Without much in the way of an explanation–certainly it’s too early to declare an official reason–a statement has been prepared to address the snafu tonight during the 90th Annual Academy Awards when the wrong winner for Best Picture was announced.
After the cast and crew for LA LA LAND had taken to the stage and delivered acceptance speeches they were quickly and awkwardly ushered off stage so that the actual winners from MOONLIGHT could instead get receive the honor.
The following statement was released by PricewaterhouseCoopers:
We sincerely apologize to “Moonlight,” “La La Land,” Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and 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, ABC, and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation.
LA LA LAND producer Jordan Horowitz took time with E! after the show to run a step-by-step of everything that happened on stage in that moment.
The Oscars are broadcast on Disney’s ABC station. See our Disney/Oscars recap here.
