At the end of the evening on Sunday, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway presented âLa La Landâ with the Best Picture Oscar at the 89th annual Academy Awards. The thing was, âLa La Landâ didnât win â âMoonlightâ did.
Midway through the acceptance speech, Jordan Horowitz, a producer on the Damien Chazelleâdirected flick, stopped to announce that there had been a mistake. Host Jimmy Kimmel and presenter Beatty came out to reveal that âMoonlightâ was the actual winner. Apparently, Beatty was accidentally given the envelope for Best Actress, which was handed out right before to Emma Stone for her role in âLa La Land.â He saw the movie title and passed the envelope to co-presenter Dunaway, who announced âLa La Landâ as the winner.
As Beatty explained onstage:
I opened the envelope and it said, âEmma Stone, âLa La Land.ââ Thatâs why I took such a long look at Faye and at you â I wasnât trying to be funny ... This is âMoonlight,â the Best Picture.
According to USA Today, chaos ensued when the mishap occurred. Hereâs their account of what went down:
As the âLa La Landâ filmmakers take the stage to accept best picture, the accountant from PriceWaterhouseCoopers jumps up and says, âHe (presenter Warren Beatty) took the wrong envelope!â and goes running onstage. Craziness breaks out. No one knows how Beatty got the best actress envelope.
âOh, my God. âMoonlightâ won, âMoonlightâ won,â a stagehand says, her hands on her head.
Stone also addressed the situation, telling members of the press how much she loved âMoonlightâ and how excited she was for the film and its cast and crew. Then, she admitted, âI was holding my Best Actress in a Leading Role card that entire time. I donât mean to start stuff. Whatever story that was â I had that card.â
Although it is officially the most awkward â and most stunning â moment in Oscar history, the producers of âLa La Landâ gracefully handed their statues to the âMoonlightâ team as the audience stared in utter confusion-slash-amazement.
Everyone on Twitter freaked out, as well.
Watch the whole crazy moment go down below:
UPDATE 2/27/17: PriceWaterhouseCoopers released a statement overnight about the snafu, confirming that Beatty was given the wrong envelope. âWe are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred,â the accounting firm said.