Well… that was awkward.
The climactic moment of the 2017 Academy Awards proved to be both anti-climactic and rather historic, although not for the reasons many expected.
No, La La Land did not set the record for most Oscars won in a single year. Nor did it even win the trophy for Best Picture.
But presented Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway DID initially call out La La Land as the winner of last night"s most prestigious honor, prompting that movie"s cast and crew to go out on stage and accept the award.
Except there was a mistake. Beatty had been given the wrong envelope.
After Jimmy Kimmel, Beatty and an Oscars representative came out to whishper in his ear about what happened, La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz took to the microphone and said:
"Guys, I"m sorry. There"s a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture. This is not a joke. I"m afraid they read the wrong thing."
It was understandably confusing. We needed to see a close-up of the actual envelope to actually believe that Moonlight was the Best Picture champion.
"Guys. This is very unfortunate, what happened," Kimmel told the crowd, joking, "Personally, I blame Steve Harvey for this."
Said auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in a statement:
“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,” it read.
“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.”
What a bizarre occurrence. What a huge upset!
Watch it all unfold below:
