If the trailer for Moonlight is any indication, we’ve got more reason to believe next year’s Oscars will not be criticized for being too white. Between this film, which is the long-awaited sophomore feature from Barry Jenkins (Medicine for Melancholy), and The Birth of the Nation (not to mention Loving, Fences, etc.), we expect the Academy will be recognizing more diversity from the films of 2016.
Brad Pitt is an executive producer on Moonlight, which also has the distinction of being the first movie developed in-house by A24, which has otherwise earned a reputation for picking up and distributing some of the best and most interesting features of the last few years. This one follows a young man through three stages of his life, starting off in 1980s Miami as the War on Drugs is in full effect.
Even before seeing this alluring trailer (that music is the original score by Nicholas Britell, by the way), Moonlight was already one of our most anticipated films premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival next month. And don’t worry about having to wait too long for it, because after TIFF and an appearance at the New York Film Festival, the movie hits theaters on October 21.
Moonlight is written and directed by Jenkins based on the Tarell McCraney play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. It stars Naomie Harris, Andre Holland, rising star Mahershala Ali, singer Janelle Monai, making her on-screen film debut, and as the main character Chiron at two of the three periods, Ashton Sanders and Trevante Rhodes, whose performance in particular Jenkins is hyping.
If y’all liked that trailer, please go follow @_Trevante_, gives an amazing performance in the culminating chapter of our film, FANTASTIC