La La Land (2016) picked up 14 Oscar nods at the 89th Academy Awards in February 2017, tying the record for most Oscar nominations with All About Eve (1950) and Titanic (1997). Outwith the academy, the film was also an outstanding critical hit, scoring 92% on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, 93% on Metacritic, 5/5 from Empire Magazine and so on and so fourth. Out of it’s Oscar 14 nominations, the musical picked up a total of 6 Oscar wins, including Best Director for 32 year old Damien Chazelle, the youngest director to ever win the award, and Best Actress for Emma Stone. On top of the film’s success with the Academy, many accolades were also picked up across the pond at the BAFTAS only a couple of weeks prior to the Academy Awards.
In spite of all this raging success, hype and praise within the film industry, the colourful flick failed to pick up the big one. Best Picture. After one of the most hilarious flops in the history of award shows, where the Best Picture award was unintentionally given to the musical, the La La Land crew were then sent off the centre stage despite already being a couple of minutes deep into celebration, with the award being passed over to the intended cast and crew of Moonlight (2016). Unfortunately, the whole situation should have been avoided had it not been for the even bigger mistake of the academy not giving the award to La La Land in the first place.
What I’m definitely not saying is that Moonlight isn’t a film worthy of success or praise, or that it’s a bad film. The progressive drama is a favourite of mine from the year and highlighted many important issues within the African American community regarding homophobia and other social issues. If La La Land didn’t exist I may have considered Moonlight to be the most deserving to win Best Picture out of all the other candidates. But on a purely technical level and as a film making achievement, Moonlight is beaten in almost every aspect by the musical. While director Barry Jenkins and cinematographer James Laxton come together to create visually stunning tones within Moonlight’s three different sections, the work is unfortunately completely outdone by Chazelle and co. in La La Land. Having to manage an abundance of props and extras and manage choreographers to perfectly craft several different musical set pieces takes true dedication in this day and age. From set design to costumes or to having the best original score of the year, all the right boxes required to win Best Picture are ticked.
Is Moonlight a more important film than La La Land? Absolutely, there’s not even a debate. However, the technical prowess seen in the production of La La Land is a sight for sore eyes within modern day film industry, and is simply highly deserving of Best Picture.
Centre of Cinema 