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It was the biggest upset in Oscars history — Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway mistakenly called La La Land as the winner of the 2017 Academy Award for Best Picture Sunday night. As the cast and creators filed on, the celebration was abruptly halted.
La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz stepped to the microphone and said, “There’s been a mistake. Moonlight won.”
“It’s not a joke,” he said. “This is not a joke, come up here.”
As the Moonlight cast walked up, Beatty, 79, would not leave the stage until he explained what had happened.
“I opened the envelope and it said, ‘Emma Stone, La La Land.’ That’s why I took such a long look at Faye and at you [the audience]. I wasn’t trying to be funny,” he said.
Somehow, one of the two printed envelopes for Best Actress apparently wound up in Best Picture presenter Beatty’s hands. Confused, Beatty looked to his co-presenter Dunaway, 76, for help, and she ended up announcing La La Land. The musical’s cast and crew were in the middle of their acceptance speeches when accountants from PricewaterhouseCoopers took the stage to reveal the mistake — the biggest error at the live telecast in recent history.
How Beatty got the wrong envelope remains to be seen. Best actress winner Emma Stone insisted she had her winning card, though there are copies of the cards and envelopes for each category.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, which handles the Academy Awards balloting and ensure it remains secret, has not commented. A spokeswoman told PEOPLE in the wee hours of Monday that the consulting firm was preparing a statement.
Beatty told reporters afterwards that he didn’t know how he got the wrong envelope, saying, “I’ve asked and I haven’t got an answer.”
La La Land producer Fred Berger was the first to break the news live. Suddenly, in the middle of his speech, Berger remarked, “We lost by the way but you know.”
Beatty, who presented the award with his Bonnie and Clyde costar Dunaway, said he was given the wrong envelope and was confused, apologising.
In the moment, Beatty looked confused at the envelope and hesitated, before Dunaway peeked over at the card and announced La La Land.
A production source was overheard backstage at the show, asserting, “It was NOT Warren’s fault!” The whole scenario was full-on chaos, with things like, “Oh my f—- God!” and “He’s got the wrong envelope!” being yelled.
Host Jimmy Kimmel said, “Guys, this is very unfortunate what happened. Personally, I blame Steve Harvey for this. I would like to see you get an Oscar anyway, why can’t we just give out a whole bunch of them?”
The Moonlight cast and crew slowly made their way to the stage as the La La Landcast dispersed, with the actual winning film’s director Barry Jenkins heading to the microphone first.
“Very clearly, very clearly in my dreams this could not be true but hell with my dreams, I’m done with it because this is true,” said Jenkins. “Oh my goodness. And I have to say it is true. It’s not fake. We’ve been on the road with these guys for so long – My love to La La Land. My love to everybody. Man.”
After the Moonlight cast celebrated their win, Kimmel again addressed the shocked crowd at the Dolby Theatre, “Well I don’t know what happened. I blame myself for this. Let’s remember, it’s just an awards show.”
This article originally appeared on PEOPLE.
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