We just witnessed Oscar history, but not the good kind. In an unbelievable mishap, the Best Picture Academy Award was incorrectly given toLa La Landinitially, only to be taken away just minutes later and given to the rightful winner,Moonlight. That’s right, in trueSteve Harveyfashion, the presenters really messed this one up in a big, bad way.
Warren BeattyandFaye Dunawaywere on stage to present theOscarfor Best Picture during the 89th annual Academy Awards, in honor of the 50th anniversary ofBonnie and Clyde. After opening the envelope,Beattytook a long, puzzled pause, but thenLa La Landwas announced as the winner. The entire cast and crew gathered on stage to start giving speeches and it wasn’t until well into their acceptance that it was revealed a mistake had been made. For some reason, the card, according toWarren Beatty, hadEmma StoneforLa La Landand not the rightful Best Picture winnerMoonlight. TheLa La Landgang was then forced to surrender their statues and theMoonlightfilmmakers were welcomed onstage to then give their speeches.
HostJimmy Kimmeltried to make the best of the situation and everyone fromLa La Landwas very graceful about the incident. Initially, it seemed like this may have been some sort of poorly executed gag, but as things continued to play out it was very clear that someone made a legendarily large screw up.Jimmy Kimmeljoked that he knew he would screw-up his hosting gig somehow, trying to place the blame on himself. At the moment, it isn’t clear who is to blame for the mishap.
“This is not a joke.Moonlighthas won Best Picture.”
A card was held up to the camera revealing thatMoonlighthad indeed actually won the Oscar forBest Pictureto assure everyone that this wasn’t a joke. Despite the mishap,Moonlightwinning the award serves as an upset asLa La Land, which went home with several other awards includingEmma Stonefor Best Actress andDamien Chazellefor Best Director, was seen as the heavy favorite heading into tonight’s ceremony. Given last year’s #OscarsSoWhite controversy, it seemed like there was some pressure on the voting members to pay more attention to diverse films and performances this year.Moonlightwinning Best Picture was a great way to honor a diverse and highly-regarded film. That said, it would have been much better without the snafu. Here is whatJimmy Kimmelhad to say to try and smooth things over.
“Guys, this is very unfortunate what happened. Personally, I blame Steve Harvey for this.'
MoonlightdirectorBarry Jenkinswas clearly overwhelmed when he realized his movie had actually won the Academy Award for Best Picture and that this whole thing wasn’t just some joke. In any case, we can now definitively say thatMoonlightis your Best Picture winner. Sorry,La La Land. In case you missed it, you can check out the video of the big Oscar mishap for yourself below.
