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The story
The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.
What critics & audiences say
Tomatometer98%Fresh#5 of 98 winnersIMDb7.4357K votes#73 of 98 winners
Metacritic99/ 100#4 of 93 winners
TMDB7.4/ 10
Famous lines
At some point, you gotta decide for yourself who you're going to be. Can't let nobody make that decision for you.
In moonlight, black boys look blue. You're blue. That's what I'm gonna call you: 'Blue'.
You're the only man who ever touched me. The only one. I haven't really touched anyone since.
You ain't got to love me, but you gonna know that I love you.
You can be gay, but you don't have to let nobody call you a faggot.
Kevin: Who is you, Chiron?
Black: I'm me man. Ain't trying to be nothing else.
Little: I hate her.
Juan: I bet you do. Hated mine too. Miss her like hell now.
Sometimes I feel like I'm just gonna turn into drops.
It's all love and all pride in this house! Do you feel me?
I wasn't never worth shit. Never did anything I actually wanted to do, was all I could do to do what other folks thought I should do. I wasn't never myself.
Quotes via Wikiquote
Fun facts
- At the Oscars, Faye Dunaway read La La Land as Best Picture because Warren Beatty had been handed the duplicate Best Actress envelope. La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz then announced Moonlight as the real winner, and that envelope is now displayed at the Academy Museum.Wikipedia · Accolades
- Moonlight was made on a production budget of just $1.5 million and grossed $67 million worldwide. It was shot in only 25 days.Wikipedia · Box office
- Barry Jenkins made sure the three actors playing Chiron never met until filming was over, so they would not imitate each other. Each shot his chapter in a separate two-week period.Wikipedia · Filming
- Tarell Alvin McCraney wrote the source play, In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, in 2003 to cope with his mother's death from AIDS. It sat on a shelf for about a decade before becoming the basis for the film.Wikipedia · Development
- Both Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney grew up in Miami's Liberty Square housing project, where much of the film was shot. Jenkins and McCraney's mothers, who both struggled with addiction, inspired the character Paula.Wikipedia · Development
- Naomie Harris had vowed never to play a crack addict, and she shot all of her scenes as Paula in just three days without rehearsals.Wikipedia · Casting
- Mahershala Ali became the first Muslim to win an acting Oscar, and editor Joi McMillon became the first Black woman nominated for the editing Oscar.Wikipedia · Lead
- Each of the three chapters was graded to imitate a different film stock: Fuji for the first, Agfa (which added cyan) for the second, and a modified Kodak stock for the third.Wikipedia · Filming
- Nicholas Britell's score applied the "chopped and screwed" technique from hip hop remixes to orchestral music, and a chopped and screwed version of the soundtrack was later released by The Chopstars.Wikipedia · Music
- Moonlight was the first film produced by A24, which financed it and handled worldwide distribution after Plan B Entertainment came aboard.Wikipedia · Development