UPDATE: PricewaterhouseCoopers, the official accounting firm tasked with calculating the nominations and votes for the 2017 Oscars, have released a statement in the wake of the Best Picture controversy.
“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 statement, which was shared on their official Twitter account, began.
“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,” it concluded.
PREVIOUSLY:
Just when you thought the Best Picture drama at the 89th Academy Awards couldn’t get any more shocking, Best Actress winner Emma Stone has weighed in on the blunder.
“I think we all would have loved to win Best Picture, but we are so happy for Moonlight, one of the best films all time,” a gracious Emma explained.
“I was pretty beside myself. But I was also holding my Best Actress in a Leading Role card the entire time.”
“So whatever the story, I don’t mean to start stuff,” she said to a stunned press room.
Naturally, Twitter has wasted no time coming up with theories as to how the catastrophy happened.
Many users pointed out that Leonardo DiCaprio, who presented Emma Stone the Best Actress Award prior to the Best Picture announcement, may be behind the fall out.
Fans have noted Warren read out the Best Actress card that Leo was holding minutes before, and that the 42-year-old could have left the card backstage and Warren may have accidentally been handed it.
“Leo put the card back in the envelope. Left the stage with it. He must’ve given it to a producer who accidentally gave it to Beatty #Oscars,” one user wrote.
“LEO CARRIED THAT CARD OFFSTAGE PUT IT DOWN WHEN HE SAW WARREN AND WARREN PICKED IT UP,” a more panicked tweet penned.
Complicating matters even more is the fact that Emma insists she was holding the Best Actress card the whole time after her win, however PwC print two copies of each announcement so a duplicate could have indeed been circulating.
Meanwhile, the musical’s producer Jordan Horowitz managed to see the brighter side of the mix up and admitted he went straight into organiser mode when he realised his film wasn’t the rightful winner.
“There was a stage hang guy who was buzzing around looking for the envelope from someone,” he recalled to E! News.
“And I was just holding the envelope. Then a stage hand guy asked for the envelope and it said ‘Emma Stone, La La Land‘ on it.*
“Who knows what it was, at a certain point there was a Best Picture envelope than had Moonlight on it. It happened really fast, I’m a producer, I gather things together and move things on.”
Even The Academy’s twitter page got it wrong.
Moonlight’s director Barry Jenkins took a dignified approach to the results.
“I think all the movies nominated were worthy,” he told the media.
“I accepted the results and I applauded with everyone else. I noticed the commotion that was happening and I thought something strange had occurred. I’m sure you saw my face when the results.”
“I’ve watched the Academy Awards before and have never seen that happen. It made a very special feeling even more special, but not in the way I expected!”
Heartbreaking: Time to hand over the award…
Poor actor Warren Beatty, 79, was the unlucky presenter who was somehow handed the wrong envelope to read out.
And in another painful blow, the production team of La La Land were well into their acceptance speech for Best Picture, when it was revealed the WRONG winner had been announced.
Warren admitted he was confused after re-reading Emma Stone’s Best Actress card, assuming it meant her film had won the evening’s highly-anticipated accolade.
The actual winners take to the stage.
While Emma Stone is visibly upset for her team.
Hollywood’s biggest names stood up in concern as the true magnitude of the mix up slowly sunk in.
Producer Jordan Horowitz was more than two minutes into his acceptance speech when he had to stop and sadly tell his co-stars: “We lost by the way!”
“There’s a mistake! Moonlight, you won best picture.”
In a stunning display, a gracious Warren took the mic and revealed to a gob-smacked audience: “This is not a joke! I’m afraid they read the wrong thing.”
Host Jimmy Kimmel quickly took to the stage to try and diffuse the situation, saying, “This is very unfortunate what has happened,” before referencing the 2015 Miss Universe pageant drama, “Personally I blame Steve Harvey for this!”
La La Land‘s Jordan is not happy and poor Warren looks very lost.
Jordan quickly picked himself up, saying, “I’m going to be really proud to hand this over to my friends from Moonlight.”
“WARREN WHAT DID YOU DO,” Jimmy shouted in an attempt to lighten the very tense atmosphere.
Meanwhile a clearly rattled Warren tried to explain himself: “I want to tell you what happened. I opened the envelope and it said Emma Stone, La La Land. That’s why I took such long look at Faye and at you.”
Before proclaiming, “This is Moonlight, the Best Picture.”
Not even Jimmy could smooth over the flub with a gag.
The film’s director, Barry Jenkins, and producer, Adele Romanski, then took to the stage.
“Very clearly, even in my dreams this could not be true but I’m done with it because this is true! Oh my goodness,” Barry exclaimed.
He then addressed the elephant in the room, “And I have to say it is true, it’s not fake. We’ve been on the road with these guys for so long. They’ve been so gracious and generous. My love to La La Land. My love to everybody!”
What a shock!
While the La La Land team were clearly devastated by the mistake, Twitter pounced at the evening’s most controversial moment.
And there were many theories, with some fans thinking it was done on purpose, others wishing it had happened during the US elections, and then there were those who just enjoyed the magic of a momentous screw up.
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