The Academy Awards' accounting film PricewaterhouseCoopers has accepted responsibility for Sunday night's epic Best Picture mix-up. The firm addressed the shocking incident that saw the wrong film announced as best picture, followed by an awkward onstage correction.
"This is the first time in over 80 years that there has ever been a problem and again we are very disappointed in ourselves," Variety quoted Tim Ryan, the accounting firm's U.S. chairman and senior partner, as saying. "I have reached out to the Academy and shared with them that we take full responsibility that Brian had made the mistake and the firm takes responsibility for that."
The statement was made on Feb. 27, Monday, offering an explanation of the miscue along with profuse apologies to the Motion Picture Academy and to the filmmakers behind the two movies. Recalling the moment of mistake, the firm revealed that the presenters were erroneously given the wrong envelope.
On the award night, "La La Land" was accidentally named as the Best Picture winner. Amidst the movie's producer Fred Berger's acceptance speech, a slight commotion was seen on stage after which Jordan Horowitz stepped in to announce that "Moonlight" has actually won the award. Only after Horowitz held up the Best Picture card for display, the crowd erupted in applause.
The blame for mix-up has been placed on Brian Cullinan, an associate for PricewaterhouseCoopers and one of two people responsible for distributing the award envelopes to the presenters. It is believed that Cullinan accidentally handed his box's envelope for Best Actress to Warren Beatty instead of that of Best Picture. Beatty was visibly perplexed by the contents of the envelope after which Faye Dunaway took the envelope and announced "La La Land" as the winner.
While the exact details of how the wrong envelope ended with Beatty, TMZ claimed that Cullinan was distracted during the event night and was tweeting endlessly. The series of tweets also contained a pic of Emma Stone with her Oscar for Best actress. The tweet and similar backstage photos were subsequently deleted from his account.
In the video below, watch the Oscars Best Picture mix-up: