Oscars: Jordan Horowitz, Jimmy Kimmel and Warren Beatty during the Best Film announcement (courtesy: AFP)
Highlights
- 'Presenters were mistakenly given the wrong envelope,' a statement said
- Faye Dunaway announced La La Land as the Best Picture winner
- However, the correct announcement was made soon
was followed by an apology from auditing firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers, which is responsible for formulating Oscar ballots. Pricewaterhouse Coopers, which also operates by the name of PwC, released a "sincere apology" addressed to Team
Moonlight,
La La Land and the entire viewers of Oscars, reported news agency AFP. In a statement of apology, PwC admitted that actor Warren Beatty and his
Bonny And Clyde co-star Faye Dunaway were handed the wrong envelope to read out the Best Film Oscar winner from. It all started when Mr Beatty opened the envelope and Ms Dunaway took over to announce
Damien Chazelle's La La Land as the winner of the top award of the night. Soon, the correct announcement was made and
Moonlight was announced as winner of
Best Picture.
"
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," the company said in a statement, reported AFP.
"The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and, when discovered, was immediately corrected," the statement added. A little backstory here. Ahead of the corrected announcement,
La La Land producers Jordan Horowitz and Marc Platt were already delivering their acceptance speech when Martha Ruiz, partly responsible for organising the Oscar ballots notified the change. Mr Horowitz immediately took the mic to declare: "Guys, guys, I'm sorry. No. There's been a mistake," he said. "
Moonlight, you guys won best picture. This is not a joke."
Team PwC also mentioned that they are carrying out an investigation into the big blunder. "We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred," the statement added.
Moonlight won three Oscars on Sunday night including Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali and Best Adapted Screenplay. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling's
La La Land won the highest number of Oscars with six wins including Best Director for Damien Chazelle and Best Actress for Ms Stone. The
89th Academy Awards were hosted by TV personality Jimmy Kimmel.
(With AFP inputs)