Post the historical debacle of announcing the wrong winner at the 89th Oscar Awards 2017, there's finally an explanation as to how it happened. PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm in-charge for tabulation of the Oscar ballots and the envelopes announcing the winners, have taken full responsibility of the flub.

Also Read: Oscars Goof-up: When Academy Awards 2017 had a Miss Universe moment; Twitter erupts with funny memes of Steve Harvey

Few hours after the shocking mix-up that mistakenly announced La La Land won the Best Picture; the accounting firm has now released a statement apologizing to La La Land and Moonlight producers. The statement reads:

"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. 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."

The accounting firm is investigating the incident.

According to a Forbes article, two copies of the winner cards are made. Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz, the leaders entrusted with handing over the sealed envelopes to presenters, are deployed in both sides of the stage with a copy each. With Emma Stone revealing that she already had a copy of the Best Actress card, it is possible that the second copy were given to Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, instead of the Best Picture card.

While Beatty did not notice the Best Actress written on the card in place of Best Picture, he knew something was wrong as he stared at Dunaway for a while before she announced the winner.

The Wrap reports that the PwC balloting leaders are instructed to immediately stop the show if an incorrect winner is announced. However, it wasn't until a full two minutes the mistake was identified by the stage manager Gary Natoli.

While we wait for an official clarification and the story behind the goof up, there is no doubt the incident will go down in the history of the Oscar as the biggest mistake to ever take place in Academy Awards night.</s>The 2017 Oscars made history at the Dolby Theatre Sunday night, handing out several first-timer awards, but the most shocking moment of the night was when Oscar-favorite "La La Land" was mistakenly announced as the best picture winner before it was rightfully given to the coming-of-age drama "Moonlight."Shock and chaos spread when producers of "La La Land" were stopped in the middle of their acceptance speeches to be informed that actor, and the announcer of the award, Warren Beatty had incorrectly read "La La Land" as the winner.A blushing Beatty immediately explained how the mix-up occurred."I wasn't trying to be funny," he said, saying he had seen the name Emma Stone from "La La Land" when he opened his envelope.Host Jimmy Kimmel then took the microphone to repeat "Moonlight" had indeed won, showing the inside of the envelope as proof. He joked, "I knew I would screw this up.""La La Land" producer Jordan Horwitz graciously passed his statue to the "Moonlight" producers and cast.The entertainment-packed ceremony showed little love for Oscar-favorite "La La Land" until mid-way into the show, when the film won a total of six Oscars for original score, original song, cinematography and production design. The film's director, Chazelle, is the youngest best director winner at just 32 years old. The biggest Oscar winner for the film: Emma Stone for best actress.Singer Justin Timberlake kicked off the 89th annual Academy Awards with a politics-free performance of his Oscar-nominated song "Can't Stop the Feeling."Kimmel didn't stray entirely from politics. He took a shot at President Donald Trump, saying his policies had made the Oscars seem "less racist." The "OscarsSoWhite" crisis of the last two years was put to an end this year by a heavily diverse slate of nominees, thanks to films like "Moonlight," "Fences" and "Hidden Figures." A record six black actors were nominated.He also struck an irreverent but sarcastic tone, singling out best actress nominee Meryl Streep, whom Trump previously called "overrated" after her fiery Golden Globes speech last month. Listing some of her credits, Kimmel said she "phoned it in for over 50 films." He also led a standing ovation for the actress before telling her: "Nice dress, by the way. Is that an Ivanka?"The host then said Trump was sure to tweet about the Oscars at 5 a.m. "during his bowel movements."The night's first winner was Ali for his performance in "Moonlight." He thanked his wife for "being such a soldier" while being pregnant during the making of the film. The couple welcomed their daughter four days ago.The favorite in her category, Viola Davis won the Oscar for best supporting actress for her work as a mother determined to hold her family together in the best picture-nominated film "Fences." In tears, the actress praised co-star Denzel Washington and her parents.Another person to get a standing ovation at the Oscars was former NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who was portrayed in the film "Hidden Figures" by Taraji P. Henson. The 98-year-old Johnson was brought out in a wheelchair during the ceremony and thanked the audience for their warm welcome.Ezra Edelman's "O.J.: Made in America" took best documentary, making it the longest Oscar winner ever, as it was 467 minutes long. The producer dedicated the statuette to victims Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, as well as victims of police violence and police brutality.Another stand-out winner of the night was 59-year-old sound re-recording engineer Kevin O'Connell. After 21 Oscar nominations, he won an Academy Award for his sound mixing on "Hacksaw Ridge."Just like at the movies, stars at this year's Academy Awards were munching on candy and popcorn as they watched the show unfold after bags filled with treats came floating down from the ceiling and into the audience's hands.Another memorable moment? Unsuspecting tourists aboard a Hollywood tour bus were treated to the surprise of their lives with a trip to the 89th Oscars ceremony. They got to meet and take photos with A-list celebrities like Ali and Washington.</s>"La La Land" could take the big prize at the Oscars this Sunday, having tied the record for most nominations with 14.Watch the video in the player above for a look at the movie's subtle nods towards some Hollywood classics.</s>Barry Jenkins' "Moonlight" — not, as it turned out, "La La Land" — won best picture at the Academy Awards in a historic Oscar upset and an unprecedented fiasco that saw one winner swapped for another while the "La La Land" producers were in mid-speech.

Presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway apparently took the wrong envelope — the one for best actress winner Emma Stone — onto the stage for the final prize. When they read "La La Land" as the winner, representatives for ballot tabulators PwC — formerly Price Waterhouse Coopers — realized the mistake and raced onstage to try to stop the acceptance speeches. Host Jimmy Kimmel came forward to inform the cast that "Moonlight" had indeed won, showing the inside of the envelope as proof. "I knew I would screw this up," said Kimmel, a first-time host.

Gasps were heard around the auditorium. Presenters, winners and Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences huddled to discuss the debacle. Beatty refused to give up the envelopes until he could hand them first to Jenkins. Chazelle and Jenkins hugged amid the chaos.

"Even in my dreams this cannot be true," said an astonished Jenkins, once he reached the microphone. "To hell with dreams! I'm done with it because this is true."

Backstage, Stone said she was holding her winning envelope at the time. "I think everyone's in a state of confusion still," said Stone. Later the actress, who pledged her deep love of "Moonlight," added, "Is that the craziest Oscar moment of all time? Cool!"

It was, nevertheless, a shocking upset considering that "La La Land" came in with 14 nominations, a record that tied it with "Titanic" and "All About Eve." Barry Jenkins' tender, bathed-in-blue coming-of-age drama, made for just $1.5 million, is an unusually small Oscar winner. Having made just over $22 million as of Sunday at the box office, it's one of the lowest grossing best-picture winners ever — but also one of the most critically adored. "Moonlight," released by indie distributor A24, also had some major muscle behind it, including Brad Pitt's Plan B, which also backed the 2015 winner "12 Years a Slave."

"It was unfortunate that things happened as they did but, goddamn, we won best picture," the still cool and composed Jenkins told reporters.

The "La La Land" team was celebrating onstage when producer Jordan Horowitz took to the microphone to say: "There's been a mistake. 'Moonlight,' you guys won best picture." He then graciously passed his statue to the "Moonlight" producers, saying, "This is not a joke."

"I noticed the commotion that was happening and I thought that something strange had occurred," Jenkins said backstage. "The last 20 minutes of my life have been insane."

"Moonlight" co-star Mahershala Ali, the supporting actor winner, said the conclusion "threw me a bit." ''I don't want to go up there and take anything from someone," he said afterward. "It's very hard to feel joy in a moment like that."

In a statement, PwC apologized to each film, Beatty, Dunaway and Oscar viewers. "The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected," said the accounting firm. PwC, which has long watched over the Oscar ballots, said it was currently investigating "how this could have happened."

For "La La Land," a musical in which reality repeatedly intrudes on fantasy, it was another alternate ending. "La La Land" still collected a leading six awards, including honors for cinematography, production design, score, the song "City of Stars" and best director. Chazelle, the 32-year-old filmmaker, became the youngest to win best director. "This was a movie about love and I was luckily enough to fall in love while making it," said Chazelle, speaking about his girlfriend and Oscars date, Olivia Hamilton.

Up until the frenzied end, the telecast had seesawed between jabs at Donald Trump and passionate arguments for inclusivity. "All you people out there who feel like there isn't a mirror out there for you, the academy has your back, the ACLU has your back and for the next four years we will not leave you alone, we will not forget you," said Jenkins, whose film is, in three chapters, about a young black kid growing up poor and gay in impoverished Miami.

Kenneth Lonergan, the New York playwright whose last film ("Margaret") was beset by lawsuits and conflict, won best original screenplay for "Manchester by the Sea." ''I love the movies. I love being part of the movies," said Lonergan. After the wild ending, Lonergan deadpanned to reporters, "It turned out that we actually won best picture."

