We’re still not over the fact that last night we saw the most epic Oscars mix-up of ALL TIME #SayitLikeKanye. It was quite possibly the longest two minutes of our lives when the wrong Best Picture was announced last night.
The accountancy firm, PriceWaterHouseCooper, which has overseen the prize-giving process for more than 80 years, accepted responsibility for the mistake when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were given the wrong envelope and announced La La Land as the best picture winner instead of Moonlight.
After scrambling to figure out the reasoning behind the mistake, the Academy was able to put the blame on their accountants. PwC also released an official statement to clear up the issue at hand:
We sincerely apologize to Moonlight, La La Land, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for Best Picture. The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected. We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred.
We appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, ABC, and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation.
—PwC
Backstage, Emma Stone made it clear that she held on to her Best Actress In A Leading Role card, so she wasn’t sure how it was possible to name the wrong movie in the Best Picture category. “I was holding my Best Actress In A Leading Role card that entire time,” she said.
Turns out, the mistake was made because PriceWaterHouseCooper prints two copies of every winner. In this case, the wrong envelope was handed to co-presenter Warren Beatty before he took the stage. When he realized that the card was wrong, he panicked and passed the card over to Faye Dunaway who read it as La La Land.
Rather than let the lie continue, La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz stopped the celebration and declared that a sincere mistake had been made. From there, Jimmy Kimmel rushed on the stage to make light of the serious situation. Once in possession of the correct card, Beatty gave it to the man it really belonged to, Moonlight director Barry Jenkins.
Obviously, it was quite a disappointing disaster for all parties involved, but everyone got through it with grace and dignity. At the end of the day, the rightful winner was recognized.
Moonlight is officially the first LGBT film to ever win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Let’s all relish in that for now, shall we?
