We can’t believe what just happened at the Oscars when presenting Best Picture
Attending the Oscars can be a hella exciting experience, and just simply being there in the audience can be a thrill. Now imagine being tasked with actually presenting an Academy Award up on the stage in front of thousands of people, and millions of viewers around the world watching. It’s live television. Stuff happens. Things go wrong. During the 89th annual telecast, the biggest thing to go wrong went wrong, and we’re still trying to process exactly what happened.
Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were tasked with presenting the Oscar for Best Picture, and ~something~ went amiss. Not like, a light fell on the stage or Matt Damon tackled Jimmy Kimmel or anything. But, in the thrill and rush of getting on the stage, Warren was seemingly handed the wrong Best Picture envelope; he was actually handed the envelope for Best Actress, which went to Emma Stone for La La Land.
So, when Warren opened the envelope, he assumed he had the correct envelope, and Faye read off the award for Best Picture, presenting it to La La Land.
But, the Best Picture winner was actually Moonlight.
A mixup like this has never happened before in the Academy’s almost 90-year history, but it was bound to happen eventually. Unfortunately, it happened tonight and the cast and production team for La La Land rushed the stage and began making speeches. It wasn’t until a few moments into their time in front of the microphone that someone realized that La La Land was not the best picture winner.
Watch: Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in the biggest #Oscars flub ever. pic.twitter.com/BjBXrX7gi0
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 27, 2017
Realizing what was going on, the La La Land crew stepped back to allow the Moonlight team up on the stage, where they then started making their own speeches to a standing ovation. All’s well that ends well in Hollywood.
TBH, La La Land and Moonlight were fabulous films, and both deserve to take home the Best Picture award for the year. We’re still reeling from this moment and who knows exactly what happened, and what went wrong, and why the wrong envelope wound up on stage. This is sure an Oscars for the record books.
