Miami Street To Be Renamed After Oscar-Winning Film 'Moonlight'

Photo via A24

Aside from receiving a number of awards throughout award season this year (including Best Picture at this year's Oscars), Moonlight has received another honor that literally hits close to home — its own street in Miami.

This past Tuesday, Miami-Dade commissioners decided to rename a Liberty City street "Moonlight Way," in honor of the film which was not only shot in Miami but features a cast and crew predominantly from there.

"This movie — at least what I got from it — really depicts the life of how a lot of us were raised and what we had to go through and endure as children in the inner city," said Commissioner Audrey Edmonson. "This goes out to children still living here in the inner city that are told they'll never amount to anything. It shows that it doesn't matter how you were raised or where you grew up; you can still turn out to be someone."

Edmonson also spoke about how Moonlight can bridge a gap between residents living in affluent suburbs and those who live in Liberty City, encouraging empathy between the two.

"To everyone, I'd say it's still not too late to watch it. It will bring awareness to those not brought up that way," Edmonson said. "It definitely shows what goes on in the city."

Moonlight Director Barry Jenkins' next project will be spearheading an adaptation of Colson Whitehead's brilliant 2016 novel, The Underground Railroad. The adaptation, which Jenkins will write and direct, will be a limited series for Amazon.

"Going back to The Intuitionist, Colson’s writing has always defied convention, and The Underground Railroad is no different," Jenkins said to Variety. "It's a groundbreaking work that pays respect to our nation's history while using the form to explore it in a thoughtful and original way. Preserving the sweep and grandeur of a story like this requires bold, innovative thinking and in Amazon we've found a partner whose reverence for storytelling and freeness of form is wholly in line with our vision."