Oscars 2017: The Good, the Bad and the OMG

by Vibhu Gairola

The sober elder sibling of the Golden Globes is one of those industry events that rarely surprises: with so much more prestige associated with the awards themselves, acceptance speeches are usually less political, performances are more sedate and barring Adrian-Brody-smooching-Halle-Berry shenanigans, there's rarely anything shocking to disrupt the mood. Last night's ceremony was therefore an entity unto itself--read on to find out.

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The OMG: For the first time ever, there was an Oscar-worthy plot twist

Moonlight wins Best Picture in crazy Oscars mixup #Oscars2017 pic.twitter.com/WFqfXtfTAt

” Globalnews.ca (@globalnews) February 27, 2017

The Oscars had a special surprise for anyone who watched them to the end: thanks to a slip-up with the envelopes, it was La La Land and not Moonlight that was announced as the Best Picture winner even though it was the latter that won. The moment is so surreal–I’ve watched the linked video six times and it still makes me tear with happiness–that watching Warren Beatty explain himself and how the SNAFU happened is actually rather comforting, since it proves that even the best of us mess up sometimes, and that the vast majority of us rooting for Moonlight were vindicated. It really is a shame; the La La Land team was extremely gracious in a tough situation, which is extremely commendable–imagine admitting, on stage and in front of billions, that you didn’t win and someone else has to come up and take the trophy that’s in your hands right now–but truth be told, the Moonlight folks were also robbed of their moment. Moonlight is a movie that fought its way to the Oscars spotlight after almost two years of gathering momentum in indie fests and in queer spaces online, and it’s a shame that its moment in the spotlight was assigned amidst such confusion. That aside, for the first time in Academy Awards history, a mistake was made and corrected on a live broadcast within three minutes of its occurrence–the show must go on and it did, but it’s an interesting precedent set for all ceremonies going forward.