Due to a historic mix-up at this year’s Oscars, director Barry Jenkins wasn’t able to make the acceptance speech he wanted to. Now that the dust has settled, the FSU Film School grad is making that statement.
The film Moonlight is the coming of age story of a young, black gay man from the Miami projects, the child of a crack addict. The story pulls heavily from the personal experiences of Barry Jenkins and his co-writer Tarrell Alvin McCraney. In a stunning fiasco at the Oscars, announcers mistakenly named La La Land as Best Picture, instead of Moonlight. The kerfuffle left the filmmakers almost too shocked to speak. But in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jenkins made the acceptance speech he wanted to.
“[Moonlight playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney] and I are this kid. We are Chiron. And you don’t think that kid grows up to be nominated for eight Academy Awards. It’s not a dream he’s allowed to have. I still feel that way. I didn’t think this was possible. But now I look at other people looking at me and if I didn’t think it was possible, how are they going to? But now it’s happened. So what I think of possibility, let’s take it off the table. The thing has happened.”
Jenkins’ success, and that little gold statue, proves it is possible.