In a rare and unexpected gaffe, “La La Land” which dominated the 89th Academy Awards, was announced the winner of the Best Picture category, when in fact it was “Moonlight”.
Presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway who were called to announce the winner, pondered a while before reading the cue card, which ended up being wrong.
The “La La Land” makers were mostly through their speech before the error was realised, and a representative said: “There’s a mistake... ‘Moonlight’, you guys won Best Picture... This is not a joke, I’m afraid they read the wrong thing. ‘Moonlight’ Best Picture.”“Moonlight”, reportedly one of the films with the lowest budget ($1.5 million) to win an Oscar, was nominated for the Best Picture honour with “Hidden Figures”, “Hell or High Water”, “Arrival”, “Lion”, “La La Land”, “Fences”, “Manchester by the Sea” and “Hacksaw Ridge”.
The winning film tells a story of a young Cuban black man who struggles through life in a rough neighborhood of Miami. The victory of this tale also goes on to make a strong statement at a time when US President Donald Trump has launched a tirade against immigrants in the country.
After the unprecedented mix-up on stage, Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel said: “I blame myself for this. I knew I’d screw this up... I promise I’ll never come back.”
The incident was reminiscent of comedian Steve Harvey’s infamous Miss Universe goof up in 2016, when he mistakenly gave the crown to the wrong winner.
Taking a dig at the Oscars, a post from the official account of Miss Universe, read: “Have your people call our people - we know what to do. #Oscars #MissUniverse.”
Here’s the complete list of the winners:
• Best Picture - ‘Moonlight’ by Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner
• Best Actress in a Leading Role - Emma Stone for ‘La La Land’
• Best Actor in a Leading Role - Casey Affleck for ‘Manchester By The Sea’
• Best Director - Damien Chazelle for ‘La La Land’
• Best Adapted Screenplay - Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney for ‘Moonlight’
• Best Original Screenplay - Kenneth Lonergan for ‘Manchester By The Sea’
• Best Original Song - ‘City Of Stars’ from ‘La La Land’ by Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
• Best Original Score - Justin Hurwitz for ‘La La Land’
• Best Cinematography - Linus Sandgren for ‘La La Land’
• Best Live Action Short - ‘Sing’ by Kristof Deak and Anna Udvardy
• Best Documentary Short - ‘The White Helmets’ by Orlando Von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara
• Best Film Editing - John Gilbert for ‘Hacksaw Ridge’
• Best Visual Effects - Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R Jones and Dan Lemmon for ‘The Jungle Book’
• Best Production Design - David Wasco and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco for ‘La La Land’
• Best Animated Feature - ‘Zootopia’ by Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer
• Best Animated Short - ‘Piper’ by Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer
• Best Foreign Language Film - ‘The Salesman’ by Asghar Farhadi
• Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Viola Davis for ‘Fences’
• Best Sound Mixing - Kevin O’Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace for ‘Hacksaw Ridge’
• Best Sound Editing - Sylvian Bellemare for ‘Arrival’
• Best Documentary Feature - Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow for ‘O J: Made In America’
• Best Costume Design - Colleen Atwood for ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them’
• Best Makeup and Hairstyling - Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson for ‘Suicide Squad’
• Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male) - Mahershala Ali for ‘Moonlight’.
