The ending even shocked hardened Hollywood veterans. Minutes just after "La La Land" was mistakenly announced as the finest picture winner at the Oscars ... the actual Oscar went to the cast and crew behind the indie film "Moonlight," a moment that drew audible gasps and had absolutely everyone asking, "What occurred?"
PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm that tallies the Oscars voting, later apologized, saying in a statement that the presenters have been erroneously offered the wrong envelope.
Here is the complete breakdown of the dramatic most effective picture mix-up.
Presenters Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty take the stage to introduce the most effective image nominees.
Beatty opens the envelope, takes out a single piece of paper and appears to appear inside the envelope for a second piece of paper.
Beatty smiles, pauses, says "and the Academy Award..." then deliberately pauses again. He looks back down at the paper just before saying, "For best picture..."
"You happen to be not possible -- Come on!" Dunaway says, and Beatty passes the paper to her.
Dunaway glances at the paper and announces, "La La Land"!
Right after the "La La Land" group embraces, they leave their seats and head to the stage to accept the greatest award of the night.
"Moonlight" director Barry Jenkins later told reporters backstage, "I assume all the motion pictures that have been nominated had been worthy, so I accepted the outcomes. I applauded like everybody else."
"I noticed the commotion that was happening, and I thought one thing strange had occurred," Jenkins said.
"La La Land" producer Jordan Horowitz, holding the Oscar and the envelope on stage, begins his acceptance speech.
Backstage, individuals commence to understand anything is amiss when an Oscars producer walks on stage.
As "La La Land" producer Fred Berger provides his acceptance speech, a crowd is hovering behind him, and "La La Land" star Emma Stone, who just won the ideal actress award moments just before, is seen mouthing, "Oh my God."
Berger concludes his acceptance speech, turns to the crowd behind him ... then turns back to the mic, saying, "We lost, by the way."
Horowitz adds, "Guys, I am sorry, no, there is a mistake. 'Moonlight,' you guys won best image."
"This is not a joke," "La La Land" producer Marc Platt says. "I’m afraid they study the incorrect thing."
BREAKING UPDATE: Following incorrect announcement, 'Moonlight' has won 'Best Picture' at the #Oscars. https://t.co/o8KUR4ZHUm pic.twitter.com/euLTgShYlN
"This is not a joke," Horowitz adds. "'Moonlight' has won best picture."
Backstage there was an audible, collective gasp, then silence.
Horowitz holds the winning greatest picture envelope that says "Moonlight" and shows the audience. He announces "'Moonlight,' ideal image," and the crowd erupts.
"There was a lot of confusion on stage, and at a certain point it was clear that the wrong envelope had been provided," Horowitz told "GMA" exclusively this morning. "Then they kind of showed us the very best picture envelope, and it mentioned ‘Moonlight,’ and that’s when I sort of jumped to the mic and created confident everybody knew what was going on."
He added, "It was like this slow, steady realization that anything wasn’t proper. It necessary to be corrected so we jumped in and did it."
Horowitz said he held up the envelope since "I assume people today necessary clarity at that moment."
Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel tries to lighten the mood, saying, "This is pretty unfortunate what happened."
"Personally, I blame Steve Harvey for this," Kimmel says, alluding to Harvey's crowning the wrong Miss Universe winner.
"I would like to see you get an Oscar anyway," Kimmel says to Horowitz.
"I'm going to be truly proud to hand this to my mates from 'Moonlight,'" Horowitz says.
Then it was time for Beatty to take the mic.
"Warren, what did you do?" jokes Kimmel.
"I want to tell you what occurred," Beatty says to the audience.
"I opened the envelope and it stated Emma Stone, 'La La Land.' That's why I took such a long appear at Faye and at you, I wasn't attempting to be funny," Beatty says.
"Properly, you were funny," says Kimmel.
As Beatty spoke, Horowitz was observed on stage in the background embracing "Moonlight" supporting actor winner Mahershala Ali and other individuals from the "Moonlight" team. Horowitz then hands off the Oscar.
"This is 'Moonlight,' the very best picture," Beatty says, and the audience erupts in applause.
Matt Damon whistles.
As Jenkins speaks to the crowd, he says, "Even in my dreams, this could not be true. But to hell with dreams, I'm completed with it, for the reason that this is true. Oh, my goodness.
"I'm nevertheless not positive this is actual, but thank you to the Academy and it is so humbling to be standing up right here."
Jenkins told reporters that Beatty refused to show anyone the winning card ahead of displaying him.
"He came upstairs, and he walked more than to me, and he showed the card. Everyone was asking, 'Can I see the card?' And he's like, 'No, Barry Jenkins has to see the card. I want him to know,'" Jenkins recalled. "And he showed it to me, and I felt superior about what had occurred."
As Kimmel concluded the show, he says, "I do not know what occurred. I blame myself for this."
"Let’s don't forget, it is just an awards show," he continues. "I imply, we hate to see men and women disappointed but the great news is, we got to see some further speeches. We had some good motion pictures. I knew I would screw this show up, I genuinely did. Thank you for watching. I’m back to operate tomorrow evening at my normal show. I guarantee I’ll in no way come back. Goodnight!"
PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm that tallies the Oscars voting, said in a statement following the show, "We sincerely apologize to 'Moonlight,' 'La La Land,' Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was created during the award announcement for best picture. The presenters had mistakenly been provided the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was straight away corrected. We are at present investigating how this could have occurred, and deeply regret that this occurred.
We appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, ABC, and Jimmy Kimmel handled the scenario."
In a video posted last week to the PricewaterhouseCoopers YouTube page, one particular of the firm's two co-balloting leaders said, "We have the winners in sealed envelopes that we hold and retain throughout the evening and hand those to the presenters just just before they stroll out on stage."
The Academy did not quickly situation a statement.
In the midst of the shocking mix-up, it was a single "La La Land" producer's gracious words on stage -- "I am going to be seriously proud to hand this to my mates from 'Moonlight'" -- that kept the night moving forward.
Horowitz told "GMA" this morning that he "wanted to make confident that the proper thing was completed."
"Due to the fact, you know, at that point it was not about me ... it was about creating sure that ‘Moonlight’ got the recognition it seriously deserves."
"Those guys are my mates," Horowitz mentioned of the individuals behind "Moonlight," whom Horowitz said he got to know well for the duration of the months-lengthy buildup to the Oscars. "I wanted to make certain they had their moment."
The sort gesture didn't go unnoticed for Jenkins.
"The people from 'La La Land' have been so gracious," Jenkins told reporters backstage. "I can't imagine getting in their position and obtaining to do that. I wasn't speechless for the reason that we won. I was speechless for the reason that it was so gracious of them to do that."
ABC News' Morgan Korn, Jeff Costello, Lindsey Jacobson, Lesley Messer and Molly Shaker contributed to this report.
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