Shortly later, Affleck — in one of the night's most closely watched races, won best actor — his first Oscar — for his soulful, grief-filled performance in Lonergan's film. Affleck and Denzel Washington ("Fences") were seen as neck-and-neck in the category. An admittedly "dumbfounded" Affleck looked shocked when his name was read. "Man I wish I had something bigger and more meaningful to say," said Affleck, who hugged his more famous brother, Ben, before taking the stage.

The show kicked off with Justin Timberlake dancing down the Dolby Theatre aisles, singing his ebullient song, "Can't Stop the Feeling," from the animated film "Trolls." It was an early cue that the Oscars would steer, at least in part, toward festiveness rather than heavy-handedness. Protests, boycotts and rallies have swirled ahead of Sunday night's Oscars. But Kimmel, in his opening monologue, quickly acknowledged that he "was not that guy" to heal a divided America.

But he pointedly led a standing ovation for the "overrated" Meryl Streep and later tweaked the president by tweeting to him on air, including telling him that Streep "says hi."

Viola Davis, co-star of Denzel Washington's August Wilson adaptation "Fences," won best supporting actress. She and Ali, both widely expected winners, marked the first time in more than a decade that multiple Oscar acting honors went to black actors.

"I became an artist, and thank god I did, because we are the only profession to celebrate what it means to live a life," said Davis, the best supporting actress winner. "So here's to August Wilson, who exhumed and exalted the ordinary people."

The evening's most blunt protest came from a winner not in attendance. Best foreign film for the second time went to Asghar Farhadi, director of Iran's "The Salesman." Farhadi, who also won for his "A Separation," had said he wouldn't attend because of Trump's travel ban to seven predominantly Muslim nations. Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian astronaut, read a statement from Farhadi.

"I'm sorry I'm not with you tonight," it read. "My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S."

The broadcast often veered between such strong personal statements and Kimmel's efforts to keep things a little lighter with bits reminiscent of his late-night show. Shortly before he led a dazed, unsuspecting tour group into the theater, presenter Gael Garcia Bernal, the Mexican actor, declared: "As a migrant worker, as a Mexican, and as a human being, I am against any wall." Rich Moore, one of the three directors of Disney's best animated film winner "Zootopia," described the movie as about "tolerance being more powerful than fear of the other."

Mel Gibson's World War II drama "Hacksaw Ridge" was, surprisingly, the evening's first double winner, taking awards for editing and sound mixing. Gibson, for a decade a pariah in Hollywood, was seated front and center for the show, and was a frequent presence throughout.

Ezra Edelman's "O.J.: Made in America" took best documentary, making it — at 467 minutes — the longest Oscar winner ever, beating out the 1969 Best Foreign Language Film winner "War and Peace" (431 minutes). Edelman's documentary, while it received an Oscar-qualifying theatrical release, was seen by most on ESPN as a serial, prompting some to claim its place was at the Emmys, not the Oscars.

Edelman dedicated the award to the victims of the famous crime, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. "This is also for other victims, victims of police violence, police brutality," Edelman said. "This is their story as it is Ron and Nicole's."

The "OscarsSoWhite" crisis of the last two years was largely quelled this season by a richly diverse slate of nominees, thanks to films like "Moonlight," ''Fences" and "Hidden Figures." A record six black actors are nominated. For the first time ever, a person of color is nominated in each acting category.

"I want to say thank you to President Trump," Kimmel said in the opening. "Remember last year when it seemed like the Oscars were racist?"

The nominees follow the efforts by Academy of Motions Pictures Arts and Sciences President Cheryl Boone Isaacs to diversify the membership of the largely white, older and male film academy. "Tonight is proof that art has no borders, no single language and does not belong to a single faith," said Isaacs.</s>The 89th Academy Awards show was certainly one for the books. When was all said and done, front-runner "La La Land" won in six of its 14 nominated categories, including best actress and best director.

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In the most shocking moment of the night, "Moonlight" won best picture — after "La La Land" was mistakenly announced as the winner.

"This is not a joke," Jordan Horowitz, a producer of "La La Land" said onstage, correcting the big error. Then the cast and crew of "Moonlight" took the stage and accepted the award.

In addition to its best picture win, the film's star Mahershala Ali took home his first Oscar, for best actor in a supporting role, and its writers, Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney, won for best adapted screenplay.

