It’s hard to believe it has already been 10 years since La La Land danced its way into cinemas, charming audiences and critics on its way to multiple awards.
The film, which charts the romance and struggling careers of actress Mia (Emma Stone) and jazz musician Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) was one of the movies of the 2016 awards season, battling it out with the likes of Moonlight, Arrival and Manchester by the Sea
It is an awards season that has gone down in infamy for that envelope mishap, but even before then, the La La Land awards season lifespan is a fascinating one and is a prime example of the kind of fate a heralded movie can receive once it arguably becomes too acclaimed.
So join us as we head out to revisit the city of stars and its journey from festival favourite to an almost historic Oscar sweep.
Another Day of Sun: Venice 2016 premiere and release
The Venice Film Festival takes place this week for 2026, bringing with it our first look at such highly anticipated films as Primetime and Ink. But it was also the place where La La Land began its rollout.
Premiering at the festival on August 31, 2016, Damian Chazelle’s follow-up to his 2014 film Whiplash had been a long time coming. Written by Chazelle in 2010 at a time when he was struggling to break into Hollywood himself, the film was designed to be an ode to the dreamers who came to LA to pursue a career in showbiz.
Following both the critical and commercial success of Whiplash – itself earning five Oscar nominations, including best picture – all eyes were on his next project, and for Chazelle there was only one option: La La Land.
The adoration was immediate following its first screening, with Oscar glory quickly predicted.
Everyone was floored by the first one-shot sequence on the freeway set to the toe-tapping Another Day of Sun, with Variety critic Owen Gleiberman calling it ‘one of the most extraordinary sequences in years.’
Praise was also heaped on the performances of Stone and Gosling, while Chazelle was heralded for reminding audiences of the malleable and eclectic capabilities of the musical genre.
The film continued its rollout across other autumn festivals, where more and more praise was garnered for it, ahead of beginning its wider cinema release in the United States and beyond from December 2016. It would go on to gross nearly $450million (£332.5million) worldwide during its original theatrical release.
It seemed to be resoundingly beloved by both audiences and critics, holding a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes – and that was very much reflected in the nominations at the major awards.
At the Baftas, La La Land was nominated for 11 awards, more than any other film that year, while at the Academy Awards, it scored a total of 14 nominations, tying the record for most nominations by a single film with All About Eve and Titanic.
La La Land was king of the world going into the awards season, even going on to win all seven of its Golden Globe nominations. So, it seemed (to some), it needed to be taken down a peg or two.
Start a Fire: The backlash
As sure as death and taxes, any movie that starts to emerge as a popular frontrunner in the awards season race will get its inevitable surge of backlash – and La La Land was certainly no exception.
It wasn’t like the film was universally praised upon its release and initial festival run; there were always early signs that a backlash would be coming sooner rather than later.
Much of the criticism pointed towards Seb’s arrogance when it came to his endless ‘jazzsplaining’, with many cirticising Chazelle for choosing to voice much of the opinions on jazz and its current state through a white protagonst, with Ira Madison II at MTV News at the time writing: “If you’re gonna make a film about an artist staying true to the roots of jazz against the odds and against modern reinventions of the genre, you’d think that artist would be black.’
The film itself is more nuanced than that, as it never really fully endorses Seb’s perspective – it often criticises it – but it was a legitimate criticism that began the wave of discourse online, as its popularity placed it under more of a magnifying glass and more problematic elements were expounded upon.
More was written on the film’s racial politics, and its gender politics too, with Morgan Lewis of the LA Review of Books wiritng at the time that depsite the film behind a two ahnder between tis male and female leads, ‘Sebastian’s drive and dedication are more textured than Mia’s, and it is his melody that recurs through the film to denote particularly important moments in their relationship.’
So while that shine of the initial burst of praise was certainly still on La La Land going into Oscar night, the rhetoric and (again, largely online) discourse had soured some of the lustre and allure around it.
It is impossible to tell how much actual award voters care about conversations online surrounding the film, but there was the sense in the air that La La Land making a sweep wasn’t as sure a thing as it had seemed to be after those glowing Venice reviews.
La La Land: Key Details
Director and writer
Damien Chazelle
Cast
Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt
Age rating
12
Runtime
2 hours and 8 minutes
Box office
$504.6million
Where to watch
La La Land is currently playing in select cinemas for its 10th anniversary. You can also stream it on Netflix and BBC iPlayer
A Lovely Night: That Oscars moment
So, the night itself. The 89th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, February 26, 2017.
