Moonlight has won best picture at the Oscars – but only after an error saw La La Land initially declared the winner.<\/p>\n
The La La Land producers were in the middle of their acceptance speeches when the mistake was discovered.<\/p>\n
PriceWaterhouseCooper, the accountancy firm responsible for counting the ballots, apologised for the mix-up.<\/p>\n
La La Land still ended up the biggest winner of the night, taking home six Oscars including a best actress award for Emma Stone.<\/p>\n
Moonlight’s surprise best picture win took its haul to three, the low-budget film having earlier won the adapted screenplay award and a best supporting actor prize for Mahershala Ali.<\/p>\n
Casey Affleck was named best actor for Manchester by the Sea, while Viola Davis was named best supporting actress for Fences.<\/p>\n
Damien Chazelle, La La Land’s 32-year-old director, became the youngest film-maker to win the best director Oscar.<\/p>\n
Yet this year’s ceremony will be remembered for its closing moments, when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway arrived on stage to announced the best picture winner.<\/p>\n
Beatty had been mistakenly handed the previous winner’s envelope, containing a card that said Emma Stone had won best actress for La La Land.<\/p>\n
It was this card that Dunaway read from, mistakenly declaring La La Land to be best picture and creating what Stone later described as “the craziest Oscar moment of all time”.<\/p>\n
In a statement, PriceWaterhouseCooper “sincerely” apologised for the error, which it said was down to the presenters having “mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope”.<\/p>\n
“We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred.”<\/p>\n
Host Jimmy Kimmel said he blamed Steve Harvey for the error – a reference to Harvey’s mistake in announcing the Miss Universe winner in 2015.<\/p>\n
It was La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz who announced there had been a mistake. “This is not a joke,” he told the audience, showing the correct card. “Moonlight is best picture.”<\/p>\n
Beatty returned to the microphone to explain he had been given an envelope with Emma Stone’s name inside.<\/p>\n
“That is why I took such a long look at Faye,” the veteran actor continued. “I wasn’t trying to be funny.”<\/p>\n
“Very clearly even in my dreams this can’t be true,” said Moonlight director Barry Jenkins. “But to hell with it because this is true. It’s true, it’s not fake.”<\/p>\n
Paying tribute to the team behind La La Land for the way they handled the mistake, he said: “We have been on the road with these guys and it was so gracious and so generous of them.”<\/p>\n
Speaking backstage, Emma Stone said it had been “an amazing thing to hear La La Land” named best picture.<\/p>\n
“But we are so excited for Moonlight,” she continued. “I think it is one of the best films of all time.<\/p>\n
“Is that the craziest Oscar moment of all time? Cool! It’s going to be history.”<\/p>\n
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