Moonlight Wins Best Picture Oscar In Upset

By Darlene Donloe

Wait! What? Last night the 89th annual Academy Awards, 

hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and considered Hollywood's 

biggest night, ended in controversy when La La Land was 

mistakenly declared the Best Picture winner. Moonlight was 

later announced the winner to the shock of everyone involved 

with the show or watching the show. 

Presenters Warren Beatty and  Faye Dunaway looked a bit 

befuddled when Beatty opened the envelope. It was apparent 

he knew something was wrong, but never motioned and 

mentioned that he was holding the wrong card.  He looked in 

the envelope to see if there was another card, but never actually 

told anyone he was holding the wrong card. Why is still a mystery.  

Instead he handed the card to Dunaway who thought he was 

playing - so quickly read La La Land.  The result was a historic 

blunder by the Academy that left the cast and crew of La La Land 

traumatized and the cast and crew of Moonlight shocked.  

By that time, the wind had been taken out of Moonlight's sails. 

Reportedly, Brian Cullinan, one of the accountants from 

PriceWaterhouseCoopers mistakenly handed the wrong envelope 

to Warren Beatty.

It was the blunder heard around the world!

Below is the complete list of winners:

BEST PICTURE

MOONLIGHT
Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, Producers

Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Emma Stone
La La Land

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Casey Affleck
Manchester by the Sea

DIRECTING

LA LA LAND
Damien Chazelle

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

MOONLIGHT
Screenplay by Barry Jenkins; Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
Written by Kenneth Lonergan

Mahershala Ali

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

MAHERSHALA ALI
Moonlight

Viola Davis

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

VIOLA DAVIS
Fences

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

ZOOTOPIA
Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

THE SALESMAN
Iran

CINEMATOGRAPHY

LA LA LAND
Linus Sandgren

FILM EDITING

HACKSAW RIDGE
John Gilbert

VISUAL EFFECTS

THE JUNGLE BOOK
Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Dan Lemmon

PRODUCTION DESIGN

LA LA LAND
Production Design: David Wasco; Set Decoration: Sandy Reynolds-Wasco

SOUND MIXING

HACKSAW RIDGE
Kevin O’Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace

SOUND EDITING

ARRIVAL
Sylvain Bellemare

DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)

O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA
Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow

COSTUME DESIGN

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM
Colleen Atwood

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

SUICIDE SQUAD
Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and 

Christopher Nelson

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

CITY OF STARS
from La La Land; Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by 

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

LA LA LAND
Justin Hurwitz

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

PIPER
Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

SING
Kristof Deák and Anna Udvardy

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)

THE WHITE HELMETS
Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)

THE WHITE HELMETS
Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara