The 89th Academy Awards reached its grand finale on 26th February 2017, with a balls-up that instantly entered Hollywood lore. Presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway stepped onstage to announce Best Picture and declared La La Land the winner. Cast and crew flooded the stage, speeches began, and the orchestra swelled - but the true winner, of course, was Moonlight.

Beatty’s visible hesitation, replayed endlessly since, stemmed from a simple but catastrophic mistake: he had been handed the duplicate Best Actress envelope, reading “Emma Stone - La La Land”. Unsure how to proceed, he showed the card to Dunaway; believing he was prolonging the suspense, she read out the film’s title. Only as producer Jordan Horowitz was thanking his family did the truth ripple across the stage: “This is not a joke. Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture.”

The error was traced to PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Brian Cullinan, who had mistakenly handed over the duplicate envelope while distracted backstage, reportedly after tweeting a photograph of Emma Stone with her Oscar. The irony was sharp: PricewaterhouseCoopers had supervised the Academy’s voting process since 1935, originally engaged after controversy surrounding Bette Davis’s 1934 snub, and prided itself on meticulous safeguards, including identical sets of envelopes held on either side of the stage.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly force themselves to re-watch the excruciating moment repeatedly; consider how, following two years of #OscarsSoWhite criticism, the blunder landed at a particularly sensitive moment for the Academy; and admire the way the La La Land team somehow met this emotional rollercoaster with savviness and tact… 

Further Reading:

• ‘The Full Story Behind The 'La La Land' And 'Moonlight' Oscars Mix-Up’ (Forbes, 2017): https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2017/02/27/the-full-story-behind-the-la-la-land-and-moonlight-oscars-mix-up/

• ‘How Scandal Started PwC's Oscars Vote Count, Envelope System’ (TIME, 2018): https://time.com/5182902/pwc-academy-awards-oscars-snub/

• ‘Oscars Mistake: Moonlight Wins Best Picture after La La Land Mistakenly Announced’ (ABC, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvK-g1rehpU&t=1s

#Mistakes #Film #2010s #Hollywood

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026.

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