Awards

'La La Land' Producer Who Revealed Mixup Sends 'Much Love' to 'Moonlight' Director Barry Jenkins After Oscars Flub

Jordan Horowitz held up the movie title card to reveal Moonlight as the true winner of Best Picture at the 89th Academy Awards

Published on February 27, 2017 07:28 AM

There’s no negativity between the people behind Moonlight and La La Land.

It was perhaps the biggest flub in the history of the Academy Awards when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway mistakenly called La La Land as the winner of the 2017 Academy Award for Best Picture Sunday night — the honor actually belonged to Moonlight. However, Barry Jenkins, the director behind the coming-of-age tale, praised La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz for his determination to make things right.

“Jordan Horowitz. Wow. I’m slipping slowly into reflection, perspective,” Jenkins tweeted after the awards show. “Much respect to that dude.”

Horowitz responded to the director with a heart emoji, tweeting, “Thank you, Barry. Congratulations and much love.”

It was Horowitz who consistently made the shocking announcement after the cast of the musical took to the stage to accept the award.

“No. There’s been a mistake,” he said. “Moonlight, you guys won best picture …This is not a joke. Moonlight has won Best Picture.”

He then held up the envelope to show shocked viewers the movie title on the card. The incident left nominees and viewers stunned, with many wondering how such a mistake could happen.

Horowtiz described the mishap as a “surreal moment,” during a Monday phone interview with Good Morning America.

“I wanted to make sure that the right thing was done,” he said. “At that point, it was not about me. It was about making sure that Moonlight got the recognition it really deserves.”

He added: “Those guys are my friends and I wanted to make sure they had their moment.”

Beatty, 79, later explained: “I opened the envelope and it said, ‘Emma Stone, La La Land.’ That’s why I took such a long look at Faye and at you. I wasn’t trying to be funny.”

One of the two printed envelopes for Best Actress apparently ended up in Beatty’s hands as he went to present the Best Picture award. Confused, Beatty looked to his co-presenter Dunaway, 76, for help, and she ended up announcing La La Land.PEN Oscars 2017 Full Fashion Recap

The musical’s cast and crew were in the middle of their acceptance speeches when accountants from PricewaterhouseCoopers took the stage to reveal the mistake — the biggest error at the live telecast in recent history.

All ended well, though, with Jenkins giving a passionate acceptance speech on stage alongside the Moonlight cast. Mahershala Ali, who took home the prize for Best Supporting Actor, later praised Horowitz in a post-show interview with ABC.

“Such a great guy. Such a generous guy,” Ali said. “Of course he was the one who said, ‘Oh, we didn’t win? Bring them up here.’ “