Oscars 2017 Shocker: Moonlight Wins Best Picture After La La Land Incorrectly Declared Winner

In a stunning, unexpected development, Moonlight has won the Oscar for Best Picture at the 89th Academy Awards... after La La Land was initially, incorrectly announced as the winner. The shocking turn of events happened when presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were erroneously given Emma Stone's Best Actress win announcement envelope instead of the Best Picture one, resulting in the wrong film's name being announced. Three La La Land producers had given acceptance speeches before the mistake was revealed. Below, find video footage of the moment, as well as an apology statement from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm in charge of tallying Oscar votes and handing out the envelopes.

PricewaterhouseCoopers statement:

We sincerely apologize to Moonlight, La La Land, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and the Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for best picture. The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected. We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred. We appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation.

The film beat out other movies including La La Land, Arrival, Hidden Figures, Manchester By the Sea, and more for the coveted accolade. It marks the third award for the Barry Jenkins-directed picture tonight. Earlier in the evening Mahershala Ali won for Best Supporting Actor, and the film won Best Adapted Screenplay as well. Moonlight was nominated for 8 awards in total.

Read “Director Barry Jenkins on the Music that Made Moonlight” and “No More Classic Men: On Moonlight’s Bizarre Jidenna Moment” on the Pitch.

For more of Pitchfork’s coverage of this year’s Oscars, click here.