Here’s What Was Happening Backstage During the Oscar’s “Best Picture” Mishap

For those who couldn’t stay awake all the way to the end of the Academy Awards last night, let’s get you filled in on exactly what happened (so we can talk):

After last night’s fail, where La La Land was mistakenly declared best picture, even though the real winner was Moonlight, global accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which has overseen the Academy’s ballot-counting for over 80 years, issued a major apology.

“We sincerely apologize 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,” PwC said in a statement. “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,”

According to the Hollywood Reporter PcW usually provides two sets of winning envelopes in briefcases, which are both sent to the theatre. Apparently when the mistake was discovered, one backstage producer yelled, “Oh my f**cking God, He’s got the wrong envelope!”

The mistake wasn’t fixed until after several of La La Land’s people had made it to the stage and given a speech.

“I was ecstatic, it was amazing. I thought we won an Oscar,” La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz told HR. “Some guys in headsets started buzzing around. It became clear that something was wrong. They took the envelope I had. It said ‘Emma Stone, La La Land’ on it. It was clear that there was something wrong. We started looking for the best picture envelope. Nobody knew where it was. Then it appeared, they opened it next to me and it said ‘Moonlight.’”

Faye Dunaway, who was the person that announced La La Land as the winner, thanks to a mistaken envelope, simply said to HR: “I’m not going to speak about it.”