Oscar Mix-Up

The 2017 Oscars, officially the 89th Academy Awards, went completely as planned until it came time to present the Academy Award for Best Picture. After being handed the wrong envelope, Oscar presenters, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, mistakenly announced that La La Land had won Best Picture.

The cast and crew of La La Land, energized by their six other Oscars wins, rushed onto the stage to give their acceptance speeches. Minutes into producers Jordan Horowitz’s and Marc Platt’s speeches, however, it was clear something was wrong.

Fred Berger, a fellow producer, who gave his speech next, discovered that La La Land did not win and gave an awkward, “We lost, by the way,” before melting back into the bewildered crowd of cast and crew.

Fortunately for La La Land, especially the mortified Berger, Horowitz quickly jumped into action, saving them from embarrassment. Taking centerstage at the microphone, Horowitz casually said, “Guys, guys, I’m sorry, no, there’s a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won best picture.”

The whole room was left confused, including the cast and crew of Moonlight, who had yet to come on stage to receive their award. Horowitz had to repeat “This is not a joke” twice before Moonlight realized what was happening was in fact “not a joke.”

Jimmy Kimmel, the Oscars’ host, tried to diffuse the tension of the situation when he said, “I think you guys should keep it anyway,” addressing the crew of La La Land. But Horowitz would have none of this, responding with a heartfelt, “I’m going to be really proud to hand this to my friends from Moonlight.”

Because of his good sportsmanship and calmness under pressure, Horowitz is now being called the hero of the night. In addition, Horowitz seemed

to be genuinely happy for Moonlight. He even stuck around to hug Barry Jenkins, the director of Moonlight.

Later, Warren Beatty revealed that he had been handed the award envelope for Best Actress, which went to Emma Stone in La La Land, instead of the award for Best Picture. This prompted Faye Dunaway to announce the wrong movie.

On Monday morning, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm responsible for keeping the secrecy of the Oscar awards released this statement:

"PwC takes full responsibility for the series of mistakes and breaches of established protocols during last night's Oscars. Partner Brian Cullinan mistakenly handed the back-up envelope for Actress in a Leading Role instead of the envelope for Best Picture to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. Once the error occurred, protocols for correcting it were not followed through quickly enough by Mr. Cullinan or his partner."

-Michael Bachmann