‘Moonlight’ writer-director Barry Jenkins on the Oscar snafu: ‘I felt a million different things’

Moonlight will go down in history as the best picture winner at the 2017 Academy Awards. But the film’s victory was announced after La La Land was announced as winner and the film’s producers had taken the stage and given their speeches. Backstage at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Moonlight writer-director Barry Jenkins talked about the unprecedented sequence of events: ‘ The last 20 minutes of my life have been insane. It’s been other-worldy.” He said of La La Land producers: “It was so generous and gracious of them. My love to La La Land.”

“I think all the movies that were nominated were worthy. I noticed the commotion that happened and I knew something strange had occurred,” he continued. “It made a special feeling even more special but not in the way I expected.”

Asked if the Academy had explained to Jenkins what happened, he said, “No explanation. Things just happen. I will say I saw two cards. I wanted to see the card and (presenter) Warren Beatty refused to show the card to anybody before he showed it to me. He said, ‘Barry Jenkins has to see the card. He needs to know.’ The folks from La La Land were so gracious. I can’t imagine being in their position.”

“I could see people running around in the background so I knew something was a little bit off,” he later told The Hollywood Reporter, “but I didn’t know what. I could see (La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz’s) face and that’s when I realized something was happening. I felt a million different things but I did realize that whatever he was going to say was going to be the truth because he looked over and I just wanted to hug him. I could see in his face that it wasn’t a joke.”