Viola Davis also took home her first Oscar, for best supporting actress for "Fences," and got an enthusiastic standing ovation.

"I became an artist, and thank God I did, because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life," she exclaimed, tearing up as she thanked her parents, sisters, husband and child.

Casey Affleck and Emma Stone chose to pay homage to their fellow nominees. Affleck called Denzel Washington "one of the first people who taught me how to act." Stone said, "It's such an honor to stand beside you" and added, "Ryan Gosling, thank you for making me laugh and being the greatest partner."

Here's the complete winners list:

Best actor in a supporting role

Mahershala Ali — "Moonlight" — WINNER

Jeff Bridges — "Hell or High Water"

Lucas Hedges — "Manchester by the Sea"

Dev Patel — "Lion"

Michael Shannon — "Nocturnal Animals"

"I want to thank my wife, who was in her third trimester during awards season... had our daughter 4 days ago." - Mahershala Ali #Oscars pic.twitter.com/RcLpHWvAvW — Good Morning America (@GMA) February 27, 2017

Best makeup and hairstyling

"A Man Called Ove"

"Star Trek Beyond"

"Suicide Squad" — WINNER

Best costume design

"Allied"

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" — WINNER

"Florence Foster Jenkins"

"Jackie"

"La La Land"

Best documentary feature

"Fire at Sea"

"I Am Not Your Negro"

"Life Animated"

"O.J.: Made in America" — WINNER

"13th"

Best sound editing

"Arrival" — WINNER

"Deepwater Horizon"

"Hacksaw Ridge"

"La La Land"

"Sully"

Best sound mixing

"Arrival"

"Hacksaw Ridge" — WINNER

"La La Land"

"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story"

"13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi"

Best actress in a supporting role

Viola Davis — "Fences" — WINNER

Naomie Harris — "Moonlight"

Nicole Kidman — "Lion"

Octavia Spencer — "Hidden Figures"

Michelle Williams — "Manchester by the Sea"

Best foreign language film

"Land of Mine" (Denmark)

"A Man Called Ove" (Sweden)

"The Salesman" (Iran) — WINNER

"Tanna" (Australia)

"Toni Erdmann" (Germany)

Best animated short film

"Blind Vaysha"

"Borrowed Time"

"Pear Cider and Cigarettes"

"Pearl"

"Piper" — WINNER

Best animated feature film

"Kubo and the Two Strings"

"Moana"

"My Life as a Zucchini"

"The Red Turtle"

"Zootopia" — WINNER

Best production design

"Arrival"

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"

"Hail, Caesar!"

"La La Land" — WINNER

"Passengers"

Best visual effects

"Deepwater Horizon"

"Doctor Strange"

"The Jungle Book" — WINNER

"Kubo and the Two Strings"

"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story"

Best film editing

"Arrival"

"Hacksaw Ridge" — WINNER

"Hell or High Water"

"La La Land"

"Moonlight"

Best live action short film

"Ennemis Interieurs"

"La Femme et le TGV"

"Silent Nights"

"Sing" — WINNER

"Timecode"

Best documentary short subject

"Extremis"

"4.1 Miles"

"Joe's Violin"

"Watani: My Homeland"

"The White Helmets" — WINNERS

Best cinematography

"Arrival"

"La La Land" — WINNER

"Lion"

"Moonlight"

"Silence"

Best original score

"La La Land" — WINNER

"Lion"

"Jackie"

"Moonlight"

"Passengers"

Best original song

"Audition (The Fools Who Dream)" — "La La Land"

"Can't Stop the Feeling" — "Trolls"

"City of Stars" — "La La Land" — WINNER

"The Empty Chair" — "Jim: The James Foley Story"

"How Far I'll Go" — "Moana"

Best original screenplay

"Hell or High Water"

"La La Land"

"The Lobster"

"Manchester by the Sea" — WINNER

"20th Century Women"

#Oscar for Best Original Screenplay goes to ‘Manchester by the Sea.’ #Oscars pic.twitter.com/gEyfZbFNHm — Good Morning America (@GMA) February 27, 2017

Best adapted screenplay

"Arrival"

"Fences"

"Hidden Figures"

"Lion"

"Moonlight" — WINNER

"This goes out to all those...who don't see themselves...this is for you." - Tarell Alvin McCraney for 'Moonlight.' #Oscars pic.twitter.com/11yOftIT4t — Good Morning America (@GMA) February 27, 2017

