Moonlight is the first LGBTQ film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
Gay Directors, Gay Films? By Emanuel Levy.
The film received 8 nominations at the 89th Academy Awards, the second highest of all nominees, including:
Best Picture
Best Director,
Best Supporting Actor (for Ali)
Best Supporting Actress (for Naomie Harris)
Best Adapted Screenplay.
The film won 3 Awards:
Best Picture
Best Supporting Actor (Ali)
Best Adapted Screenplay.
At the ceremony, presenter Faye Dunaway read La La Land as the winner of Best Picture. Co-presenter Warren Beatty subsequently stated that he had been mistakenly given the duplicate envelope for the Best Actress award, which Emma Stone had won for her role in La La Land earlier.
When the mistake was realized, La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz came forward to announce Moonlight as the actual winner. The Best Picture envelope is on display at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in L.A. Beatty wrote congratulatory note to Jenkins, which is also on display at the Museum.
During his keynote address at the 2018 SXSW Fest, Jenkins read the acceptance speech he had prepared in the event of Moonlight winning the Best Picture. He was unable to deliver his speech due to the confusion over La La Land being mistakenly announced as the winner.
Screenplay: Original or Adapted
Because the film’s screenplay was based on a play that had not been previously produced or published, different awards had different rules as to whether Moonlight qualified in the original or adapted screenplay categories.
It was classified as original screenplay by both the Writers Guild of America Awards and the BAFTAs, but was ruled an adapted screenplay according to Oscar rules.
Editing: First Black Woman Nominated (Joi McMillon)
Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon were nominated for Best Film Editing, making McMillon the first black woman to earn an Oscar nomination in film editing.
