Mahershala Ali has won the best supporting actor Oscar – a widely anticipated win – for his role in Moonlight, the acclaimed study of a black gay man’s coming of age.
Directed by Barry Jenkins, Moonlight has proved a breakout critical hit since its premiere at the Telluride film festival in 2016.
In Moonlight, adapted from an unpublished playscript by Tarell Alvin McCraney, Ali plays a drug dealer called Juan who acts as a father figure to the central character Chiron.
However he fell short at the Golden Globes (beaten by Aaron Taylor Johnson for Nocturnal Animals) and the Baftas (losing to Dev Patel for Lion).