The mix-up over which film won the Oscar for best picture also had a profound effect on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Oscarama mail-in contest. After award presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway mistakenly announced “La La Land” as the winner, Beatty told a stunned audience that it was, in fact, “Moonlight” that would take home the statuette.
In that moment, dozens of potential Oscarama winners lost their chance at the first place prize of $200 cash, plus a $100 gift certificate to Sarento’s at the Top of the Ilikai and four Consolidated Theatres movie passes. Instead, just four entries contained the right combination of winning picks: “Moonlight” for best picture, Casey Affleck for actor, Emma Stone for actress, Mahershala Ali for supporting actor, Viola Davis for supporting actress and Damien Chazelle for director.
After a random drawing from among the winning entries, Honolulu resident Merilee Lau was named the winner; McLean Yamashita won second place and $100 cash, a $100 Sarento’s gift certificate and two Consolidated movie passes. Stanley Lum is the third-place winner and will receive $50 and four movie passes.
This was the first time entering the contest for Lau, a federal employee who acknowledged she hasn’t seen any of the films nominated this year. She based her choices on online research and went with picks that “had momentum” heading into the Oscars.
“I’ve been just kind of busy with work,” she said. “I just read the reviews and, actually for almost all of them, I went to YouTube and watched the trailers. ‘Moonlight’ just kind of hit my heart.”
Lau was a bit disappointed that her viewing of the awards at home was interrupted by a Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporter, but said she’d keep watching anyway to see composer Lin-Manuel Miranda perform “How Far I’ll Go” with Hawaii resident Auli‘i Cravalho.
“I’m a big fan of Lin-Manuel and want to see what he does with Auli‘i,” she said.
