Epic Oscars Mistake: Faye Dunaway, Warren Beatty Announce Wrong Best Picture Winner. “Moonlight” walked away with best picture honors at the end of Sunday night's Oscars ceremony in Hollywood. The presenters for the final award — Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway — were incorrectly given the best actress award envelope.
Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were presenting but looked lost. When Beatty opened the envelope, he paused for a long few seconds. He looked at Dunaway, puzzled. She took the envelope, read it and said, "La La Land."
Why did they announce La La Land instead of Moonlight?
Later, Beatty said the envelope contained the name of a winner, but not for best picture. The actor paused after saying “And the Academy Award…,” which caused the audience to titter as they assumed Beatty was trying to build suspense. Dunaway teased him about it before he showed her the card and she read “La La Land.”
How did the wrong winner get announced at the Oscars?
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) accountant Brian Cullinan handed Beatty and Dunaway the envelope for Best Actress (Emma Stone, La La Land) instead of Best Picture. Some background: PwC is the accounting firm that counts the Academy votes to determine the winners before the ceremony.
In what was surely the most shocking moment in the history of the Oscars, 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.”
'Moonlight' or 'La La Land'? Best Picture Mix-up at Oscars
Who is the only actor to refuse an Oscar?
(NEXSTAR) – The Academy Award is generally regarded as one of the highest honors that an actor can receive — the keyword being “generally.” In the history of the Oscars, however, there have only been three people who refused their awards: actors George C. Scott and Marlon Brando, and screenwriter Dudley Nichols.
Beatty opened the envelope and paused before passing it to Dunaway, who declared La La Land the winner of Best Picture. Team La La Land were in the middle of eloquent speeches when Jordan Horowitz, one of the movie's producers, was reportedly shown an envelope by a stagehand that named Moonlight Best Picture.
TODD Glenn came with an iPad and showed us a photo of the wrong envelope in Warren's hand [when he was on stage]. Then we knew what happened. HUDSON I was like [to Brian], “Your one job was to give Warren the right envelope.” He was in such shock that he just said, “No.”
In a statement released Monday evening, the firm confirmed that PwC managing partner Brian Cullinan “mistakenly handed the back-up envelope for Actress in a Leading Role instead of the envelope for Best Picture to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.”
What was the Best Picture mistake for the Oscars 2017?
The moment that shocked Hollywood
But perhaps no moment will ever be as shocking as 2017's show-ending mix-up, when La La Land was announced as Best Picture—only for it to be revealed that actually, Moonlight had won. One year later, we look back at the Oscar moment that will live on in infamy.
There is a charming final song-and-dance number in La La Land, but it comes too late to save the movie. Overall, La La Land is a half-baked pastiche of a movie with forgettable music, lackluster dancing, thin story, and insincere character development. SKIP IT!
Who was originally supposed to play Mia in La La Land?
Miles Teller and Emma Watson were originally slated to star in the leading roles. Watson dropped out due to her commitments to Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast remake (2017), while Teller exited via long contract negotiations.
What movie won the best picture instead of La La Land?
And then the envelope snatching began—stage managers from actors, producers from presenters! Because La La Land hadn't won Best Picture; Moonlight had. What no one knew then, but we all know now, is that Warren Beatty was handed the wrong prop.
LOS ANGELES — At the climactic final moment of the 89th Academy Awards, when Faye Dunaway read the name of the film printed on the card in front of her — “La La Land!” — there were two people, standing on either side of the stage, who knew immediately that a different film, “Moonlight,” was the actual winner of the ...
Stone, who won her first Oscar in 2017 for her performance in “La La Land,” seemed as surprised as anyone that she was onstage instead of Gladstone, who was poised to make history as the first Native American actress to win an Academy Award.
There was no pre-recorded track she was lip-syncing to. Justin Hurwitz, the song's composer, was in another room playing piano in her ear. Director Damien Chazelle said this was done so Emma could have more control of the scene.
Speaking to CNN, director Damien Chazelle gave his view on why Mia and Seb don't end up together in the ending of La La Land, that it was always the plan for the movie — there was no version where they got their happily ever after.
While they fight and reconcile, ultimately they don't end up together. At the end of the film, Sebastian is able to own his own jazz club, while Mia lands a starring role in a Paris-filmed project that jump starts her acting career.
Many had been left wondering what punitive action, if any, the Academy will take against the actor, a longtime voting member. No actor has ever been stripped of their Oscar before, but several stars have had their Academy membership revoked.
According to Insider, six other men have previously been banned from attending the Oscars or expelled from the organization: Richard Gere, Carmine Caridi, Bill Cosby, Roman Polanski, Adam Kimmel and Harvey Weinstein.
