lack of recognition given to black actors and filmmakers.
2017, however featured a record number of African-American nominees, many of whom went on to win.
For some, however, the Best Picture slip-up overshadowed any steps the Academy may have made toward greater racial diversity.
“The hashtag last year was “oscarssowhite,” and then this year when the movie of the African American community wins, it gets upstaged by the predominantly white movie,” said Elise Tucker, an elementary and early childhood education major. “It was very strange to me that that happened.”
Despite the flurry of media activity surrounding last night’s ceremony, for many, the awards, as well as the “La La Land”/“Moonlight” mistake, are ultimately of no consequence.
“In the end, it’s just a few minutes of T.V.” said Hunter. “It’s not going to ruin your life.”
Jason Grover can be reached at [email protected].
