--- title: Here's the Official Explanation for the Big Oscars Mixup description: The chairman of accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers explained the Best Picture mix-up to "human error" on the part of the company in detail. canonical: https://time.com/4684973/oscars-wrong-best-picture-explanation/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-27T22:59:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:41:28.302Z og:title: Exactly What Went Wrong With the Oscars Best Picture og:description: We finally have the official moment-to-moment rundown of how it all went wrong og:url: https://time.com/4684973/oscars-wrong-best-picture-explanation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ecedf1382bd5613/6988bc2aa988ca15626bb29d/best-picture-mix-up.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3328 og:image:height: 1872 og:image:alt: 'La La Land' producer Jordan Horowitz (L) announces actual Best Picture winner as 'Moonlight' after a presentation error with host Jimmy Kimmel and actor Warren Beatty onstage during the 89th Annual Academy Awards on February 26, 2017 in Hollywood, Calif og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Exactly What Went Wrong With the Oscars Best Picture twitter:description: We finally have the official moment-to-moment rundown of how it all went wrong twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ecedf1382bd5613/6988bc2aa988ca15626bb29d/best-picture-mix-up.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Exactly What Went Wrong With the Oscars Best Picture Mistake > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=74257214-60ef-407e-9991-c25b2b9fd535&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Feb 27, 2017 10:59 PM UTC  'La La Land' producer Jordan Horowitz (L) announces actual Best Picture winner as 'Moonlight' after a presentation error with host Jimmy Kimmel and actor Warren Beatty onstage during the 89th Annual Academy Awards on February 26, 2017 in Hollywood, California. 'La La Land' producer Jordan Horowitz (L) announces actual Best Picture winner as 'Moonlight' after a presentation error with host Jimmy Kimmel and actor Warren Beatty onstage during the 89th Annual Academy Awards on February 26, 2017 in Hollywood, California. Kevin Winter—Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Feb 27, 2017 10:59 PM UTC Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers—the company responsible for managing the envelope distribution at the Academy Awards [since 1934](http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2017/02/27/pricewaterhousecoopers-oscar-flub-we-made-human-error/98481348/)—has finally released an official explanation for the Sunday night mixup that led [_La La Land_ to originally receive](http://time.com/4683925/oscars-2017-celebrity-reaction-photo/) the Best Picture trophy, before the error was corrected and _Moonlight_ instead took to the stage to accept the honor. “We clearly made a mistake and once the mistake was made we corrected it and owned up to it,” Tim Ryan, U.S. chairman and senior partner for PricewaterhouseCoopers, [told Variety.](http://variety.com/2017/film/news/oscars-best-picture-mistake-brian-cullinan-pricewaterhousecoopers-wrong-pile-1201998091/) “At the end of the day, we made a human error,” he said [to USA Today.](http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2017/02/27/pricewaterhousecoopers-oscar-flub-we-made-human-error/98481348/) Here’s how it happened, according to PwC. Two copies of each envelope are stationed on opposite sides of the stage, with two accounting partners—Martha Ruiz and [Brian Cullinan](http://time.com/10318/oscars-pricewaterhousecoopers/?iid=sr-link1)—overseeing the envelopes. Cullinan, who was stage left, apparently drew the wrong envelope from the wrong pile, handing that off to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. It was a “backup” envelope that stated Emma Stone’s name; she had just [received her own award](http://time.com/4683566/emma-stone-2017-oscars-best-picture/), with _that_ envelope coming from Ruiz on the other side of the stage. “He feels very, very terrible and horrible. He is very upset about this mistake. And it is also my mistake, our mistake, and we all feel very bad,” Ryan said of Cullinan and their team. They had also issued an [apology statement soon after](http://time.com/4683613/pwc-apologies-moonlight-oscar-mixup/?iid=sr-link4) the broadcast wrapped, promising an investigation. To all the [conspiracy theorists:](http://time.com/4683716/oscars-2017-best-picture-mistake-theories/) it looks like this one, at least, can be chalked up to simple human error. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4684973/oscars-wrong-best-picture-explanation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4684973/oscars-wrong-best-picture-explanation/"},"headline":"Exactly What Went Wrong With the Oscars Best Picture Mistake","datePublished":"2017-02-27T22:59:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:41:28.302Z","description":"The chairman of accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers explained the Best Picture mix-up to \"human error\" on the part of the company in detail.","url":"https://time.com/4684973/oscars-wrong-best-picture-explanation/","keywords":["Newsfeed","awards","Oscars 2017"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ecedf1382bd5613/6988bc2aa988ca15626bb29d/best-picture-mix-up.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ecedf1382bd5613/6988bc2aa988ca15626bb29d/best-picture-mix-up.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"'La La Land' producer Jordan Horowitz (L) announces actual Best Picture winner as 'Moonlight' after a presentation error with host Jimmy Kimmel and actor Warren Beatty onstage during the 89th Annual Academy Awards on February 26, 2017 in Hollywood, Calif","caption":"'La La Land' producer Jordan Horowitz (L) announces actual Best Picture winner as 'Moonlight' after a presentation error with host Jimmy Kimmel and actor Warren Beatty onstage during the 89th Annual Academy Awards on February 26, 2017 in Hollywood, Calif","creditText":"Kevin Winter—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4684973/oscars-wrong-best-picture-explanation/","name":"Exactly What Went Wrong With the Oscars Best Picture Mistake"}}]}] ```