We are all used to little screw ups at the Academy Awards but this was no teleprompter mix-up, stumble on the stairs or mispronounced name. La La Land was announced as the Best Picture winner at this year’s Academy Awards, the producers of the film got up on stage and gave their acceptance speech, and then they stopped and announced that a mistake had been made, and Moonlight was the real Best Picture winner after all.
This is a shocker on a lot of different levels. It’s an enormous error to make on camera, obviously, and credit goes to all of the producers of La La Land who handled the mix-up gracefully and congratulated the real winners immediately. It’s an embarrassing moment that is essentially unprecedented in the history of the Oscars telecast.
Also: The 89th Annual Academy Awards Winners – The Complete List
But beyond that, this represents an ENORMOUS upset at the Academy Awards. La La Land was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and was expected to take home most of them. Moonlight had earned the Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali), but was considered an honorable also-ran by most pundits. That the film won Best Picture is an exciting move by the Academy, a step away from conventional “Oscar Bait” and towards original and inclusive dramatic material that challenges audiences while also tugging at their heartstrings.
Warren Beatty claims that he was given the wrong envelope, the one for Emma Stone’s Best Actress win. Jimmy Kimmel, the host of the Oscars this year, admitted the mistake quickly and joked that “the good news is we got to see some extra speeches,” before falling on his sword and quipping that it was his fault and he wouldn’t come back next year.
Congratulations to the producers of Moonlight, a film we had already declared the best motion picture of the year. Congratulations to La La Land for winning six Academy Awards and earning a fervent fanbase.
And congratulations to The Sixth Sense and Split director M. Night Shyamalan, who won Twitter tonight with the following tweet:
I wrote the ending of the academy awards 2017. @jimmykimmel we really got them!
— M. Night Shyamalan (@MNightShyamalan) February 27, 2017
When Oscar Nominations Go Bad | The Academy’s Biggest Losers
Top Photo: MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
The Biggest Oscar Losers
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The Color Purple (1985)
Nominations: 11
Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel earned a staggering number of Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Steven Spielberg), Best Actress (Whoopi Goldberg) and Best Supporting Actress (twice, for Margaret Avery and Oprah Winfrey). Out of Africa wound up sweeping the Academy Awards instead, and Spielberg's film was shut out altogether. It's the most nominations any film has ever received before going home empty handed, a title it shares with...
Photo: Warner Bros.
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The Turning Point (1977)
Nominations: 11
Herbert Ross's ballet drama also earned eleven nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (twice, for Anne Bancroft andShirley MacLaine), and Best Supporting Actor (for Mikhail Baryshnikov, no less). It was the same year that Star Wars and Annie Hall dominated the ceremony, and there was apparently no room left for The Turning Point.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
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American Hustle (2013)
Nominations: 10
David O. Russell's acclaimed crime dramedy, about a con artist enlisted by the FBI to do their dirty work, earned a staggering number of Academy Award nominations, including one for each member of the principal cast (Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence). The big winners that year were 12 Years a Slave and Gravity, sending American Hustle home empty-handed.
Photo: Columbia Pictures
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Gangs of New York (2002)
Nominations: 10
Martin Scorsese had been developing Gangs of New York for 20 years before this historical crime epic finally made it to the screen, but although the film was considered a frontrunner, the Oscars favored the musical Chicago that year. Even Daniel Day-Lewis's celebrated performance lost out to Adrien Brody's quieter work in the Roman Polanski drama The Pianist.
Photo: Miramax
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True Grit (2010)
Nominations: 10
The Coen Bros. remade the celebrated western True Grit, which famously won John Wayne his only Academy Award, into a handsome production that earned ten Oscar nominations nominations including Best Picture, Best Director(s), Best Actor (Jeff Bridges) and Best Supporting Actress (then-newcomer Hailee Steinfeld). But that year the Oscars were mostly interested in The King's Speech and The Social Network, so True Grit didn't take home any statues.
Photo: Paramount Pictures
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The Little Foxes (1941)
Nominations: 9
William Wyler's celebrated drama about family backstabbing earned a staggering nine Oscar nominations but came up short. The big winner that year was How Green Was My Valley, which also beat out Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon for the Best Picture prize.
Photo: RKO Radio Pictures
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Peyton Place (1957)
Nominations: 9
The best-selling novel by Grace Metalious, about the seedy underbelly of a seemingly idyllic small town, was a box office hit that earned nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Lana Turner) and four for its supporting performances (Diane Varsi, Hope Lange, Arthur Kennedy, Russ Tamblyn). The Academy honored The Bridge on the River Kwai with the Best Picture award, and sent the makers of Peyton Place away without any statues.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
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The Elephant Man (1980)
Nominations: 8
David Lynch's celebrated drama about the infamously deformed Joseph Merrick (renamed John Merrick in the film, for some reason), earned eight Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor (John Hurt). It lost to Ordinary People, and the lack of recognition for the film's astounding makeup effects led to the creation of the Best Makeup award the next year.
Photo: Paramount Pictures
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The Nun's Story (1959)
Nominations: 8
Fred Zinneman's drama about a nun struggling with her vows as her dreams of practicing medicine are stymied was celebrated with eight Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture and Best Actress (Audrey Hepburn), but that was the same year that Ben-Hur swept the Oscars, earning a record-setting eleven Academy Awards.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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Ragtime (1981)
Nominations: 8
Milos Forman's historical drama Ragtime is an unusual case: a film with eight Oscar nominations but none for Best Picture. Instead the film was heavily represented in the technical categories, as well as Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Howard E. Rollins Jr.). The Oscars gave the most honors to Chariots of Fire that year, as well as Raiders of the Lost Ark in the technical categories.
Photo: Paramount Pictures
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The Remains of the Day (1993)
Nominations: 8
James Ivory's celebrated drama about a butler who tries to remain impartial in turbulent times earned an impressive eight Oscar nominations - including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins) and Best Actress (Emma Thompson) - but lost many to Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List and Jane Campion's The Piano.
Photo: Columbia Pictures
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The Sand Pebbles (1966)
Nominations: 8
Robert Wise's hit war drama, about a rebellious Navy machinist, was an acclaimed box office hit that earned eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Steve McQueen) and Best Supporting Actor (Mako). The Academy instead honored Fred Zinneman's biopic A Man for All Seasons, leaving The Sand Pebbles high and dry.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
