The scene: Hollywood’s Dolby Theater.
The action: the 89th Academy Awards ceremony.
The ending?
Total chaos.
When the wrong winner for best picture was read Sunday night, it caused mayhem and resulted in the biggest Oscars error of all time.
Here’s a moment by moment guide to what went down.
7:48 p.m. EST/4:48 p.m. PST – PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) tweets a photo of representatives Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz on the red carpet. Cullinan is carrying the briefcase which contains the winner envelopes they refer to as #BallotBriefcase. There are two briefcases containing the envelopes with winner’s names. They are kept on opposite sides of the Oscar stage. Ruiz and Cullinan alternate handing them to presenters.
8:30 p.m. EST/5:50 p.m. PST – The 89th Academy Awards ceremony begins and airs live on ABC.
11:29 p.m. EST/8:29 PST – (PwC) tweets an image of Cullinan and Ruiz backstage as they “keep watch over the envelopes.”
11:54 p.m. EST/8:54 p.m. PST – Last year’s best actor winner Leonardo DiCaprio takes to the stage to present the best actress award.
11:57 p.m. EST/8:57 p.m. PST – Emma Stone is named the winner for her role in “La La Land.” She walks onstage and is handed her award, along with an envelope and card containing her name. The envelope is one of two backstage.
11:59 p.m. EST/8:59 p.m. PST – Stone exists the stage following her acceptance speech with her award and envelope firmly in hand.
12:01 a.m. EST/ 9:01 PST – Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway appear on stage to announce the best picture winner.
12:03 a.m. EST/9:04 PST – After the nominees are announced, Beatty opens the envelope, raises an eyebrow and pauses for a long moment. He then says “And the Academy Award…” before pausing again. Dunaway says “You’re impossible.”
12:05 a.m. EST/9:05 p.m PST – Beatty hands the envelope to Dunaway as the audience laughs. She says “C’mon” before glancing at the card and announcing “La La Land” as the winner.
Backstage, a crew member began whispering, “Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!” as the “La La Land” team took the stage, according to a Vanity Fair reporter positioned nearby. “They read the wrong envelope,” the crew member says.
12:05 a.m. EST/9:05 p.m PST – Cullinan tweets a photo of Emma Stone he had taken post-win with the caption “Best Actress Emma Stone backstage!” He would later delete the tweet, but not before some social media users had screen grabbed it.
12:06 a.m. EST/9:06 p.m. PST – “La La Land” producer Jordan Horowitz makes an acceptance speech.
12:07 a.m. EST/9:07 p.m. PST – “La La Land” producer Marc Platt is in the midst of his acceptance speech when viewers can suddenly see Oscars stage manager Gary Natoli run onstage and begin speaking to the announced winners.
12:08 a.m. EST/9:08 p.m. PST – Horowitz and another one of the film’s producers, Fred Berger, are showed the card announcing “Moonlight”‘s win by Natoli.
12:09 a.m. EST/9:09 p.m. PST – Berger initially shakes his head “no” as Platt calls him to the microphone. Berger then steps up to the mic and begins his acceptance speech. After thanking director Damien Chazelle, Berger announces, “We lost by the way.” Seconds later, Horowitz announces that there has been a mistake. “‘Moonlight,’ you guys won best picture.”
The audience and those onstage react in confusion. “This is not a joke. ‘Moonlight’ has won best picture,” Horowitz says, again, before snatching the correct winner’s card from the hand of Beatty. Horowitz shows it to the audience and declares, again, “‘Moonlight. Best picture.'”
12:10 a.m. EST/9:10 p.m. PST – The audience erupts into stunned applause and a standing ovation. Host Jimmy Kimmel says, “I think you guys should keep it anyway.” A shocked “Moonlight” cast and crew heads to the stage. “You guys, this is very unfortunate what happened. Personally, I blame Steve Harvey for this,” Kimmel quips.
Kimmel then says to Horowitz, “I would like to see you get an Oscar, anyway. Why can’t we just give out a whole bunch of them?” Horowitz responds “I’m going to be really proud to hand this to my friends from ‘Moonlight’,” as the “La La Land” cast and crew exit the stage.
Warren Beatty steps up to offer an explanation. Kimmel jokes, “Warren what did you do!” Horowitz embraces “Moonlight” star Mahershala Ali and director Barry Jenkins. “I want to tell you what happened,” Beatty says. “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 [the audience]. I wasn’t trying to be funny.”
He then shows the winning card, again, and says “This is ‘Moonlight,’ best picture.”
12:11 a.m. EST/9:11 p.m. PST – The audience goes wild as the cast and crew of “Moonlight” celebrate onstage. Matt Damon can be seen whistling his approval as “Moonlight” producer Adele Romanski steps up to accept.
Director Barry Jenkins says “Very clearly, even in my dreams, this could not be true. “But to hell with dreams, I’m done with it, ’cause this is true.”
3:28 a.m. EST/12:28 a.m. PST – Nearly three hours later, PricewaterhouseCoopers releases a statement apologizing for the mistake and promising an investigation.
9:26 p.m. EST/6:26 p.m. PST – On Monday evening, PwC releases a second statement, confirming Cullinan was the partner who handed the wrong envelope to Dunaway and Beatty.
10:45 p.m. EST/7:45 p.m. PST – Almost 24 hours after the best picture announcement, the Academy releases its first official statement on the unprecedented Oscar moment. “We have spent last night and today investigating the circumstances, and will determine what actions are appropriate going forward,” the statement said.
