An accountant for the Academy Awards botched the meticulous procedure for announcing the Oscar for best picture when he handed victory to La La Land before declaring Moonlight the real winner, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) says.
In a gaffe that stunned the Dolby Theatre crowd in Hollywood and a television audience worldwide, presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were handed the wrong envelope for the movie industry's top award.
"PwC Partner Brian Cullinan mistakenly handed the back-up envelope for Actress in a Leading Role instead of the envelope for Best Picture," to Beatty and Dunaway, the accounting firm said in a statement.
"Once the error occurred, protocols for correcting it were not followed through quickly enough by Mr Cullinan or his partner."
The Wall Street Journal and celebrity website TMZ.com reported that Cullinan had posted a backstage photo of actress Emma Stone on social network Twitter minutes before the mix-up.
The photo, from Cullinan's Twitter account, was later deleted but was still viewable on Monday on a cached archive of the page. Cullinan could not immediately be reached for comment.
The mistake was not rectified until the La La Land cast and producers were on stage giving their acceptance speeches. It was left to the musical's producer, Jordan Horowitz, to put things right.
"Guys, guys, I'm sorry. No. There's a mistake," Horowitz said. "Moonlight you guys won best picture. This is not a joke."
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It took three hours for PwC, which has been overseeing Academy Awards balloting for 83 years, to confirm that Beatty and Dunaway received the wrong category envelope.
PwC said it took full responsibility and apologised to the casts and crews of La La Land and Moonlight."
"We sincerely apologise to Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, (host) Jimmy Kimmel, (broadcaster) ABC, and the Academy, none of whom was at fault for last night's errors," it said in its statement.
An embarrassed Beatty carried the envelope to the glitzy Governor's Ball after the show, with the writing clearly saying "actress in a leading role." La La Land star Stone had been awarded that Oscar moments before.
"Except for the end, it was fun," Kimmel said on Monday, referring to the Oscar show he hosted.
"You know it's a strange night when the word 'envelope' is trending on Twitter," he said on his show Jimmy Kimmel Live.
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