PwC’s US arm has found itself in the spotlight this morning, after the firm’s Oscars accounting team admitted responsibility for a chaotic on-air mix-up in front of a global audience of billions when the wrong film was initially named as the winner in the ‘best picture category’ at the annual awards in Hollywood
One of the two PwC long-time staffers responsible for the ballot for the film industry’s Oscar awards handed the wrong envelope to presenter Warren Beatty, who mistakenly said La La Land had won the best picture category. Midway through the on-stage celebrations, the true winner was subsequently revealed to be Moonlight.
PwC has now put out a statement, saying: ‘We sincerely apologise 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 presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected. We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred. We appreciate the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, ABC, and Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation.’
PwC has been in charge of the Oscar voting process for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for 83 of the award ceremony’s 89 years of existence. Co-leaders for the team this year were Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz. Ruiz, who has worked for PwC for nearly two decades, is only the second woman to serve as a ‘PwC Oscars tabulator’, while Cullinan is a PwC partner and serves as the company’s US board chairman.
In pre-award ceremony publicity, Cullinan said in an interview: ‘The producers decide what order the awards will be. We each have a full set. I have all 24 envelopes in my briefcase; Martha has all 24 in hers.
‘We stand on opposite sides of the stage, right off-screen, for the entire evening, and we each hand the respective envelope to the presenter. It doesn’t sound very complicated but you have to make sure you are giving the presenter the right envelope.’
Last night veteran screen star Warren Beatty could be seen looking quizzically at the card coming out of the envelope he had opened when announcing the best picture category, but he checked with co-host Faye Dunaway, who went on to declare the bookies’ favourite and high profile production La La Land the winner.
In fact, Beatty was looking at the card announcing the name of the best actress, Emma Stone, who had won an award for her performance in La La Land just moments before.
The three credited producers for La La Land were almost through their triumphant speeches when producer Jordan Horowitz was forced to take the microphone and say the film had lost to the more low-key and low-budget Moonlight. There followed scenes of confusion, with both Horowitz and host Jimmy Kimmel emphasising this was not a joke, before the producers of the true winner of best picture took the stage and the award.
While there have been a number of changes in rules around auditor rotation in the UK and the EU, there is no set procedure for re-tendering of the Oscar ballot supervisory process.
