At this year’s Oscars, Price WaterhouseCoopers will be working extra hard to prevent a repeat of the colossal embarrassment at the close of last year’s show. In case you somehow didn’t hear or don’t remember, when it came time to announce Best Picture, presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were accidentally handed the envelope for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and proceeded to announce “La La Land” as the winner, with the producers coming up to take the trophy. However, it was quickly determined a mistake had been made, the team behind “Moonlight” was rightfully called the stage, and they kept their composure amidst the storm of confusion caused by the historic error. As you might imagine, it’s probably not the way Barry Jenkins would’ve wanted to accept the award, and a year later, he’s still a bit stung by how it all went down.
In a roundtable discussion with THR featuring the only four African-American directors nominated for an Oscar — John Singleton, Lee Daniels, Jordan Peele, and Jenkins — the “Moonlight” filmmaker gets very candid about the night he took home the biggest achievement of his career.
“I have mixed emotions. It’s cool to be here now a year later because all the things I felt like I wanted to do heading into the ceremony, I did. We went and made [his upcoming film] ‘Beale Street,’ and we’re making ‘Underground Railroad’ at Amazon. Those were things that were going to happen whether we lost or won,” Jenkins said. “And for two minutes, we lost. And in those two minutes, I was still self-satisfied because I knew I’m going to go off and do these things, you know? Winning or losing is not gonna take any of those things off the table. But it’s bittersweet because when that switch happened, I didn’t enjoy it. And I look back on that whole process, the process that you [looks to Jordan] have handled very well, my friend, and all that shit comes together at the end and because of how things went down, I didn’t enjoy it. And I’m never going to get the opportunity to enjoy that — because even if it happens again, it won’t be the same. ‘Moonlight’ was a very special film for me. It was super-personal, as this film is for you, so, bro, I’m gonna have to say what he said: Smile, yeah, but enjoy that shit, man, ’cause you earned it.”
Indeed, the director also adds that the mix-up confused his feelings about why his picture won and if he truly deserved the Oscar.
“For me, I didn’t make ‘Moonlight’ for the awards conversation, and when it ended up there, I was shocked the whole way. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. And then with how things ultimately went in the end [with the mistaken announcement that ‘La La Land’ had won best picture], because of how loud it was and all of that other stuff, I’ve never been as distraught as I was at the Vanity Fair party after the Oscars,” Jenkins said. “I mean, did you see the show? (Laughs.) It’s not the kind of thing where you go running off with pompoms. Something had changed. I wasn’t sure what that thing was. I wasn’t sure that thing was mine or who it belonged to because of how everything happened. And it made 2017 a very long year.”
While Jenkins can never get that moment back, and least he can rest assured that he created a beautiful, resonant film that will never be forgotten.