Hollywood was feeling good. The Academy Awards show featured continual Trump-bashing and the “Oscars So White” controversy was put to rest, with black people well-represented in all categories and winning lots of awards.
But at the grand finale, the announcement of the climactic “Best Picture” award, presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced that the winner was La La Land. But they had been given the wrong envelope! The La La Land producers were giving their speeches, until they were interrupted with the news that it was all a mistake. Moonlight, the coming of age film about a young gay black man, was really the winner! Pandemonium!
From The minute-by-minute breakdown of the shocking ‘Moonlight’/‘La La Land’ best picture mix-up – The Washington Post:
In what was surely the most shocking moment in Oscars history, Faye Dunaway announced the wrong winner for best picture at the end of the ceremony, awarding the trophy to “La La Land” when it actually was supposed to go to “Moonlight.”
It turns out Dunaway and her co-presenter, Warren Beatty, were given the wrong category envelope, so the actors announced the wrong winner, leading the wrong filmmakers to begin their acceptance speeches for an award they had not won.
But it took several minutes for the Academy Awards producers and accountants to rectify the mistake and get the actual winners onstage to accept Hollywood’s biggest honor. . . .
The “La La Land” team arrived on stage, and producers Jordan Horowitz and Marc Platt delivered their speeches.
All of a sudden, there was a flurry of activity behind them. A man with a headset started talking to several people, as did Martha Ruiz, one of only two accountants in charge of tabulating Oscar ballots — and therefore one of the only two people who knew all the winners before the show.
As people were conferring, film producer Fred Berger shook his head “no,” but then stepped up to the microphone.
He thanked his family and director Damien Chazelle, and then he turned around to look at the sudden commotion behind him. “We lost, by the way — but, you know,” he said, shrugging. “There’s a mistake.”
[Keep reading. . .]
Oh, yes, who won Oscars? For a list of the winners, go here.
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