The Oscars Made An Epic Mistake: Moonlight Wins Best Picture, Not La La Land

Well, that’s embarrassing.

Earlier tonight at The 89th Annual Academy Awards, La La Land was accidentally announced as Best Picture before producer Jordan Horowitz revealed that there had been a mistake. The award wasn’t meant for Damien Chazelle’s film. Rather, it was supposed to go to Moonlight. At first, it seemed like it may be a joke, but as it turns out, the wrong name was read. It’s a bit hard to believe that such a thing could happen, but you can see for yourself in the video up above.

What exactly caused such a blunder to be made is unclear, but it seems as if the envelope that was opened by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway was the one for Emma Stone for Best Actress, instead of the Best Picture one, which caused the confusion. At least, that’s what Deadline thinks. It’s an honest mistake, but still a pretty big thing to screw up and as expected, it’s caused a bit of a stir within Hollywood.

“I was holding my Best Actress envelope the whole time,” Stone said, according to Mashable. “I don’t know what story was told but … wanted to tell you guys first.”

While it may have been amusing for viewers at home, it made for a very awkward finish to the night and created a lot of chaos on stage, as no one was really sure what was going on. Not to mention that, quite frankly, Moonlight winning Best Picture shocked just about everybody, as La La Land had been the clear favorite for a while now, especially after picking up several other awards earlier tonight.

Regardless, a mistake was made and while no one’s perfect, both Beatty and Dunaway are going to have to face a bit of heat now, as you can be sure that they won’t live this one down for a while.