Best directing

Damien Chazelle — "La La Land" — WINNER

Mel Gibson — "Hacksaw Ridge"

Barry Jenkins — "Moonlight"

Kenneth Lonergan — "Manchester by the Sea"

Denis Villeneuve — "Arrival"

Best lead actor

Casey Affleck — "Manchester by the Sea" — WINNER

Andrew Garfield — "Hacksaw Ridge"

Ryan Gosling — "La La Land"

Viggo Mortensen — "Captain Fantastic"

Denzel Washington — "Fences"

#Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role goes to Casey Affleck for ‘Manchester by the Sea.’ #Oscars pic.twitter.com/GrzmvUhNOD — Good Morning America (@GMA) February 27, 2017

Best lead actress

Isabelle Huppert — "Elle"

Ruth Negga — "Loving"

Natalie Portman — "Jackie"

Emma Stone — "La La Land" — WINNER

Meryl Streep — "Florence Foster Jenkins"

Best picture</s>"It's very unfortunate." That's all host Jimmy Kimmel could say after the Academy Award for best motion picture was initially given to "La La Land" — even though "Moonlight" was the winner.

Warren Beatty, who presented the final award of the evening with Faye Dunaway, his co-starr in "Bonnie and Clyde," paused for several seconds as he looked at the card bearing the name of the winning movie. He handed the card to Dunaway, who called out "La La Land."

But a minute or two into the "La La Land" cast's and crew's celebration, producer Jordan Horowitz stepped to the microphone, asked for quiet and said the real winner was "Moonlight."

"This is not a joke," Horowitz said as the cast and crew of "La La Land" left the stage to be replaced by their counterparts from "Moonlight."

After several minutes of shock and confusion, Beatty returned to the microphone with an explanation: He and Dunaway apparently had been given the envelope for best lead actress by mistake. It read, "Emma Stone, La La Land," he said.

"I wasn't trying to be funny," Beatty said.

The flub was reminiscent of Steve Harvey's mistake when he announced the wrong winner of the Miss Universe pageant in December 2015 — as the pageant was quick to remind everyone.

Kimmel joked: "I knew I would screw this show up. I really did."

This is a developing story. Refresh this page for updates.</s>And the loser is... PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

The global accounting firm has apologized for the embarrassing envelope mix-up that resulted in "La La Land" being wrongly announced as best picture at the Oscars.

For more than 80 years, PwC has administered the Oscars balloting process on behalf of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The firm says it oversees "all aspects" of the voting process.

It maintains sole custody of all votes, and is responsible for keeping the results confidential. Once the ballots have been tabulated, two senior accountants memorize every winner, and then prepare two briefcases with the envelopes used by presenters on the big night.

PwC says the briefcases are brought to the ceremony via "separate, secret routes." The two accountants stand backstage and hand envelopes to award presenters before they walk onstage.

It was a breakdown in the final stage of this process that led presenter Faye Dunaway to announce "La La Land" as the winner of Hollywood's most prestigious prize, only for "Moonlight" to be confirmed as the true champion moments later.

"I want to tell you what happened," presenter Warren Beatty said when it became clear that a mistake had been made. "I opened the envelope and it said 'Emma Stone, La La Land.' That's why I took such a long look at Faye."

PwC apologized to the casts of both films, as well as Beatty and Dunaway for the "error."

"The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected," the firm said in a statement. "We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred.

PwC has in the past portrayed its involvement in the Oscars as a symbol of its integrity.

"PwC's role in the Oscars balloting process represents the firm's lasting legacy of utmost accuracy and confidentiality," Martha Ruiz, who serves as one of the two envelope carriers, said in a statement issued before the 2015 ceremony.

Brian Cullinan, the managing partner for PwC's business in Southern California, carries the second briefcase.

On Sunday, his twitter feed was filled with photos taken backstage at the event -- including best supporting actress Viola Davis and best actress Emma Stone.

Later, after PwC issued its apology, all Oscar night tweets disappeared from Cullinan's account.

"We appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, ABC, and [host] Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation," PwC said in its statement.</s>The latter movie had been mistakenly declared the winner of the top prize before producers were forced to intervene and reveal that there had been an error.

Speaking backstage, Ali - who had also won Best Supporting Actor, becoming the first ever Muslim to win an Oscar - described the difficulty of taking the accolade away from another team of film-makers.

“La La Land has done so well and has resonated with so many people, especially in this time when people need a sense of buoyancy in their life and need some hope and light,” he said.

