The 89th annual Academy Awards ended on a strange note Sunday night as presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway mistakenly announced “La La Land” as the winner of the Best Picture award, when “Moonlight” had really won the award.
After “La La Land” producers took to the stage to accept the award, and had begun their thank-yous, an Oscars producer hurriedly jumped onstage to announce that “Moonlight” had, in fact, won the night’s most coveted award.
After delivering an acceptance speech, “La La Land” producer Justin Horowitz graciously offered the award to “Moonlight”. He said, ”There's a mistake. 'Moonlight', you guys won Best Picture. This is not a joke."
The accounting firm that counts and delivers the winning Oscars envelopes has apologized for the Best Picture mix-up at the 89th Academy Awards. A statement from PricewaterhouseCoopers reads: “We sincerely apologize 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.”
“Moonlight” — an independent film about a young black man coming-of-age in Miami — won three awards Sunday night: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali and Best Adapted Screenplay (for Barry Jenkins and Tarrell Alvin McCrary.)
“La La Land” won six awards out of its record 14 nominations, including Best Actress for Emma Stone, Best Director for Damien Chazelle, Best Original Song and Best Original Score.
List of winners for 89th Academy Awards
Best Picture: "Moonlight."
Best Actor: Casey Affleck, "Manchester By the Sea."
Best Actress: Emma Stone, "La La Land."
Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali, "Moonlight."
Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, "Fences."
Best Director: Damien Chazelle, "La La Land."
Foreign Language Film: "The Salesman," Iran.
Adapted Screenplay: "Moonlight," screenplay by Barry Jenkins, story by Tarell Alvin McCraney.
Original Screenplay: Kenneth Lonergan, "Manchester by the Sea."
Production Design: "La La Land."
Production Design: David Wasco
Set Decoration: Sandy Reynolds-Wasco.
Cinematography: Linus Sandgren, "La La Land."
Sound Mixing: "Hacksaw Ridge," Kevin O'Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace.
Sound Editing: "Arrival," Sylvain Bellemare.
Original Score: "La La Land," Justin Hurwitz.
Original Song: "City of Stars" from "La La Land," music by Justin Hurwitz, lyric by Ben Pasek and Justin Paul.
Costume Design: Colleen Atwood, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."
Documentary (short subject): "The White Helmets," Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara.
Documentary Feature: "O.J.: Made in America," Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow.
Film Editing: "Hacksaw Ridge," John Gilbert.
Makeup and Hairstyling: "Suicide Squad," Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson.
Animated Feature Film: "Zootopia," Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer.
Animated Short Film: "Piper," Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer.
Live Action Short Film: "Sing," Kristof Deak and Anna Udvardy.
Visual Effects: "The Jungle Book," Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Dan Lemmon.