What happened at the Oscars Night? The ‘Wrong Envelope’ Disaster

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the famous accountancy firm that has overseen the counting of the Oscars ballots for 83 years, apologized on Monday for the announcement of the wrong best picture victor.

After a dramatic pause, Beatty incorrectly announced La La Land as the victor.

Bonnie and Clyde stars Beatty and Dunaway announced La La Land had taken the best picture prize – but then the musical’s producer Jordan Horowitz announced there had been a mistake.

Moonlight also took home Best Adapted Screenplay, while Manchester by the Sea won Best Original Screenplay. Speaking to ABC News, Horowitz said: “It was a surreal moment, for sure. I’m afraid they read the wrong thing”.

In fact Moonlight had actually scooped the prestigious accolade at the 89th Academy Awards.

He told the audience that they had read the wrong envelope, seeing Emma Stone won for La La Land, who was actually the victor for best actress.

Thankfully the proper card was released and the award went into the hands of the “Moonlight” cast, producers and directors. “We congratulated each other on our work and put it all behind us”.

It meant Emma Stone’s best actress card was handed out twice – instead of the correct one for best picture. “I want to say thank you to President Trump”, Kimmel said at one point. There are, however, two sets of winning envelopes at the Oscar show by design.

‘What happened was, our partner on the left side of the stage, Brian Cullinan, he handed the wrong envelope to Warren Beatty, ‘ explained Tim Ryan, U.S. chairman and senior partner of PWC. The professional services firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which counts the Oscars ballots every year, apologized for accidentally giving Beatty the wrong envelope. The 89th Academy Awards, or “Oscars”, will be held on February 26.

Beatty released a statement Tuesday to The Associated Press in which he declined to comment further on the debacle that led to him and co-presenter Faye Dunaway mistakenly reading “La La Land” as best picture victor rather than “Moonlight“.

The awards were hosted by famous night show host Jimmy Kimmel, who kept the show humorous.

“Even in my dreams this can not be true”, Jenkins told the crowd.

It has since emerged that there are back up envelopes for every category and Beatty was given the Emma Stone back up envelope by mistake.