“So that film had really impacted people, sort of in a different way than Moonlight. When their name was read, I wasn’t surprised. I was really happy for them.</s>Katy Perry, Questlove, Sturgill Simpson and others have reacted to the bizarre Best Picture SNAFU at the Oscars last night (Feb 26).

“KATY HERE. I lost a bet for best picture (I wanted moonlight…,” posted Perry at 12:12 a.m., only to post moments later, “WAIT WAIT OMG.”

It was a sentiment shared by millions. Some applauded the Moonlight victory, others grumbled because La La Land didn’t win, but everyone was surprised. Simpson joked about the scenario, posting, “Beginning to think I might have actually won Album of the Year…#Oscars.”

For those who missed it, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway took the stage to reveal the award at Dolby Theatre and when Beatty took an unusually long time to announce the winner, Dunaway jumped in to reveal it was La La Land. Only it wasn’t. The cast and producers of the film took the stage to accept the award and moments later learned of the flub.

“There’s a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won best picture,” La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz said. “This is not a joke. I’m afraid they read the wrong thing. Moonlight has won best picture.”

Host Jimmy Kimmel then stepped in to let the audience and viewers know that this really wasn’t a joke. “Guys, this is very unfortunate what happened,” he said.

Here are some of the best tweets and Instagram posts to the Best Picture flub:</s>The plot thickened and conspiracy theories flew overnight as to how the wrong envelope ended up in the hands of Warren Beauty when he and Faye Dunaway wrongly announced that “La La Land” had won best picture at the Academy Awards Sunday night.

But people generally agree that the “La La Land” people acted with amazing grace when they learned, while still rotating through their acceptance speeches, that their film had, in fact, not won best picture.

In probably one of the most stunning Oscar mistakes in the 89-year history of the awards, the correct envelope materialized on stage, announcing that the honor should instead go to “Moonlight.”

And it was “La La Land” executive producer Jordan Horowitz who broke through all the hub-hub growing on stage over the mistake and disclosed it before before the global audience.

Horowitz took hold of the mic from one of his co-producers and said: “Guys, guys, no, I’m sorry there’s a mistake.

As host Jimmy Kimmel tried to placate the situation, Horowitz made a point of saying: “I’m going to be really proud to hand this to my friends from Moonlight.”

The cast and crew of Moonlight then took to the stage and Horowitz gave them the Oscar and embraced the rightful winners.

“Moonlight” director Barry Jenkins appreciated Horowitz’s move, even as he tried to grasp that his film had won. “Very clearly, even in my dreams this could not be true, but to hell with dreams!” he said.

Then he alluded to how his people and those from “La La Land” felt a kinship after coming through the rigorous awards show season together: “We’ve been on the [awards show circuit] with these guys for so long and that was so gracious, so generous of them. My love to ‘La La Land,’ my love to everybody.”

Many on Twitter agreed that Horowitz deserved praise for handling the “trainwreck” of a situation with “class” and “dignity” and for showing good sportsmanship. They also said it seemed like Horowitz was genuinely happy “Moonlight” won.

But not everyone thought Horowitz handled the situation correctly. Some thought Horowitz seemed eager to put the Beatty in his place by snatching the correct best picture card from the Hollywood icon and holding it up to the camera.

Another added: “Jordan Horowitz thank you for recognizing the Oscar oops but really dude, your rude behavior toward Warren Beatty was much worse.”

It appeared that Beatty had somehow been given a duplicate of the card announcing that Emma Stone had won best actress for “La La Land” instead of the card for best picture winner “Moonlight.” After Horowitz’s announcement, Beatty acknowledged as much and explained that’s why he hesitated to announce “La La Land” as the winner.

After the ceremony, Horowitz, 36, gave a play-by-play interview to E! News, in which he said everything on stage “happened really fast.”

But he said he had to act: “Listen, I’m a producer, I gather things together and I change direction and march things forward.”

Like Jenkins, he said the creators of his film and of “Moonlight” had developed a great deal of respect for one another through the awards season. He also felt he had to back up what he had said in his acceptance speech, moments before learning that his film wasn’t the correct winner.

He said: “I had just gotten finished saying how much love there was in the community, how I want to do bold and diverse work, and so to be able to put that into action, and make that physical by bringing those guys up on stage and giving them the award that they won. … It was an honor.”
Moonlight wins Best Picture, moments after La La Land was mistakenly announced as the winner. It also won Best Adapted Screenplay.