In one of the biggest upsets in history, La La Land is mistakenly announced as Best Picture winner while Moonlight takes home to prize. Many had dreamed of this moment, except they were hoping that it was the 2016 election that had mistakenly crowned the winner.
The Academy should have known putting Bonnie and Clyde on stage to present an award was a bad idea. Warren Beatty mistakenly announced that musical La La Land had won for Best Picture, but then in a twist of fate, it was announced that Moonlight had actually won. The producer of La La Land Jordan Horowiz made the announcement, but it was a little too late as La La Land‘s cast and crew were already recieving their Oscars. It not only ruined the moment for La La Land, but it ruined that Cinderella feeling for Moonlight.
Beatty quickly defended himself, saying that he had been given the wrong envelope. As seen on the replays, Beatty is confused when opening the envelope. He pauses, and then looks again inside the envelope. The audience laughed, thinking he was trying to be funny, but according to Beatty, he saw that the card read Emma Stone, La La Land.
The correct card showing that Moonlight was the winner was shown, but we were never shown the incorrect card. Emma Stone said afterwards that she was still holding her Best Actress card, so Leonardo DiCaprio is in the clear in case you were worried. “Whatever story, I don’t mean to start stuff, but whatever story that was, I had that card,” Stone told reporters afterwards. “So I’m not sure that happened. And I really wanted to talk to you guys first.”
But what gives? Were there two Emma Stone cards? How did a mishap this big happen at the biggest award show of all time?
Upon further evidence, Beatty is seen holding a “Actress in a Lead Role” card when announcing the best picture winner. Again, how did a mistake like this happen? We want answers.
In the press room after the show, it appeared to be addressed that there was a duplicate Best Actress envelope instead of Best Picture. Moonlight director Barry Jenkins explained that he was given “no explanation, but things happened. I will say I saw two cards. I wanted to see the card, but Warren refused to show the card to anybody except me first. He said, ‘Barry Jenkins has to see the card first.'”
Steve Harvey really doesn’t care what the reasoning is. He’s just happy he’s off the hook for his notorious Miss America screw up.
Many of us had about fallen asleep until Jimmy Kimmel came onstage to announce the mix-up. He wasn’t making a joke this time. “I knew I would screw this up,” said Kimmel. “I promise to never come back.”
Jokes aside, Moonlight won for Best Picture and the mishap shouldn’t overshadow their honor. Moonlight deservingly won, and should be honored for such an achievement. As director Barry Jenkins said during his speech “To hell with dreams! This is true.”
Some great tweets and memes came from the moment, but some people aren’t laughing.
We’re still waiting for the receipts to come through from The Academy. This will go down as one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history, and frankly, they should be ashamed they allowed a mistake like this to happen that took away the moment from La La Land and Moonlight. They’ve got some serious explaining to do.
Congratulations to Moonlight for winning Best Picture, and the rest of the Oscar winners. For some of the best tweets from the night, check us out on twitter: @HCAppState