Jimmy Kimmel shares insights on best picture Oscar gaffe

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the accountancy company that has been counting Oscar ballots since 1935, admitted in a statement that presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway had been given the wrong envelope during the award for best film. It only took a few moments before “La La Land” producer Jordan Horowitz looked down at the envelope and realized the real victor was “Moonlight”.

First off, whoever sent out the wrong envelope to Warren Beatty should be severely chastised. Moonlight came as the surprise victor as initially the best picture announced as La La Land, but moments later it was revealed that it was a mistake.

In the United States last night, the seminal coming-of-age film Moonlight, starring Trevante Rhodes and Mahershala Ali, won Best Picture. Beatty took an unusually long time to reveal the victor.

The duo was there to present the best picture award in celebration of the 50th anniversary of their classic film, Bonnie and Clyde. The Best Picture prize was actually awarded to “Moonlight”.

For one brief and glorious moment, the 89th Academy Awards looked more like a wrestling promo than a sophisticated awards show.

Harvey addressed the mix-up on his morning radio show after hinting at the error on Twitter: “YOU KNOW I have something to say”. Jordan insisted repeatedly, “This was not a joke, Moonlight is the winner“. Thankfully, we now know it wasn’t all her fault, but questions around what exactly happened are still being raised. But I wanted to make sure the right thing was done.

The win came after Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway appeared to have received the wrong envelope, and then Warren Beatty, who was confused, handed it to Faye Dunaway, who announced “La La Land” as the victor.

Host Jimmy Kimmel tried to make light of the situation, blaming the incident on Steve Harvey, the comedian who infamously announced the wrong victor of the Miss Universe pageant in 2015.

An accountant for the Academy Awards is being blamed for the blunder that resulted in La La Land being wrongly mnamed best picture at the Oscars ceremony.

“The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected”.

So what happened? It all started with Warren Beatty. One: Moonlight deserved to win Best Picture. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the accounting firm who counts the ballots and verifies the results, stuffs two sets of victor envelopes and puts them in two separate briefcases – just in case.

“Very clearly, very clearly, even in my dreams, this could not be true”, Jenkins said after the “La La Land” team left the stage and “Moonlight” finally received its recognition.

Just seconds before, confusion was etched across Beatty’s face after he opened the envelope. Then came the twist: The actual victor was Moonlight.