"Moonlight" always looked like an Oscars long shot. The coming-of-age drama about an African American boy growing up in a poor neighborhood in Miami was made for just 1.5 million dollars. Its director and co-writer, Barry Jenkins, hadn't made a film in years and it was up for the best picture prize against "La La Land," the smash hit musical that tied the record for Oscar nominations this year.
Indeed, when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway opened the envelope to read the winner of the Oscars' top prize, the name they read out was "La La Land."
But as that film's producers were accepting the Oscar for Best Picture, they were interrupted for a highly unusual correction: "La La Land" was not the winner. "Moonlight" was.
A chagrined Beatty blamed the flub on the envelope, which he said contained a duplicate of the card for the best actress trophy.
"I opened the envelope and it said Emma Stone, 'La La Land,'" he said. "I wasn't trying to be funny."
Representatives at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the global accounting firm responsible for carrying the winning ballots to the Academy Awards, said they "sincerely apologize" and "deeply regret" the error.
"The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected," the firm wrote in a statement on Twitter.
"We are currently investigating how this could have happened," the firm said.
"We appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, ABC and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation," the firm added.
The best picture award was the third Oscar for "Moonlight," one of the most acclaimed films of the awards season.
The film also won best supporting actor for Mahershala Ali, the first Muslim actor ever to win the Oscar, and best adapted screenplay for director Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney.
The underdog drama beat out not only "La La Land," but other big-budget Hollywood productions for the win: "Hidden Figures;" "Manchester by the Sea;" "Hacksaw Ridge;" "Arrival;" "Fences;" "Lion;" and "Hell or High Water."
Despite the reversal, "La La Land" still emerged as the night's top winner, with six Oscars including best actress for Emma Stone and best director for Damien Chazelle, at 32 the youngest director ever to win that prize.
The old style movie musical about artists in love in Los Angeles also picked up prizes for cinematography and production design, original score and song for composer Justin Hurwitz.
Stone's co-star Ryan Gosling was defeated for best actor by Casey Affleck, who won for a dark, nuanced portrayal of a janitor haunted by the past in "Manchester by the Sea." Director Kenneth Lonergan also won best original screenplay for the tearjerker drama.
Viola Davis won the trophy for best supporting actress for "Fences," the adaptation of the August Wilson play directed for the screen by co-star Denzel Washington. It was her third nomination for the Oscar and her first win.
In a politically charged win for Iran, "The Salesman" claimed the best foreign-language film trophy, with director Asghar Farhadi absent in protest of Trump's now-suspended travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries including Iran.
In a statement read on stage, Farhadi said his absence was "out of respect for the people of my country and those of the other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S."
"Dividing the world into 'us' and 'our enemies' categories creates fear, a deceitful justification for aggression and war," the statement continued.
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