While mainstream media report on the Oscars best picture debacle, we should all be focusing on the real news, and one South African sums it up perfectly.
Oscars officials have been investigating an embarrassing mix-up over the best picture award, which eventually went to coming-of-age drama Moonlight, after a ceremony studded with political jokes and minor mishaps.
In a mistake that stunned the Dolby Theatre crowd in Hollywood and a television audience worldwide, presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway at first said the winner was romantic musical La La Land, the presumed best picture favourite, and then chaos ensued.
As both films’ casts stood awkwardly on stage, Beatty explained he had received the wrong envelope.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which oversees the ballots, confirmed the error on Monday (AEDT).
If you haven’t seen it yet, then watch the awkward moment below:
But that is not what the news should be reporting on and Vic Niemandt, a South African Facebooker, summed it up perfectly…
“So here’s what the news should be: A beautiful, worthy film about a black queer life beat every odd to win at the Oscars. It is the first film with an all-black cast and director to win Best Picture, and the first LGBT production to triumph as well.”
“One of its stars, Mahershala Ali, made history as the first Muslim to win in the category of Best Supporting Actor.”
“And in winning for Best Adapted Screenplay, an out black man, writer Tarell Alvin McCraney, stood on a stage in front of millions of people around the world. He dedicated the award “to all those black and brown boys and girls and non-gender conforming who don’t see themselves. We’re trying to show you you and us. So thank you, thank you, this is for you.”
“How extraordinary. How historic. How worthy of a headline.”
Watch the trailer for Moonlight below:
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