Moonlight has won the best picture 2017 in a messy unexpected finale on the Oscar night 2017, that will surely be remembered. After a good but not so memorable night, alternating the obvious and not so strong political interventions and a funny skirmish between host Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon, people have not regretted to wait until the explosive ending of the 4-hours long show.
Best Picture to La La Land, but it's a mistake
Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway walk on the stage for the final announcement. After a brief political statement, Warren opens the envelope and hesitates, with an enigmatic smile on his face.
Of course, it looks like a funny way to hold the attention and keep the tension high. But then Warren shows the card to Mrs. Dunaway, who without any doubt declares La La Land as Best Picture. Producers, actors, all the crew from La La Land climb up the stage and the usual thanking speech takes place.
But behind the happy men lined up to take their turn to thank their families, something is happening: people moving, red envelopes going from hand to hand. It was a mistake! Over the buzz raising up from the theatre, producer Jordan Horowitz grabbed the card from Beatty's hands and shows the winner to the audience: "This is not a joke. Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture".
The reactions and the explanations
The reactions to this were mixed: surprise and incredulity; joy on one side, anger probably on the other. The best reaction comes from Ryan Gosling, trying to hide his laugh behind his hand. How did it happen? Warren Beatty tries to explain his hesitation. On the card, he had read "La La Land - Best Actress Emma Stone".
His attempt of looking for support sharing the reading with Faye Dunaway has been also funnily seen as a not-so-a-gentleman-move.
It looks like there has been an envelope swap, even though it's quite improbable that something like this could happen. Boycott, then? Or a sham set up by the Academy itself to attract even more attention?
Especially in these times of fake news fear, conspiracy theories are naturally spreading all over the web. But probably, in the end, what is important is that this Oscar 2017 will be remembered with a smile.
The winners
Talking about winners, La La Land collects six Oscar in total: Best Director, Best Actress (Emma Stone), Best Score, Best Song, Best Production Design and Best Cinematography. Moonlight celebrates with three: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali, who is the first Muslim to win an Oscar. Also Manchester by the Sea wins two important prizes: the well deserved Best Actor for Casey Affleck and Best Original Screenplay.
Viola Davis, who gave a touching speech, is the Best Supporting Actress for Fences.
Hacksaw Ridge wins two technical Oscars for Best Editing and Sound Mixing. Best Visual Effects to the stunning Jungle Book. Arrival just gets Best Sound Editing, and Fantastic Beast wins for Costumes. On the animation side, the diversity of Zootopia wins over the poetry of The Red Turtle, and the amazing Blind Vaysha succumbed to the perfection of Pixar's Piper,
Best Animated Short. Best Live Action Short is Sing, while Best Short Doc is the shockingly beautiful Netflix's The White Helmets. Best Long Form Doc: the almost 8-hours long OJ Made in America. The Salesman wins Best Foreign movie. And there is space even for Suicide Squad, winning for Best Makeup (a movie barely distributed in cinemas, but quite successful among the young people, especially because of the iconic characters created through makeup).
