That ‘Moonlight’ vs. ‘La La Land’ Oscars Best Picture Flub: What Happened?

The only problem was they were supposed to give “Moonlight” that honor, and there had been a bad mix-up behind the scenes.

Beatty hesitated after opening the envelope, which the audience took to be part of a joke. But it was only when he took the card from the envelope and held it out for everyone to see that the Moonlight team and everyone else actually believed him.

“The envelopes containing the winner’s names were redesigned this year, and they featured red paper with gold lettering that specifies the award”.

PwC partners Martha Ruiz and Brian Cullinan are the only two people in the world who knew the result before it was announced, according to Forbes. After stuffing the envelopes and locking them in a briefcase, they memorize the list of winners.

After the mix-up, host Jimmy Kimmel commented, “It’s very unfortunate”. “We’re so focused on doing our jobs that we don’t mind the hours of standing”.

The envelope for best actress, the penultimate award of the night, came from the side of the stage where Ruiz stood. But please write this down, the La La Land crew was so gracious. After no small amount of on-screen hugging and speechifying, “La La Land” producer Justin Horowitz – apparently being made aware of the mistake – stopped the proceedings. Moonlight has won Best Picture award. “This is not a joke”.

Meanwhile, Oscars producer Jennifer Todd conferred with a crew member: “But how did they both read the wrong thing?” The Oscars are taking place at the Hollywood and Highland Center’s Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Late-night TV’s Jimmy Kimmel makes his debut as Oscar host, joining a club of amusing folks whose membership includes Ellen DeGeneres, Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Crystal and Bob Hope.

“I f***ing love ‘Moonlight“, she said in a press conference after the show. “There was a time when I thought this movie was impossible because I couldn’t bring it into fruition, and everybody behind me on this stage said, ‘No, that is unacceptable'”. Warren Beatty apologised for the error, stating that he was’t trying to be amusing while a confused-looking Jimmy Kimmel too came on the stage to take stock of the situation.

Kimmel elaborated on Beatty’s confusion in an interview with ABC.

La La Land missed out the Best Film trophy but it did take home six prizes including Best Actress for Emma Stone, who competed against the likes of Meryl Streep and Natalie Portman. “This was confusing, obviously”. He came upstairs and he walked over to me, and he showed the card.

It seemed to say “someone’s going to get fired”, after “La La Land” was mistakenly named Best Picture by Warren Beatty, when the victor was actually “Moonlight“.

Now, the accounting firm that oversees the voting, adds that the gaffe was “a humor error”. However, sadly an announcement was soon made stating that not La La Land but Moonlight had won the trophy.

As far as Barry Jenkins, Moonlight’s director, it’s safe to say it was one of the craziest moments of his life.