On Sunday February 26, 2017 the 89th Academy awards held in the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California became an unfortunate disaster when the wrong name was announced as the winner of best picture. “And the Oscar goes to…” started Warren Beatty. He paused, showing the card to his partner, Faye Dunaway, and she finished for him- “La La Land!” What a disaster. By all accounts the 2017 Oscars had been running smoothly until the grand finale, the “best picture” award, somehow the wrong group was called up. In the aftermath of this epic mix up an unwanted spotlight of attention was shone upon the PwC.
PwC is the company that makes sure the Oscars run smoothly, and so far they have each for 83 years. There have been hiccups before, but never a mistake quite so large. Brian Cullinan, one of the two PwC auditors present, accidentally gave Warren Beatty the incorrect “best picture” envelope backstage causing the uproar. The other auditor, Cullinan’s professional partner, Martha Ruiz, has also been blamed for the mix-up because she originally had the correct envelope. While the mix-up happened in the wings of the stage, on stage was where the confusion manifested.
After the fact, Warren Beatty commented (after the Moonlight winners came up), “I opened the envelope and it said ‘La La Land, Emma Stone’, and that’s why I took such a long look at Faye and you. I wasn’t trying to be funny.” Fortunately the whole situation was handled graciously with Fred Berger from La La Land saying, “I’m going to be very proud to hand this to my friends from Moonlight.” While this was disappointing news for those associated with and supporting La La Land, Mahershala Ali, the winner of Moonlight’s best supporting actor, was almost reluctant and remorseful, saying, “I didn’t want to go up there and take anything from somebody. It’s very hard to feel joy in a moment like that.”
In the end the Oscars went to the right people and history, accidentally, was made. Rest assured, the PwC’s practices and lessons learned will affect future Oscar history and be a moment to look back with embarrassment.