Oscars 2017 accountants PWC apologise for epic mistake after La La Land is wrongly named Best Picture instead of real winners Moonlight
THE Oscars accountancy firm in charge of the ballot counting process has apologised for an epic blunder which saw La La Land incorrectly crowned Best Picture winner - when Moonlight had actually won.
Acting legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced La La Land as the winner – and the film’s producer Jordan Horowitz even accepted the award as he was joined on stage by the cast and crew.
But as La La Land's creators gave their acceptance speeches, Oscars producers frantically took to the stage in the first sign something was amiss.
It was left to Horowitz to interrupt and announce: "This is not a joke. Moonlight is best picture," before showing the camera and the audience a card that revealed the true winner to be Moonlight.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, the company responsible for the Academy voting, admitted Beatty and Dunaway had been given the wrong envelope.
A statement read: "We sincerely apologise 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."
After the embarrassing blunder Beatty returned to the microphone to say: "I want to tell you what happened, I opened the envelope and it said Emma Stone, La La Land and that is why I took such a long look at Faye and at you.
"I wasn't trying to be funny. This is Moonlight for best picture."
The actor did appear to dither over the card as he passed it to co-star Faye to announce.
OSCARS 2017 WINNERS LIST
Best Picture - Moonlight
Actor in a Leading Role - Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)
Actress in a Leading Role - Emma Stone (La La Land)
Directing - Damien Chazelle (La La Land)
Actress in a Supporting Role - Viola Davis (Fences)
Actor in a Supporting Role - Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)
Adapted Screenplay - Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)
Writing (Original Screenplay) - Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester By The Sea)
Animated Feature Film - Zootopia
Cinematography - Linus Sangren (La La Land)
Music (Original Song) - City of Stars (La La Land)
Music (Original Score) - La La Land
However Emma Stone, who earlier won the Best Actress gong, contradicted Warren Beatty's explanation about why he read out the wrong best picture winner at the Oscars, insisting she was holding the best actress envelope "the entire time".
The US star said the makers of La La Land were in a "state of confusion" after the film was wrongly read out as Best Picture winner instead of actual recipient Moonlight.
Speaking backstage, Stone said: "I f***ing love Moonlight. God I love Moonlight so much. I'm so excited for Moonlight. Of course it was an amazing thing to hear La La Land. I think we would have all loved to have won best picture.
"But we're so excited for Moonlight. I think it's one of the best films of all time. I also was holding my best actress in a leading role card that entire time. I don't mean to start stuff but whatever story that was - I had that card. So I'm not sure what happened.
"Is that the craziest Oscar moment of all time? Cool. We made history tonight. Craziest moment."
Moonlight's director Barry Jenkins said: "Very clearly even in my dreams this cant be true. But to hell with it because this is true. It's true, its not fake."
Paying tribute to the team behind La La Land, he said: "We have been on the road with these guys and it was so gracious and so generous of them."
How the Oscars drama unfolded
In the biggest gaffe in Oscars history, the Best Picture Award was handed to the wrong film. Here's what happened...
- Bonnie and Clyde stars Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway take to the stage to announce the winner of Best Picture
- Beatty looks confused as he opens the envelope and seems to take an age to announce the winner, before Dunaway reveals La La Land has won
- Producers and stars of the musical film have already begun making their emotional acceptance speeches when Oscar directors frantically reveal to them that Moonlight is the real winner
- La La Land creator Jordan Horowitz interrupts and announces: "This is not a joke, Moonlight is Best Picture" before revealing the card to the audience
- Horowitz hands the award to Moonlight director Barry Jenkins after the calamitous gaffe
- Beatty returns to the microphone and explains he opened the envelope for Best Actress - Emma Stone, La La Land, which is why the wrong film was announced
- Emma Stone refutes his explanation, saying she had the Best Actress envelope the entire time, but PricewaterhouseCoopers later admitted Beatty had been given the wrong envelope
- The accountancy firm, which was responsible for counting the votes, said in a statement: "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"
Producer of Moonlight, Dede Gardner added: "I'm still not sure this is real. It's very humbling to be up here and I hope it's inspiring to little black boys and brown girls who feel marginalised. I hope they take some inspiration from seeing his beautiful group of artists."
Two La La Land producers had already given their acceptance speeches before the mistake was revealed.
La La Land won a total of six Oscars, while Moonlight took home three in total.
Host Jimmy Kimmel joked that he knew he would he would mess up compering the ceremony.
He added: "Personally I blame Steve Harvey for this," referring to Harvey's mistake in announcing the Miss Universe winner in 2015
It comes after Emma Stone has won the Best Actress Oscar at this year's Academy Awards.
The actress took home the gong for her leading role in La La Land and was widely the favourite to win the award, her first Academy Award.
Stone, 28, who has already received a Golden Globe and Bafta for her role in the hit musical, beat Isabelle Huppert, Meryl Streep, Natalie Portman and Irish-Ethiopian star Ruth Negga to the prize.
In her acceptance speech she praised her fellow nominees, saying it was "an honour" to stand alongside them.
Stone thanked Chazelle and Gosling, saying of her co-star: "Thank you for making me laugh and for always raising the bar and for being the best partner in this crazy adventure."
She promised she would individually find all of the film's crew and "hug the hell" out of her friends when feeling "re-enters" her body.
On her trophy, Stone added: "I still have a lot of growing and learning to do and this guy is a symbol on that journey."
In the best supporting actress category Viola Davis received a standing ovation and cheers as she won the Oscar for her role in Fences.
The actress - who has been nominated twice before for Doubt and The Help - had been the frontrunner for the prize all through awards season.
Holding her statue she said: "There is one place that only people with the great potential are gathered and that is the graveyard.
"People ask me all the time 'What kind of stories do you want to tell, Viola? And I say exhume those bodies, exhume those stories, of people who dreamed big and never saw those dreams to fruition, people who fell in love and lost.
"I became an artist and thank god I did because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life.";
Paying tribute to her co-star and director Denzel Washington, she said: "Oh captain, my captain, Denzel Washington, thank you for putting two entities in the driving seat, August Wilson and God and they served me well."
Moonlight star Mahershala Ali won the first Oscar of the 89th Academy Awards, scooping the best supporting actor prize.
Ali embraced the film's director Barry Jenkins on his way up to the stage where he buttoned his tuxedo jacket, saying: "My grandma would want me to button up."
He added: "Wow, I want to thank my teacher and my professors, they told me is that it's not about you, it's about the characters, you are in service to your character and your stories, I'm so blessed to have had this opportunity."
The actor welcomed his first child Bari Najma on February 22 and thanked his wife Amatus Sami-Karim saying: "My wife was in her third trimester doing awards seasons, we just had a daughter four days ago. I just want to thank her for being such a soldier through this process."
The ceremony kicked off with host Jimmy Kimmel thanking President Donald Trump for making the Oscars appear less racist.
The talk show host said he knew the country was divided and he had been encouraged to say something that would unite people.
He said the ceremony was being watched around the world by "countries that now hate us" adding: "The country is divided right now, I've been been getting advice that I need to say something to unite us.
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"Let me say something. I can't do that. There is only one Braveheart in this room and he's not going to do that either."
He added: "I want to say thank you to President Trump. Remember last year when it seemed like the Oscars were racist? It's gone!"
Referring to nominated films Hidden Figures and La La Land, he added: "Black people saved Nasa and white people saved jazz, that's what you call progress."
Meanwhile, Casey Affleck won the Best Actor award and Dakota Johnson led the worst dressed list.
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