Oscars end in chaos as wrong best film winner is read out.

Chaos as La La Land named winner instead of Moonlight following envelope mix-up

The accounting firm responsible for the counting and collation of votes for the Oscars has apologised for its part in the blunder that saw La La Land announced as the winner of best picture instead of Moonlight.

The mix-up saw the musical announced as the victor due to duplicate sets of cards, held by the only two people who knew the results, being mistakenly handed out to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

A statement from accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) said: “We sincerely apologise to Moonlight, La La Land, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for best picture.

“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.

“We appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, ABC, and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation.”

Beatty and Dunaway had been given a card that revealed that La La Land’s Emma Stone was the leading actress winner, prompting them to incorrectly announce the musical as the winner.

Backstage, a confused Stone later said that she was still holding her winner’s card in her hand when best picture was announced, but there are in fact two identical sets of cards.

Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz from PWC, the tax partner to the awards ceremony, were forced to intervene on stage amid the confusion and chaos.

The major blunder came at the very end of the Oscars’ ceremony, which was the worst for British talent in a decade.

The producers of La La Land were coming to the end of their acceptance speeches before it was revealed there had been a mix-up and that Moonlight was the victor of the coveted accolade.

La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz announced the error to the audience, holding up the correct card with the best picture winner, as he said: “There’s a mistake. Moonlight you guys won best picture.

“This is no joke. I’m afraid they read the wrong thing. This is not a joke, Moonlight, you won best picture.”

Beatty returned to the microphone to say: “I want to tell you what happened, I opened the envelope and it said Emma Stone, La La Land, and that is why I took such a long look at Faye and at you.

“I wasn’t trying to be funny. This is Moonlight for best picture.”

Cullinan and Ruiz are responsible for manually counting the 7,000 votes made by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and are the only two people to know the full list of winners before the ceremony.

They were earlier seen arriving on the red carpet ahead of the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, showcasing their matching briefcases filled with the 24 winners cards, which they each give out at either side of the stage to the presenters of the awards.

After the film was correctly revealed as the winner, Moonlight’s director Barry Jenkins said: “Very clearly even in my dreams this can’t be true. But to hell with dreams because this is true. It’s true, it’s not fake.”

Meanwhile, while in recent years the Oscars has seen a spate of British actors winning the top awards, Sunday’s ceremony was the worst for Britain’s stars in 10 years.

White Helmets, a 40-minute Netflix film about a volunteer rescue group operating in war-torn Syria, saw its British director Orlando von Einsiedel and British producer Joanna Natasegara take the best documentary short award.

They were the only British winners at the prizegiving ceremony, as acting nominees including Dev Patel and Naomie Harris missed out.

La La Land, which had scored a record-tying 14 nominations, ended up with just six wins, including best actress for Emma Stone and best director for Damien Chazelle, who is the youngest winner of the prize at 32.

Moonlight, which follows the life of a young black boy dealing with his sexuality, scooped three prizes in total, landing best picture, best adapted screenplay and best supporting actor for Mahershala Ali.

The film’s producer Dede Gardner said: “I’m still not sure this is real. It’s very humbling to be up here and I hope it’s inspiring to little black boys and brown girls who feel marginalised.

“I hope they take some inspiration from seeing this beautiful group of artists.”

Host Jimmy Kimmel joked that he knew he would mess up compering the ceremony.

Pictures: AP/Getty/PA. Barry Jenkins, front left, and the cast of Moonlight accept the award for best picture after it was initially announced that the musical La La Land had won.