The 89th Academy Awards offered drama of its own

By N.B.

IT IS a pity that the 89th Academy Awards will be forever remembered for that last-minute bungle. Presenting the Oscar for best picture, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were given the wrong envelope, with Ms Dunaway announcing that "La La Land" was the winner. It was only after the producers of the hit musical had launched into their acceptance speeches that they heard that there had been an unprecedented, scarcely believable mix-up, and that the best-picture recipient was actually “Moonlight”. Oscar history was made. But it is important to remember that history would have been made, anyway, even without that excruciatingly embarrassing blunder.

Most of the major categories had gone the way that the press and bookmakers thought they would. Viola Davis, who starred in “Fences” with Denzel Washington, was named best supporting actress. "Manchester by the Sea" took the prizes for Original Screenplay (by Kenneth Lonergan, also the film’s director) and Lead Actor (Casey Affleck). “Moonlight” won for Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali) and Adapted Screenplay (the film’s director, Barry Jenkins, based his script on a play by Tarell Alvin McCraney). And “La La Land” had the highest trophy tally, as expected, with a total of six Oscars, including Director (Damien Chazelle, the youngest ever recipient of the award) and Actress in a Leading Role (Emma Stone). But as predictable as the Oscars seemed at that point, they were hardly run of the mill. The president of the Academy, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, had worked to diversify the organisation’s voting body, and her labours resulted in a set of nominees and winners which rebutted last year’s #OscarsSoWhite hashtag. Mr Ali, for instance, is the first Muslim actor to win an Oscar.

The ceremony’s political undercurrent was unusual, too. It wasn’t the high-budget episode of “Saturday Night Live” which commentators on both the left and right wings were anticipating, but there were numerous measured remarks about tolerance and internationalism. Jimmy Kimmel, the event’s relaxed and confident host, offered some digs at Donald Trump (“remember last year, when it seemed like the Oscars were racist?”) In the end, it was an absence that provided the most poignant political statement. Asghar Farhadi’s revenge drama, “The Salesman”, won the best foreign-language film prize, but Mr Farhadi, an Iranian writer-director, boycotted the awards “out of respect for the people of [his] country” and those affected by the travel ban.

Then came the jaw-dropping moment. The starry homage to the musicals of Tinseltown’s golden age enjoyed the best-picture award for a few brief minutes, before handing over the gold statuette to the producers of “Moonlight”. An unknown writer-director’s low-budget ($1.6m), tripartite portrait of a black gay youngster in Miami, this was the bold choice that many critics hoped the Academy would make, but few believed that it would. If only that breathtaking upset hadn’t been overshadowed by the muddle with the envelopes. Still, in a way the generosity and dignity with which Jordan Horowitz, the producer of “La La Land”, handed over his award only brightened the lustre of a ceremony that celebrated community and collaboration. The theatrical humbleness of Oscar winners, with their long lists of thank-yous, has always been a joking matter. In today’s brutish political climate, the civility of the so-called Hollywood elite doesn’t seem quite so laughable.