In Liberty City, Miami at the height of the crack epidemic, Afro-Cuban drug dealer Juan finds Chiron, a withdrawn child who goes by the nickname "Little", hiding from bullies in a crackhouse. Juan lets Chiron spend the night with him and his girlfriend Teresa before returning Chiron to his mother Paula. Chiron continues to spend time with Juan, who begins to teach him the basics of life, from which he believes Chiron can benefit.

One night, Juan encounters Paula smoking crack with one of his customers. Juan berates her for neglecting her son, but she rebukes him for selling crack to her in the first place. They argue over Chiron's upbringing; Paula asks if Juan is prepared to explain to Chiron why he gets tormented by his peers, alluding signs that he is gay. She goes home and takes out her frustration on Chiron.

The next day, Chiron admits to Juan and Teresa that he hates his mother and asks what a "faggot" is. Juan tells him it is "a word used to make gay people feel bad." He tells Chiron there is nothing wrong with being gay and that he should not allow others to mock him. Chiron then asks Juan whether he sells drugs and whether his mother does drugs. After Juan remorsefully answers yes to both questions, Chiron leaves as Juan hangs his head in shame.
Now a teenager, Chiron balances avoiding school bully Terrel and spending time with Teresa, who lives alone after Juan's death. Paula, who has turned to prostitution due to her worsening addiction, forces Chiron to give her the money he receives from Teresa. Chiron's childhood friend Kevin tells him about a detention he received for having sex with a girl in a school stairwell. Chiron later dreams about Kevin and the girl having sex in Teresa's backyard, waking with a start. One night, Kevin visits Chiron at the beach near his house. While smoking a blunt together, the two discuss their ambitions and Kevin's nickname for Chiron: "Black." They kiss, and Kevin gives Chiron a handjob.

The next day, Terrel manipulates Kevin into participating in a hazing ritual. Kevin reluctantly punches Chiron until he cannot stand, watching as Terrel and other boys savagely attack him. When the principal urges him to reveal his attackers' identities, Chiron refuses, saying that reporting them will not solve anything. The next day, an enraged Chiron walks into class and smashes a chair over Terrel's head before being restrained. Chiron is arrested and taken from school in a police cruiser while Kevin watches.
A decade later, now going by "Black", an adult Chiron deals drugs in Atlanta and is an imposing figure in his community. He receives frequent calls from Paula, who asks him to visit her at the drug treatment center where she lives. One morning, Kevin unexpectedly calls and invites Chiron to see him should he ever come to Miami. Chiron visits Paula; though he is withdrawn, she apologizes for not loving him when he needed it most and says she loves him even if he does not love her back. The two tearfully reconcile.

Chiron drives to Miami to visit Kevin at the diner where he works as a cook. Kevin makes a meal for Chiron, who does not respond to questions about his life and how he has seemingly changed. Kevin shares that he had a son with an ex-girlfriend and, after getting out of prison, is fulfilled by his role as a father. Chiron reveals his unexpected drug dealing, which disappoints Kevin, and asks Kevin why he called. Kevin plays "Hello Stranger" by Barbara Lewis on the juk…

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• Chiron (/ʃaɪˈroʊn/ shy-ROHN), the film's protagonist
• Kevin, Chiron's romantic interest
• Naomie Harris as Paula, Chiron's drug addict mother
• Mahershala Ali as Juan, a drug dealer who becomes a father figure to Chiron
• Janelle Monáe as Teresa, Juan's girlfriend
• Patrick Decile as Terrel, a school bully

In 2003, Tarell Alvin McCraney wrote the semi-autobiographical play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue to cope with his mother's death from AIDS. The theater piece was shelved for about a decade before it served as the basis for Moonlight.

After the release of his debut feature film Medicine for Melancholy in 2008, Barry Jenkins wrote various screenplays, none of which entered production. In January 2013, producer Adele Romanski urged Jenkins to make a second film. The two brainstormed a few times a month through video-chat, with the goal of producing a low-budget "cinematic and personal" film. Jenkins was introduced to McCraney's play through the Borscht arts collective in Miami. After discussions with McCraney, Jenkins wrote the first draft of the film in a month-long visit to Brussels.

Although the original play contained three parts, they ran simultaneously so that the audience would experience a day in the life of Little, Chiron and Black concurrently. In fact, it is not made clear that the characters are the same person until halfway through the play. Jenkins instead chose to split the three parts of the original piece into distinct chapters and to focus on Chiron's story from the perspective of an ally.

The result was a screenplay that reflected the similar upbringings of Jenkins and McCraney. The character Juan was based on the father of McCraney's half-brother, who was also a childhood "defender" of McCraney, as Juan was for Chiron. Likewise, Paula was a depiction of Jenkins' and McCraney's mothers, who both were drug addicts. McCraney and Jenkins also both grew up in Miami's Liberty Square, a primary location of the film.

Jenkins looked for financing for the film during 2013, finding success after showing the script to the executives of Plan B Entertainment at the year's Telluride Film Festival. Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner of Plan B Entertainment became producers of the film, while A24 undertook to finance it and handle worldwide distribution, which marked the company's first production.
Different actors portrayed Chiron and Kevin in each chapter of the film. Ashton Sanders was cast in the role of teen Chiron. Alex Hibbert and Jaden Piner were cast for the roles of child Chiron and child Kevin, respectively, in an open casting call in Miami. Trevante Rhodes originally auditioned for the role of Kevin, before he was cast as adult Chiron.

André Holland had previously acted in McCraney's plays, and had read In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue a decade before the release of the film. Holland was attracted to the role of ad…

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