At a keynote address at the 2018 South by Southwest Fest, director Barry Jenkins read from the Oscars speech he would have delivered had Moonlight been correctly announced as the Best Picture winner the year before.
“Tarell Alvin McCraney, my co-writer, and I are Chiron,” he said, looking back at his prepared remarks, which referenced the protagonist of the film. “We are that boy.”
“When you watch Moonlight, you wouldn’t think the character would grow up to win an Oscar. I’ve said that a lot and what I’ve had to admit is that I placed those limitations on myself. I denied myself that dream. Not you, not anyone else — me.”
Jenkins covered how he broke into the film business against the odds. The last line of his speech, which he never got to read during the confusion of Oscars night, still brought tears to his eyes.