Residents of Liberty City, Miami-Dade County, experienced bitter disappointment and splendid elation within 90 seconds on Sunday night.
Among great anticipation, the residents experienced the disappointment when the movie “La La Land” was announced as the winner of the Best Picture award at the Academy Awards staging in Los Angles.
Approximately, 90 seconds later the producer of “La La Land” Jordan Horowitz sparked spontaneous elation when he announced there was a mistake, holding up the winning card indicating “Moonlight” the movie made in Miami about a young gay boy growing up to adulthood in Liberty City was indeed the winner of the coveted Oscar.
Leading up the Oscars the movie adapted from a play originally written by Liberty City resident Tarell Alvin McCraney based on his life and adapted in a screen play by Barry Jenkins who also directed the movie, had won several awards including the Golden Globe award for Best Picture. Nominated for the Best Picture Academy Awards, the movie was predicted to compete with “La La Land,” a musical, for the Oscar.
The movie Moonlight focuses on the challenges experienced in Liberty City, one of Miami’s poorest neighborhoods.
Jenkins and McCraney also won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screen Play. “Moonlight’s” actor Mahershala Ali won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing the role of a drug dealer who was a father figure to a bullied youth in Liberty City.
Despite winning two awards, most of the Liberty City residents doubted “Moonlight” would win the Best Picture award. Prior to the announcement of the big award, “La La Land” had won 6 awards, including for Best Actress and Best Director. Most people, albeit disappointed, accepted the initial announcement that “La La land” had won.
“I was stunned. I could not believe it at first when among the confusion on stage, even as the producer and cast of La La Land was giving their acceptance speeches, that it was announced that a mistake had been made and it was “Moonlight” that had won,” said Merylee Boyne, an aspiring actress and former drama student at Norland Middle School in Miami. Several of the supporting cast in “Moonlight” were students from Norland Middle School theatrical program, selected by the head of the school’s theater program. Tanisha Cidel.
Lola Baily, who was also a student at Norland Middle said, “That was so much drama in an event that awards dramas. I am so, so elated for Moonlight.”
In accepting the Best Adapted Screenplay Award, Jenkins said “All you people out there who feel like there’s no mirror for you, that your life is not reflected…..we have your back and for the next four years we will not forget you.” McCraney thanked God for his mother who he said proved to him through her struggles “that we can really be here and be somebody, two boys from Liberty City up here on this stage representing 305.”
