In one of the most outrageous moments in Oscar history, “La La Land” was accidentally announced as the Best Picture winner although “Moonlight” was the actual winner. And Emma Stone’s facial expression says it all.
The producers of “La La Land” were close to concluding their acceptance speeches on stage when people started realizing there was a mix-up, and that the wrong winner had been announced.
Apologies abounded as the “La La Land” team graciously handed over the award to “Moonlight.”
“This is very unfortunate what happened. Personally I blame Steve Harvey for this,” said host Jimmy Kimmel, with a very quick ad-lib about a past awards ceremony mess-up on Harvey’s part.
Warren Beatty, who had announced the award with Faye Dunaway, tried to explain what had gone wrong when they mistakenly read “La La Land” as the winner. It seemed that they had been handed an envelope containing the name of Best Actress winner Emma Stone for “La La Land.”
“I want to tell you what happened,” he said. “I opened the envelope and it said Emma Stone, ‘La La Land.’ That’s why I took such a long look at Faye and at you. I wasn’t trying to be funny.”
Kimmel jokingly blamed him for the mistake: “Warren, what did you DO?” he exclaimed.
In the press room backstage, Stone told reporters that she held the Best Actress card the entire time — which raised the question of what card Beatty and Dunaway saw.
“I don’t know what story they’re going to tell, but I really wanted to talk to you guys first,” she said.
She added: “Is that the craziest Oscar moment of all time? Cool. Guys, we made history tonight. … I don’t even know what to say, I think I was still on such a buzzy train backstage that I was on another planet already … I think it’s an incredible outcome, but a very very strange happening for Oscar history.”
Watch her reaction below.
When Emma Stone realizes the twist ending #Oscars #BestPicture pic.twitter.com/nkm1nDLnmE
— The Mold Standard (@TheMoldStandard) February 27, 2017