Oscars 2017 Stunner: La La Land Mistakenly Named Best Picture; Moonlight Actual Winner

By /

Oscars Mistake Moonlight
Courtesy of ABC

In a stunning and unprecedented gaffe, La La Land was incorrectly named Best Picture by co-presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway at Sunday’s 89th annual Academy Awards instead of the actual winner, Moonlight.

The glitch was discovered shortly after Team La La Land had taken to the stage to accept the trophy, prompting one of the movie’s producers, Jordan Horowitz, to walk to the microphone and declare Moonlight the true victor. [UPDATE: Look who’s taking full responsibility.]

“I’m sorry. There’s a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture,” Horowitz announced to the shocked crowd. “This is not a joke. Moonlight has won Best Picture.” 

“Personally I blame Steve Harvey for this,” host Jimmy Kimmel joked, referring to the epic fail at the 2015 Miss Universe pageant in which Harvey crowned the wrong winner.

Beatty then stepped up to the mic to explain that he had been handed the Best Actress card in error. “I opened the envelope and it said Emma Stone, La La land,” he told the stunned audience. “That’s why I took such a long look at [co-presenter] Faye. I wasn’t trying to be funny.”

Moonlight writer/director Barry Jenkins eventually made it to the stage and confirmed that his film had indeed prevailed over La La Land. “It is true,” he announced. “It’s not fake. We’ve been on the road with these guys for so long. That was so gracious and generous of them. My love to La La Land. My love to everybody.”

After you’ve watched the above videos, check out the clip below which chronicles the frenzied moments when the La La Land slowly learned that they had, in fact, lost.

ad