At the 89th Academy Awards held on Sunday night, chaos erupted both onstage and behind the scenes after an accountant for the Oscars 2017 mishandled the procedure for announcing the Oscar for Best Picture, when he handed victory to La La Land before declaring Moonlight the real winner.
Oscars 2017: ‘Moonlight’ wins Best Picture after ‘La La Land’ announcement fiasco
It was the biggest blunder in Oscar history, with many in the media initially blaming presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.
Hours after the event, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), the accounting firm that tabulates and hands out the results, took responsibility for the mistake and issued an apology to all involved.
In a statement issued on Monday, PwC said, ‘An accountant for the Academy Awards botched the meticulous procedure for announcing the Oscar for best picture, when he handed victory to La La Land before declaring Moonlight the real winner.’
The identity of the said accountant was later revealed as Brian Cullinan, who media reports revealed had been tweeting backstage, shortly before he mistakenly handed the back-up envelope for Actress in a Leading Role instead of the envelope for Best Picture to Beatty and Dunaway.
According to celebrity website TMZ; reports have it that Cullinan had posted a backstage photo of actress, Emma Stone on Twitter minutes before the mix-up; hence the distraction.
The mistake was not rectified until the La La Land cast and producers were on stage giving their speeches. It was left to the musical producer, Jordan Horowitz, to put things right. ‘Guys, guys, I’m sorry. No. There’s a mistake,’ Horowitz said. ‘Moonlight, you guys won best picture. This is not a joke.’
READ: Here’s a lil breakdown on what caused the Oscars mix-up between ‘La La Land’ and ‘Moonlight’
The organisers of the Oscars, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, also apologised for the mishap.
An embarrassed Beatty carried the envelope to the glitzy Governor’s Ball after the show, with the writing clearly saying ‘actress in a leading role.’
Under a PwC procedure, just two accountants know the names of the 24 winners after their names are placed in two sets of sealed envelopes. The two accountants also memorise the winning names.
Tradition has it that the envelopes are taken separately in two briefcases to the Academy Awards venue. The two accountants – in this case Cullinan and Martha Ruiz – are driven there separately, in case of an accident or traffic delays.
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The pair then stand off stage at opposite sides and hand envelopes to the respective presenters as each category is announced.
The Moonlight filmmakers were gracious about the error. Director, Barry Jenkins told reporters backstage that he received no immediate explanation for the mix-up, though ‘it made a very special feeling even more special, but not in the way I expected.’
This post originally appeared on TNS.