Oscars Screwup Give’s ‘Moonlight’s’ Best Picture Award to ‘La La Land’

Aside from the prestige a Best Picture Oscar win brings, it usually results in a box office boost. Dunaway and fellow presenter Warren Beatty had somehow been handed the wrong envelope, one containing the victor for best actress, which had been awarded moments earlier to Emma Stone for her role in “La La Land”. Beatty’s presenter partner Faye Dunaway hastily announced “La La Land” after chiding Beatty for hesitating the announcement. It was someone working on behalf of PricewaterhouseCoopers who gave Beatty the envelope containing the Best Actress victor, not Best Picture. “Moonlight, ‘ you guys won Best Picture”.

For those watching the instant replay at home, Beatty can be clearly seen doing a double take as he opens the envelope and discovers Emma Stone’s name staring back at him (a close look at the footage shows “Actress In A Leading Role” written on the front). Stone had won best actress a few moments earlier.

La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz showed the correct card that read Moonlight. I’m afraid they read the wrong thing.

“Warren refused to show the card to anybody before he showed it to me”, Jenkins said.

“I noticed the commotion that was happening, and I thought something unusual had occurred”. I knew something was a little bit off, but I didn’t know what.

In the normal course of events, the accountants from PricewaterhouseCoopers create two complete sets of actual winners’ envelopes.

So how could a mistake this major happen on a night watched by some 30 million Americans?

Jordan Horowitz, producer of “La La Land”, shows the envelope revealing “Moonlight” as the true victor of best picture at the Oscars on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Unfortunately for all involved, the error was not fixed instantly. They congratulated one another for being inspiring, brave, and progressive, despite the poor example set by their industry; the A.C.L.U., whose blue ribbons many celebrities wore on the red carpet, has been investigating studio discrimination against female directors, who helmed only nine per cent of the top-grossing movies previous year. That no official stepped up to the mic to rectify the situation indicates a grave blunder on the organizers’ parts.

The accounting firm vowed to investigate how the mistake occurred.

Speaking backstage to press, Stone backed up the two card scenario. Last year, the Oscars chose hard-hitting drama Spotlight as the year’s best film, so it would make a refreshing change for them to go something a lot more optimistic this time round. As the audience erupted into applause, the cast and crew of “La La Land” leaped to their feet and embraced. Some will choose to use this win to run down La La Land, which is short-sighted, given that Chazelle’s film has extraordinary attributes of its own and would have been a worthy victor as well. “At that point it was not about me, it was about making sure Moonlight got the recognition it really deserves”.

Before the last-minute mix-up, the 89th Oscars had offered both the anticipated political digs at Trump, and the usual awards show silliness, mostly thanks to host Jimmy Kimmel, who at times turned the Oscars into a super-long episode of his late-night show. At 32, Chazelle became the youngest director to ever win the category.