Damien Chazelle just made Oscar history with his Best Director win.
The "La La Land" director is the youngest filmmaker to ever win the Academy Award for this category. He was previously nominated for his debut feature, the Oscar-winning "Whiplash," in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. (The film was based on a short he directed).
Chazelle was long favored to take home the award, after previously winning the Directors Guild Award The four other filmmakers competing for Oscar were: Denis Villeneuve ("Arrival"), Mel Gibson ("Hacksaw Ridge"), Kenneth Lonergan ("Manchester by the Sea"), and Barry Jenkins ("Moonlight").
The Oscar-winner spent years pitching "La La Land" to various studios, only to have everyone in town turn it down. Like the aspiring Hollywood dreamers in his film, his persistence paid off on Sunday night.
Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) are drawn together by their common desire to do what they love. But as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart. Read More