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Tuesday, 28 February 2017

PwC takes responsibility for Oscars best announcement snafu

Accountants ruin the announcement of the best picture winner at the Oscars: Global accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has taken responsibility and apologised for the mix-up that caused the film La La Land to be (for a few moments) named best picture at the Oscars early yesterday morning instead of the real winner, Moonlight. “It’s still not clear exactly how PwC, which has administered the Oscars balloting process for more than 80 years, allowed the wrong red envelope to be carried on stage in a snafu that spoiled Hollywood’s biggest moment of the year,” CNN says. The process gives PwC “sole custody of all votes, and is responsible for keeping the results confidential. Once the ballots have been tabulated, two senior accountants memorize every winner, and then prepare two briefcases with the envelopes used by presenters on the big night.” The heads likely to roll over this are PwC accountants Martha Ruiz’s and Brian Cullinan’s. They were tasked with carrying the briefcases to the ceremony via "separate, secret routes” and stood backstage handing envelopes to award presenters before they walk onstage. You can watch the whole, messy announcement here (runtime 02:36).

First Muslim to win an Academy Award? Mahershala Ali won an Oscar for best supporting actor, recognizing his performance in Moonlight. Meanwhile, the Netflix documentary on Syrian heroes the White Helmets bagged best short documentary.

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