Coming-of-age drama Moonlight won the coveted best picture statuette at Sunday night’s Oscars, but the evening ended in chaos as La La Land — already the winner of six prizes — was first mistakenly handed the award.
Until the final minute, the film industry’s biggest night had run smoothly, and was marked by plenty of political statements, mainly jabs at US President Donald Trump, and light-hearted jokes from host Jimmy Kimmel.
However, the epic stumble on the final award was the nightmare Hollywood ending no one wanted to see.
PHOTO: AFP
Tinseltown legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, stars of 1967 crime classic Bonnie and Clyde, were meant to give the best picture Oscar to Barry Jenkins’s film, but she mistakenly called it for Damien Chazelle’s musical.
Scenes of confusion and embarrassment followed after the La La Land crew — already on stage and delivering speeches — suddenly realized the mistake and announced themselves that Moonlight had actually won, prompting Beatty to mumble apologies.
The Oscar-winning veteran actor and director, 79, said he had been given the wrong envelope — the one containing the card announcing La La Land star Emma Stone’s best actress win.
PHOTO: AP
Stone said backstage she had been hanging on to her winning envelope the whole time, although slowed-down footage of the commotion appeared to corroborate Beatty’s explanation.
Several reports suggested that two sets of envelopes are typically on site during the ceremony — one on either side of the stage.
“This was confusing, obviously, so... we thought he was being coy and cute and milking it but, in reality, he was perplexed by why her name was on it,” host Jimmy Kimmel told ABC after the show.
PHOTO: AFP
PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm responsible for tabulating Oscar ballots, several hours later apologized for an “error” in the announcement of the best picture award, admitting Beatty and Dunaway were handed the wrong envelope.
“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 company said in a statement.
“The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and, when discovered, was immediately corrected,” it added.
PHOTO: AFP
“We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred,” it said, hailing the “grace” with which all concerned handled the situation
The mistake made for a chaotic end to the film industry’s biggest night, on which La La Land went home with six awards including best director, actress, score and song, to three for Moonlight.
Moonlight was a shock winner for best picture, after Chazelle’s runaway favorite La La Land — a modern take on the all-singing, all-dancing Golden Age of Tinseltown’s studio system — had taken six prizes for best director, actress, score, song, production design and cinematography.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“I noticed the commotion and thought something was strange. And then I was speechless by the result,” Jenkins, who won earlier for best adapted screenplay, said backstage. “I’ve watched the Academy Awards before and have never seen that happen before.”
Starring Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali — who bagged the first of the movie’s three Oscars —Moonlight tells the life story of a young African-American struggling to find his place as he grows up poor in Miami.
The film has won plaudits as a vital portrait of contemporary African-American life and is praised in equal measure as a moving meditation on identity, family, friendship and love.
It beat seven other films besides La La Land — including alien thriller Arrival and family dramas Manchester by the Sea and Fences — for best picture honors.
Despite the stunning finish, sure to go down as one of the worst moments in Oscars history, the overall winner of the night was still La La Land.
Starring Stone and Ryan Gosling as an aspiring actress and a struggling jazz musician who fall in love in Los Angeles, it has charmed critics the world over and returned more than 10 times its US$30 million budget.
“This was a movie about love and I was lucky enough to fall in love while making it,” said Chazelle, 32, the youngest filmmaker by several months ever to win a best directing Oscar.
The gala began without incident — Justin Timberlake crooned some upbeat music. Kimmel then wasted no time putting the A-list audience in a political frame of mind.
“This broadcast is being watched live by millions of Americans and around the world in more than 225 countries that now hate us,” joked the 49-year-old Kimmel.
The late-night comedian quipped that Trump, who pulled off a political upset win with his campaign that targeted immigration, had taken the heat off Hollywood and its annual gala.
“I want to say thank you to President Trump. Remember last year when it seemed like the Oscars were racist? That’s gone, thanks to him,” Kimmel said.
This year’s nominees have reflected a push by the academy to reward diversity after the #OscarsSoWhite controversy of the past two years that prompted calls for a boycott of the annual bash.
Ali won the best supporting actor prize for his turn as a drug dealer with a heart in Moonlight while fellow African-American Viola Davis took the supporting actress statuette for her work in Fences.
The most intriguing race was for best actor, which for weeks looked like a lock for Manchester by the Sea star Casey Affleck, but the 41-year-old had to fend off a late surge by Denzel Washington (Fences) to take the trophy.
Stone bagged her first statuette in the best actress category despite a late push from Isabelle Huppert, already a Golden Globe winner for edgy rape-revenge thriller Elle.
Manchester went into the evening with six nominations but came away with only Affleck’s win and a best original screenplay statuette for Kenneth Lonergan, who also directed the film.
The Oscars is the highlight of the Tinseltown calendar, and wraps up two months of glittering prize galas.
This awards season, the popping of champagne corks has been muted by the tense political situation in the US.
Trump’s controversial (and now halted) travel ban led Iranian director Asghar Farhadi to opt out of attending — but a statement from Farhadi was read when his The Salesman was named best foreign language film.
A film about Syria’s White Helmets — rescuers who risk their lives to help save civilians caught in the country’s devastating war — took home the Oscar for best documentary short.
The Netflix-produced film, called simply The White Helmets, was directed by Orlando von Einsiedel, and bested another short about the Syrian conflict, Watani: My Homeland.
However, members of the group, including the cinematographer who shot much of the footage, Khaled Khatib, were not allowed to enter the US for the Oscars.
Group members said on Twitter that they had waited for three days at the airport, but were not permitted to board a flight.
The US Customs and Border Protection service said only that they did not have valid documents.
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