A24’s Moonlight took home the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film – Wide Release at the 28^th Annual GLAAD Media Awards at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on Saturday. Joined onstage by star Trevante Rhodes and producer Jeremy Kleiner, out playwright and story writer Tarell Alvin McCraney accepted the award, which was presented by Grammy Award-winning music icon Mary J. Blige. 

Tune in to Logo TV on Thursday, April 6 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT to watch the 28^th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles!

Accepting the award, McCraney urged more support for women of color and paid tribute to his bisexual mother who died of AIDS-related complications. “What does it mean to have won?” McCraney put forth, celebrating the win while calling for raising the standards for winning to include the most marginalized. “We win when we give our children – the ones who are going missing in the night, or wondering how much they matter to us, to each other, to the law – [… ] the courage, the tools, and resources to scatter their light across the cinema walls across this great world. That’s how we win.”

“We won for Moonlight today, yes,” McCraney said. “But how are we winning tomorrow?”

Moonlight is a coming-of-age story following Chiron – a young, black, queer man growing up in an impoverished Miami neighborhood – in three acts, from childhood to teen years to adulthood.  Chiron’s journey of struggling with his sexual identity is interwoven with themes of poverty, intimacy, masculinity, and mass incarceration. Directed and written by Barry Jenkins, the film was inspired by McCraney’s short play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue.

In February, Moonlight made history by becoming the first film with an LGBTQ lead to take home the Academy Award for Best Picture.  Among its numerous accolades are also Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (for Mahershala Ali); a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Drama; and five Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Film. 

Additional awards will be presented at the GLAAD Media Awards in New York City at the New York Midtown on May 6^th. Tickets are available now at glaad.org/mediaawards. To receive the latest updates on the GLAAD Media Awards, follow @glaad on Twitter and use the hashtag #glaadawards. The 28^th Annual GLAAD Media Awards are presented by Delta Airlines, Hilton, Ketel One Vodka, Liberty Mutual Insurance, and Wells Fargo.

The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community and the issues that affect their lives.  They also fund GLAAD’s work to amplify stories from the LGBTQ community that build support for equality and acceptance.