In A Dramatic Finish, 'Moonlight' Takes Best Picture At The 2017 Oscars

If you called it a night as soon as La La Land was announced best picture, you didn't get the whole story. Moonlight, in fact, took home that prize.

In a shocking end-of-night twist, La La Land was incorrectly announced as best picture. In the midst of the celebration, La La Land's cast and crew were all smiles as they gathered on stage.

But then, mid-speech, one of La La Land's producers, Jordan Horowitz, had to break the news.

"There's a mistake. 'Moonlight,' you guys won best picture," Horowitz said. He added, "This is not a joke."

He then held up the card to the cameras and handed off the award to Moonlight most graciously, as confusion swept the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Presenters Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty had mistakenly announced La La Land as the winner. Though it's still unclear what led to the mishap, Beatty says he was reading from what appeared to be the best actress envelope, with both La La Land and star Emma Stone's name printed on the card.

"What have you done?" Jimmy Kimmel chided Beatty.

Beatty explained onstage, "I opened the envelope and it said Emma Stone, La La Land. That's why I took such a long look at Faye [Dunaway] and at you — I wasn't trying to be funny."

The night wasn't a complete letdown for La La Land, which had been favored to win big. The glitzy romance musical led the field with six Oscars, including best director (Damien Chazelle) and best actress (Emma Stone), out of a record-tying 14 nominations. Coming-of-age drama Moonlight took home three wins, including best supporting actor (Mahershala Ali), and Manchester By The Sea won best original screenplay (Kenneth Lonergan) and best actor (Casey Affleck).

Winners or not, the 89th Academy Awards nomination roster already looked significantly more diverse than in recent seasons. For the first time in Oscars history, a black actor was nominated in every acting category in the same year.

After two straight years of making nominations that lacked people of color in an acting category, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences seems to have turned the tide some this year. The Academy has upped the diversity of its membership in response to last year's protests — and it shows.

Three films honored in the best picture category in particular — Fences, Hidden Figures and Moonlight -- all feature mostly black characters and can claim at least one nominated actor or actress, from Moonlight's Oscar rookie Mahershala Ali (also featured in Hidden Figures) to two-time winner Denzel Washington (Fences). African-American filmmakers also dominate the documentary feature slot.

Here's the full list of winners in all 24 categories, marked in bold:

2017 Nominations

BEST PICTURE

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

CINEMATOGRAPHY

COSTUME DESIGN

DIRECTING

DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)

FILM EDITING

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

PRODUCTION DESIGN

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

SOUND EDITING

SOUND MIXING

VISUAL EFFECTS

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

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