Shock Of Moonlight

How a Tiny Indie Film About a Black Gay Youth—and One Wrong Envelope—Catapulted an Ordinary Oscar Night Into One for the History Books.

- Nicole Sperling

THE FINALE TO THE 89TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS WAS jaw-dropping, but it must have felt a little familiar to fans of La La Land. Just like that film’s bittersweet conclusion, where the magic of true love is pierced by the realities of life, the Best Picture Oscar was literally within the grasp of the filmmakers when it all slipped away like a dream that was not to be.

After presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were given the wrong envelope and then accidentally announced La La as the winner—an incident that had never happened to this degree in Academy Awards history—La La producer Jordan Horowitz learned that Moonlight, not his film, had won instead. In a moment of impressive grace, he passed the torch (and the golden statuettes) to his competitors.

“I got to give my Oscar acceptance speech and I got to be a presenter,” Horowitz joked at the Governors Ball after the show. “It was a real crazy thing that happened, but if it had to happen, I’m glad I got to be the one to give it to them.”