What the Oscars Mistake Means for their Image

Described as the biggest mistake in Oscar history after La La Land was wrongly named best picture winner.

For the first time in Oscar history, the wrong Best Picture winner was announced. La La Land was declared the winner and the acceptance speeches has already begun when the mix-up became clear that the true winner was Moonlight.

“There’s a mistake. Moonlight, you won best picture,” Jordan Horowitz, La La Land producer, announced to the gasps of a shocked crowd. He held up the card clearly showing the winner was Moonlight.

Whose fault was it really?
Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz, the partners at PricewaterhouseCoopers who count the votes, establish the winners and place them in sealed envelopes before giving them to the awards presenters, are looking like the ones responsible for the error.

The accountancy firm had previously boasted that their 83-year contract had never come up for tender because they “always” do a good job, it has emerged. That relationship could be in doubt for the first time after PwC and Academy executives were seen in crisis meetings following the on-stage blunder.

PwC have since released an apology, saying: “The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected. We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred.”

Multiple Envelopes?
According to The Times, in a backstage interview after the ceremony Emma Stone caused further confusion when she pointed out that she was holding her “best actress card the whole time.” It turns out that, which was part of the problem: there are two sets of enveloped for each category – so while Stone walked off with one card, Beatty as handed the other one backstage before the Best Picture announcement. “We sincerely apologise to Moonlight, La La Land, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made, “a PWC statement said.

What do you think this BIG MISTAKE means for the Oscars Image?