What Happened at the Oscars Last Year? Relive the Best Picture Mistake

Let’s cut right to the chase.

At the Oscars last year, the evening’s most coveted Best Picture award was first handed to the cast of La La Land when in fact it actually belonged to everyone behind Moonlight. It was a pure Hollywood nightmare and a reminder that sometimes, even the impossible is possible.

Here’s how it went down: Presenters Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty stepped onto the stage, eager to share the news of the Best Picture winner with the world. However, thanks to accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, the company responsible for guarding the sealed envelope, Beatty announced the wrong movie, La La Land. He was supposed to have an envelope that read Moonlight.

Moments later, the La La Land cast and crew joined the pair on stage and producer Jordan Horowitz began an acceptance speech next to his stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. About two minutes in, and after some shuffling on stage, Horowitz paused, and said, “There’s a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture.” He even held up the correct envelope in front of the camera for proof. “I’m gonna be really proud to hand this to my friends from Moonlight,” he added.

Host Jimmy Kimmel jokingly interjected, "Warren, what did you do?!"

Beatty took a moment to explain. “I want to tell you what happened,” he said. “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. I wasn’t trying to be funny.” Watch it here:

It was all so shocking that The New York Times released a transcript of the mixup and, of course, the Internet proceeded to freak out and poke fun.

Let’s hope it doesn’t happen again.