La La Land was mistakenly given the Oscar for Best Picture on Sunday night, despite the award’s real winner being Moonlight.
In a mix-up of epic proportions, Faye Dunaway declared La La Land the winner of the Best Picture award after Warren Beatty was handed a card with Emma Stone’s name on it, followed by her film title La La Land. The La La Land cast were on stage accepting the award when the film’s producer Jordan Horowitz declared Moonlight the real winner.
Many believed Beatty was playing a joke on the cast by announcing the wrong name, leading him to say towards the end: “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 a long look at Faye, and at you [the audience], I wasn’t trying to be funny.”
The host of the evening’s awards, Jimmy Kimmel, said afterwards: “He was confused because the card, which he showed to me by the way, said ‘Emma Stone, La La Land’ on it.
“So this was confusing obviously, we thought he was being coy and cute to make everybody suffer but in reality he was perplexed by why her name was on it.”
The accountancy firm Price Waterhouse Cooper, who count the votes, took responsibility for the error. It said in a statement:
“We sincerely apologise to Moonlight, La La Land, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and the 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, and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation.”