The coming-of-age drama about a gay black man growing up in Miami became the first film with an all-black cast to win the Academy Award for best picture.

The movie, whose cast includes best supporting actor winner Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Trevante Rhodes and Janelle Monáe, has been a critical darling during awards season.

With the win, it shattered a glass ceiling for black films.

“Very clearly, even in my dreams this could not be true,” director Barry Jenkins said in amazement when it was announced that “Moonlight,” not “La La Land,” had won. “But to hell with dreams, I’m done with it, ’cause this is true. Oh my goodness.”

In 2014, “12 Years a Slave” won best picture, but its cast was not all black.

Both “Moonlight” and “12 Years” were produced by Brad Pitt’s Plan B company.

“Moonlight” made Oscar history in other ways.
Ali, who played a sympathetic drug dealer who mentors a bullied young man, is the first Muslim actor to win best supporting actor.

Jenkins became the first African American to score nominations for best director, best picture and best adapted screenplay in the same year. The film’s co-editor, Joi McMillon, became the first African American to earn a nomination for achievement in film editing.

The “Moonlight” win came in a year in which the Academy has been hailed for more diversity.
White actors had especially dominated the major acting categories for two years, giving rise to the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag. This year, seven of the 20 nominees were people of color.

Viola Davis, who won best supporting actress, became only the second black woman to win an Emmy, an Oscar and a Tony for acting. Whoopi Goldberg is the other, and the only black actor to have a so-called EGOT — an Emmy, Grammy, Tony and Oscar.

April Reign, who created the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag, tweeted Sunday night about the importance of the evening.

“Viola, Mahershala, and the wins for Moonlight happened because they were DESERVED,” she wrote. “Not because of #OscarsSoWhite. I want that very clear.”

Earlier in the evening, Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney, who wrote the play that became “Moonlight” and co-wrote the screenplay, won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay. The pair paid homage to the disenfranchised in their acceptance speech for that award.

Jenkins said: “All you people out there who feel like there’s no mirror for you, that your life is not reflected, the Academy has your back, the ACLU has your back, we have your back and for the next four years we will not leave you alone, we will not forget you.”

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Source: cnn

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The touching and beautifully-shot drama about growing up gay and black in Miami is seen as an outside bet to upset the La La Land bandwagon at the Oscars.

It confirmed its status as the awards circuit’s second favourite film with six Independent Spirit Awards.

La La Land wasn’t eligible for the awards, which reward low-budget films.

Moonlight was made for $1.5m (£1.2m) over 25 days – but has now recouped $21.5m (£17.3m) at the North American box office. It also has eight Oscar nominations, compared with La La Land’s 14.

Key Independent Spirit Awards winners

• Best feature – Moonlight
• Best female lead – Isabelle Huppert, Elle
• Best male lead – Casey Affleck, Manchester By The Sea
• Best supporting female – Molly Shannon, Other People
• Best supporting male – Ben Foster, Hell Or High Water
• Best director – Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
• Best screenplay – Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney, Moonlight

In his acceptance speech, Casey Affleck, who won best male lead, gave a taste of the political tone that is likely to dominate the Oscars.

He told the ceremony: “The policies of this administration are abhorrent and they will not last. They’re really un-American.

“I know this feels preachy and boring and I’m preaching to the choir but I’m just lending my little voice to the chorus here.”

British actress Naomie Harris, who appears in Moonlight, said the current political climate is “definitely going to be reflected” at the Oscars.
“Really great art reflects society,” she told BBC News. “It also edifies us. It shows us a different way of operating. So I definitely think it’s going to be a very political year this year at the Oscars.”

She also said Moonlight has struck a chord because it has fed “our universal yearning for connection”.

She said: “We’re all yearning to connect, and I think in a society where we have so much technology that makes us feel as though we’re connected, but it’s not really about true connection. It’s not heartfelt connection.

“And that’s what we’re all longing for, and I think that, in Moonlight, is what’s demonstrated.”

The Independent Spirits ceremony is the traditional precursor to the Oscars and is one of the awards season’s more informal events. It honours films made for less than $20m (£16m).

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Source: BBC

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