Best Picture Mixup at the Oscars on Sunday Night

Like last year’s infamous “Steve Harvey” error, the winner for Best Picture was announced incorrectly at the Oscars on Sunday night.

After the wrong envelope was read during the Oscars Best Picture presentation, the longtime keepers of the envelope, accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, took the heat for the historic Academy Awards mix up.

“We sincerely apologize to ‘Moonlight’ and ‘La La Land’, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for Best Picture,” said a statement from PricewaterhouseCoopers, according to nola.com. “The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when it was discovered, [it] was immediately corrected. We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred. We greatly appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, ABC, and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation.”

At a pivotal moment in the awards show, Beatty opened the envelope that was supposed to contain the name of the Best Picture winner. He handed the card to Dunaway, who read “La La Land.” After a few minutes of hugging and speech-giving, “La La Land” producer Jordan Horowitz was made aware of the mix up and held up the card that should have been read.

“‘Moonlight’… won Best Picture,” Horowitz said. “This is not a joke. Come up here.”

Beatty later explained that the envelope he had opened contained a card that read “Emma Stone, ‘La La Land,’”  who had just won Best Actress. In a moment of confusion, the card was handed to Dunaway, who read it to the audience.

This mix up is particularly historic because of the lengths that PricewaterhouseCoopers famously goes to to ensure that the Oscars ceremony goes smoothly. 

“That was hilarious,” sophomore Grace Rachek said. “Emma [Stone]’s face was hilarious. I felt kinda bad.”

If Beatty was handed the wrong envelope, the question then becomes: who gave it to him?