Sunday, Feb. 26 marked the 89th Academy Awards, where deserving Oscar nominees received acknowledgement and further fame for their phenomenal films. The movie “La La Land,” directed by Damien Chazelle, seemed to be the biggest hit this year, as it was nominated for 13 out of the 24 different categories (with 2 nominations for Best Original Song).
At the end of the night, “La La Land” walked away with six Oscar awards: Best Actress, Best Director, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Original Song and Best Original Score. Hence, why so many (including myself) predicted it to win Best Picture as well. However, the outcome definitely twisted many Americans’ expectations.
The 2017 Academy Awards made Oscar history after a huge scandal. When the time came to announce Best Picture, an accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers handed the announcer, Warren Beatty, the wrong envelope. The Hollywood Reporter wrote, “[Brian] Cullinan [chairman of the U.S. board of PwC] is known for being enamored with Hollywood and tweeted a photo of Stone backstage after her win, just minutes before he handed the wrong envelope to Beatty.” This distraction seems to be the reason behind such an error.
Unaware of the mistake, Beatty looked confused when attempting to read the envelope aloud. I remember watching him on TV, but all that crossed my mind in the moment was, “this guy is really having a hard time reading that name off. He’s 79; must be the old age…” However, his announcing partner, Faye Dunaway, surely assisted the mess. Beatty knew that there was something wrong about this envelope, but Dunaway, out of irritation with Beatty, wanted to speed up the process and without further ado, announced “La La Land.” Faye Dunaway saw Emma Stone’s name on the envelope and assumed that “La La Land” won Best Picture, as this was Stone’s movie.
It wasn’t until after the “La La Land” crew had already begun their speeches that the mix-up was revealed on stage. “Moonlight” actually won Best Picture. However, the envelope for “Best Actress” (Emma Stone) was the one Beatty was reading off. Many people are blaming him for this huge mistake, but I believe that Beatty did absolutely nothing wrong. The accountant who handed out the envelope is truly at fault here, but I believe that Dunaway should be blamed as well. She should have felt Beatty’s confusion and suspicion about the actress’s name being inside the envelope.
All it would’ve taken was a few more seconds to ponder the incident. Honestly, this could have all been avoided had they both just taken a moment, stepped away from the microphone and conversed about the envelope and why it read an actress’s name instead of a movie title.
The Telegraph talked about the situation: “It took more than two minutes for the mistake to be corrected, with Hollywood stars – and the viewing public – watching on, it slowly dawned on the ‘La La Land’ team. Most only realized it had gone wrong when stage manager Gary Natoli appeared on stage, flanked by a stricken Mr. Cullinan and his professional partner Martha Ruiz.”
I truly sympathize with the entire cast and production crew of “La La Land.” I cannot even imagine stepping on stage, receiving the biggest Oscar Award of the year, giving my speech and then realizing it was all a mistake. How heartbreaking, especially when the situation could have been avoided if it weren’t for Dunaway jumping the gun. Jordan Horowitz, one of the “La La Land” producers broke the news to the audience: “We lost, by the way…There’s a mistake. ‘Moonlight,’ you won best picture.” After the media pointed fingers left and right, PwC took full blame for the occurrence.
The accounting firm admitted, “For the past 83 years, the Academy has entrusted PwC with the integrity of the awards process during the ceremony, and last night we failed the Academy.” I am still in shock of what happened, but am sure that the entire Academy Awards crew will never let this happen again.
