Oscars auditors apologize for best picture mix-up

HOLLYWOOD -- PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm responsible for tabulating Oscar ballots, apologized for an "error" in the announcement of the best picture award Sunday, admitting Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were handed the wrong envelope.

The embarrassing mix-up saw the Oscar incorrectly given to musical "La La Land" before the actual winner, coming-of-age drama "Moonlight," was finally handed the prize.

"We sincerely apologize to 'Moonlight,' 'La La Land,' Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for Best Picture," the company said in a statement.

"The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and, when discovered, was immediately corrected," it added.

"We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred," it said, hailing the "grace" with which all concerned handled the situation.

The mistake made for a chaotic end to the film industry's biggest night, on which "La La Land" went home with six awards including best director, actress, score and song, to three for "Moonlight."

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'Moonlight' beats 'La La Land' amid "Steve Harvey" moment

LOS ANGELES - "Moonlight" won the Oscar for best picture on Sunday, beating favorite "La La Land" for the movie industry's most prestigious award.

But in a highly unusual mishap, presenter Warren Beatty first, mistakenly initially announced that musical "La La Land" had won, causing confusion and uproar on Hollywood's biggest night. Beatty said he had been given the wrong envelope to open.

Emma Stone won best actress for the musical, and "Manchester by the Sea" star Casey Affleck was named best actor on a night where U.S. President Donald Trump was the butt of numerous jokes, capping a Hollywood awards season marked by fiery protests at his policies.

"La La Land" director Damien Chazelle, 32, became the youngest person to ever win a best director Oscar.

Viola Davis and Mahershala Ali won their first Oscars for their supporting roles in African-American stories "Fences" and "Moonlight," in stark contrast to the 2016 Academy Awards when no actors of color were even nominated.

"Moonlight," the coming of age tale of a young black boy in Miami, also won the best adapted screenplay statuette, while grief-driven independent drama "Manchester by the Sea" took home original screenplay.

Romantic musical "La La Land," the tale of a struggling actress and a jazz pianist in Los Angeles, went into the Oscars with a leading 14 nominations and emerged with six, including for its score and theme song "City of Stars."

Trump's presence loomed large at the three and a half hour show as host Jimmy Kimmel fired off political zingers and even tweeted at the Republican president, getting no immediate response.

(Additional reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy, Nichola Groom and Lisa Richwine; Editing by Sandra Maler and Mary Milliken)

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'Moonlight,' 'Arrival' win top Writers Guild of America awards

Writers for the films "Moonlight" and "Arrival" won top Writers Guild of America awards on Sunday, boosting the films' chances in the upcoming Academy Awards, Hollywood's biggest honors.

Barry Jenkins and Tarell McCraney won the original screenplay award for "Moonlight," a drama about a young black Miami man's life and struggle to forge an identity.

Eric Heisserer took the Writers Guild of America's prize for adapted screenplay for the science fiction film "Arrival," based on a short story by Ted Chiang.


Both films are nominated for the best picture Oscar, which will be handed out at a gala ceremony in Hollywood on February 26. The writers for both films are also Oscar-nominated, but will compete against each other in the adapted screenplay category after the Oscars decided the "Moonlight" script was an adaptation of a McCraney play.

"Command and Control" won for best documentary screenplay.

Among television honors, "The Americans" won the Writers Guild prize for drama series, while "Atlanta" took the award for best comedy series as well as for best new series.

The Writers Guild is an industry group representing film, television, radio and other media writers.

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'La La Land,' 'Moonlight' lead Golden Globe nominations

LOS ANGELES -- "La La Land," an ambitious musical about two dreamers falling in love in Hollywood, and the intimate coming of age drama "Moonlight" led nominations for the Golden Globes on Monday, underscoring their front-runner status in the long road to the Oscars.

"La La Land" scored seven nominations in all, including for Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in the comedy/musical acting categories, while writer-director Damien Chazelle received nods for best director and best screenplay.

"Making 'La La Land' was a dream come true and we're thrilled that Damien Chazelle's vision has been recognized," producers Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz and Marc Platt said in a statement.

"Moonlight," the tale of an impoverished black boy in Miami struggling with his sexuality, scored six nods, including Barry Jenkins in the directing and screenplay categories and Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali in the best supporting acting races.

"La La Land" is up against "20th Century Women," the story of a free-spirited mother; raunchy superhero action movie "Deadpool"; singing comedy "Florence Foster Jenkins"; and teen tale "Sing Street" for best comedy/musical film at the Golden Globes.

"Moonlight" will face war drama "Hacksaw Ridge," Western crime story "Hell or High Water," adoption tale "Lion" and "Manchester by the Sea," which is about a working-class family dealing with tragedy, in the best drama film category.

"La La Land" and "Moonlight" are very different films. But Claudia Puig, film critic at National Public Radio's FilmWeek and president of the Los Angeles Film Critics' Association, said they had a key element in common.

"Both are very emotional movies. They move you, they're poignant, they touch your emotions," Puig told Reuters.

"One maybe has a much more intellectual, sociological component while the other is escapist, but both are also about love and finding your dreams," she added.

"Manchester by the Sea" landed five nominations, including for actor Casey Affleck and screenplay and director nods for Kenneth Lonergan.

"It will actually be my first time attending the Golden Globes and I've been working for more than 20 years, so this moment isn't lost on me," Affleck said in a statement.

DIVERSITY FINDS SPOTLIGHT

After a furor that erupted earlier this year because all 20 acting Oscar nominees were white, the Golden Globes feature numerous actors of color, including Ruth Negga of "Loving," Ali and Harris of "Moonlight," and Dev Patel, who is of Indian descent, for "Lion."

"It's taken a long time to get to this point and for people who are producing content to really see the value of opening up a bit and being more inclusive," Ali told Reuters.

Notable omissions from the best drama film field included "Jackie," a character study of the widow of U.S. president John F. Kennedy in the week after his assassination. Lead Natalie Portman, however, received a best actress nomination.

Martin Scorsese's "Silence," the tale of missionaries in 17th-century Japan, and "Fences," a tense African-American family drama set in the 1950s, were also snubbed in the best drama race. "Fences" did bring nods for actors Denzel Washington and Viola Davis.

More than 90 journalists in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association choose the Golden Globes. Winners will be announced on January 8 at a televised ceremony hosted by Jimmy Fallon.

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