SHENECA SHARPE
Staff Writer
The Academy Awards (otherwise known as the Oscars), an award show that is filled with jewelry and dresses that could easily pay for my tuition, occurred this week. With the coveted golden statues that actors and actresses strive to receive and that we common folk just watch each year, the ceremony was definitely more interesting than previous years. Hosted by the hilarious Jimmy Kimmel, his usual dry wit took over the stage, kept the audience engaged for over two hours and well-fed with Red Vines and Junior Mints that fell from the ceiling onto the celebrities’ laps. The candy did help cushion the blow of “La La Land’s” false win for Best Picture, but I’ll get into that later.
History was made with Mahershala Ali, the first Muslim to win an Oscar for his role in “Moonlight,” and Viola Davis for “Fences,” becoming the first black woman to receive a Tony, Oscar and Golden Globe in acting. Davis now only needs a Grammy to be considered an Egot. “La La Land” had an outstanding 14 nominations and, winning 6 of them, could definitely be considered the big star of the night.
Last year’s Oscars was riddled controversy with the popular hashtag “#OscarsSoWhite” because no people of color were nominated for films that year. This year, critical hits such as “Moonlight,” “Fences,” “Lion” and “Hidden Figures” were filled with people of color and were all nominated. “Moonlight” won three Oscars and “Fences” won one Oscar.
But the real drama could not be contained to the films being honored, as the ceremony itself made for events stranger than fiction.
It was the last award of the night and all Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway had to do was say “And the nominees for Best Motion Picture are…” then open the envelope and proceed to say “The winner is…” and continue on to say who the winner was. That didn’t happen. Dunaway actually proceeded to say that “La La Land” was the winner and everyone who was a part of the film got on stage, congratulated each other and began giving acceptance speeches.
But amid a chaotic flurry in the background, it was quickly announced that “Moonlight” had in fact won out, and that the wrong name was called.
With the initial shock first from the audience and then from the director of “Moonlight,” Barry Jenkins, no one could believe what they heard. Something as prestigious as the Oscars could never have a huge fumble like this, but alas. It was immediately the talk on all social media as a classic “Steve Harvey” moment, referring to Harvey’s gaffe when calling the wrong winner at the Miss Universe contest in 2015.
Beatty had wrongly been given the card for Emma Stone’s win for Best Actress for her role in “La La Land” which had been awarded moments just moments before. Reading the card, Beatty was obviously confused before Dunaway read “La La Land,” but it was a simple honest mistake which the cast and crew of the movie took very professionally.
At least with a fumble like that people are going to be watching and talking about the Oscars for a while, and this time it won’t be about its lack of diversity.