Hollywood’s best and brightest were all there in their glamorous tuxes and gowns – the city of stars coming out for the biggest night in the movie business. And it was all going very well for La La Land.
Emma Stone won best actress, and Damien Chazelle became the youngest filmmaker to win best director at the age of 32.
Then it was time for the big one: best picture.
La La Land had won six of its record 14 nominations, and now it was going to be revealed if it would take home best picture, which many believed was its to lose.
Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway took to the stage to unseal the envelope and reveal the winner. Out of Dunaway’s mouth came: La La Land. Cheers from the La La Land team erupted as the crowd applauded, yet Beatty looked worryingly confused.
Speeches were in full flow. Families and colleagues thanked. But there was a sense that something wasn’t quite right as individuals started scrambling around in the background.
Then Jordon Horowitz grabbed the microphone and uttered the immortal words: ‘Guys, there’s a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture.’
Beatty and Dunaway had been given a copy of Stone’s best actress envelope by mistake, which led to the massively awkward moment on stage when the La La Land team retreated to the background and let Barry Jenkins and his Moonlight team have their moment of deserved glory.
It is now considered one of the greatest Oscar blunders of all time, and was staggering to witness live. Many fans of the ceremony still get a kick looking at the image of the crowd, equally bemused as the viewers at home as the chaos unfolded, a bizarre mix of emotions from embarrassment to hilarity to joy as Jenkins’ powerful film took home the top prize.
‘La La Hand’ resolved
Looking back 10 years on, it is hard not to think that La La Land losing out on winning best picture might have been the best thing for it.
Moonlight – while no slouch in the awards season that year – was more the underdog in the narrative, and it was very heartening to see it recognised by the Academy, particularly in the wake of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy.
If La La Land had won, it would have quickly become a film that would have been seen as a bit of a villain when it comes to the Oscar conversation.
And after all the wave of acclaim and loud online backlash ahead of the ceremony, it was a moment that brought the film back down to earth and made it much easier to take on its own merits in retrospect now 10 years later.
There is no sense of injustice over La La Land not winning best picture, it actually feels quite fitting and beneficial to the film’s overall legacy.
Here’s to the ones who dream: Why I still love La La Land
I too remember falling head over heels for La La Land right from that ambitious opening one-shot set to Another Day of Sun. Enraptured by the colour, the sound, the movement, and the giddy sense of abandon from those performers on the LA Freeway, it felt new, alive, and raw in a way musicals hadn’t for years.
I do also remember the backlash making it a distinctly uncool thing to be a fan of La La Land, and that in some discussions it almost felt like an embarrassing thing to admit that you liked it. This was certainly more the case in male-dominated groups, who tended to find it a bit lame, corny and ‘cringe.’
I get it; it’s an easy film to mock. Its characters are so earnest in the pursuit of their passions and dreams that you wonder if they’ve ever had any real struggles in their lives other than the expectations they’ve set for themselves. People also always point out to me that it’s not very good because the stars can’t really sing or dance.
But as time has gone by, and the dust has settled on the discourse, I am happy to say that La La Land remains an absolute delight to me. Yes, some elements of performance lack a bit of finesse, but that’s part of the film’s endearing charm and commitment to tying a bit more reality to the kind of musical you would only see get made on soundstages back in the golden age of Hollywood.
It’s both a love letter to many corners of musical cinema, but one that looks and moves like nothing else, with a beautifully bittersweet ending that still works like gangbusters. It being an earnest song for those that dream isn’t something to mock, but is in fact something to admire, particularly in times when cynicism in the world can feel overwhelming.
One aspect of justice, though, that has been claimed for La La Land has come from a surprising place, that being the newly released posters for the 10th anniversary of the movie.
The original poster shows Gosling and Stone performing the dance number from A Lovely Night – Stone has an elegant straight arm, while Gosling has his hand bent.
Gosling told The Wall Street Journal in 2024 that the poster ‘haunts’ him, not realising that the scene would later be so heavily used in the marketing, and ‘thought it’d be cool to put my hand like that’ in the moment on set.
‘It’s just a lazy. I call it ‘La La Hand,’ he joked.
Lionsgate heard his cries and released a new poster to mark the new significant chapter in the history of La La Land, its return to the big screen. It gives Gosling closure on a moment that’s haunted him for the last decade.
But for many it it is also just the beginning of a relationship with one of the most striking musicals of recent memory, as La La Land seeks to find new dreamers across a new generation of filmgoers ready to be dazzled by that opening one shot all over again.
La La Land is currently playing in select cinemas for its 10th anniversary. You can also stream it on Netflix and BBC iPlayer