‘I wasn’t trying to be funny’ —
Warren Beatty’s on-stage statement about Best-Picture mistake involving ‘Moonlight,’ ‘La La Land’
Posted: June 2025
Transcript of Warren Beatty's on-stage statement at the 2017 Academy Awards about the mistaken announcement by Faye Dunaway of “La La Land” as Best Picture Oscar winner. Also a full transcript of remarks by “La La Land” producers before the mistake was revealed and “Moonlight” producers and director upon receiving the Best Picture award.
Warren Beatty: “And the Academy Award ... for Best Picture ...”
Faye Dunaway: (chuckles) “You’re impossible. Come on! ... ‘La La Land.’ ”
Jordan Horowitz: “Thank you. Thank you, all. Um, thank you to the Academy. Thank you to Lionsgate. Thank you to our incredible cast and crew. We’re all up here right now. Um, thank you to Jamie Feldman to Gary Gilbert. Thank you, uh, to my parents for supporting, uh, my choice to pursue a career in the arts, even though it was a little bit crazy. Um, Arthur Horowitz, you are my fantasy baby, um, and to my kind, generous, talented, beautiful, blue-eyed wife and creative partner, Julia Hart. Whew. You have, uh, inspired me to become the man I am right now, um, and more importantly, the man I’m still becoming. Um, there’s a lot of love in this room, um, and let’s use it to create and champion bold and diverse work, work that inspires us towards joy, towards hope, and towards empathy.”
Marc Platt: “Uh, here’s to the fools who made me dream, my Uncle Gary Platt, my mentor, Sam Cohn, my parents, my children, my wife, Julie, on whose shoulders I’ve stood for 40 years because she insisted I reach for the stars, and to the Hollywood community that I’m so proud to be a part of, and to the Hollywood in the hearts and minds of people everywhere. Repression is the enemy of civilization, so keep dreaming. Because the dreams we dream today will provide the love, the compassion, and the humanity that will narrate the stories of our lives tomorrow. Fred?”
Fred Berger: “It’s the love of my life, Ali Loewy, and my (unintelligible) of you. I love you so much. To my family, Mama, Papa, Jeff, (unintelligible), Matt Plouffe, you kicked this off, and Damien Chazelle, we’re standing on your shoulders. We lost, by the way, but, you know-”
Jordan Horowitz: “Guys, guys, I’m sorry. No-”
Warren Beatty: “There’s a mistake.”
Jordan Horowitz: “There’s- there’s a mistake. ‘Moonlight,’ you guys won Best Picture.”
Marc Platt: “ ‘Moonlight’ won.”
Jordan Horowitz: “This is not a joke. Come up here-”
Marc Platt: “This is not a joke. I’m afraid they read the wrong thing.”
Jordan Horowitz: “This is not a joke. ‘Moonlight’ has won Best Picture. ‘Moonlight.’ Best Picture.”
Jimmy Kimmel: “I think you guys should keep it anyway. Oh it’s Warren. I’m sorry. Guys- This is, uh, very unfortunate what happened. Personally, I blame Steve Harvey for this. I would like to see you get an Oscar anyway. Why can’t we just give out a whole bunch of ’em?”
Jordan Horowitz: “I- I- I’m gonna be really proud to hand this to my friends for ‘Moonlight.’ ”
Jimmy Kimmel: “That’s nice of you. That’s very nice.”
Warren Beatty: (To Jimmy Kimmel) “Can I say something?”
Jordan Horowitz (To the “Moonlight” team) “C’mon.”
Warren Beatty: “Hello. Hello. I- (chuckles). I want-”
Jimmy Kimmel: “Warren, what did you do?!!!!!”
Warren Beatty: “I want to tell you what happened. 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 you. I wasn’t trying to be funny.” (chuckles)
Jimmy Kimmel: “Well, you were funny. That was very funny.”
Warren Beatty: “Thank you very much. Thank you very much.”
Jimmy Kimmel: “Wow, this is, um-”
Warren Beatty: “This is ‘Moonlight.’ The Best Picture.”
Adele Romanski: “Thank you.”
Barry Jenkins: “Very clearly, 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. Oh, my goodness.”
Adele Romanski: “Thank- Thank you. Thank you.”
Barry Jenkins: “And I have to say. And it is true. It’s not fake. We’ve been on the road with these guys for so, so long, and that was so gracious and so generous of them. My love to ‘La La Land.’ My love to everybody. Man.”
Adele Romanski: “Um, thank- Thank you to the Academy- I don’t know what to say. That was really. I’m not sure- I’m still not sure this is real. But, thank you to the Academy and, um, it is so humbling to be standing up here with hopefully still the “La La’ crew- OK, they’re gone. But it’s very humbling to be up here and I think I hope even more than that that it’s um, inspiring to people, little- little Black boys and Brown girls and other folks watching at home who feel marginalized and who take some inspiration from seeing this beautiful group of artists helmed by this amazing talent my friend Barry Jenkins standing up here on this stage accepting this top honor. Thank you.”
Barry Jenkins: “There was a time when I thought this movie was impossible because I couldn’t- I couldn’t bring it to fruition. I couldn’t bring myself to tell another story. And so everybody behind me on this stage said ‘No, that is not acceptable.’ So I just want to thank everybody up here behind me. Everybody out there in that room. Because we didn’t do this. You guys chose us. Thank you for the choice. I appreciate it. Much love.”
Jeremy Kleiner: “Good night, thank you so much.”
Jimmy Kimmel: “Well I don’t know what happened. I blame myself for this. Let’s remember it’s just an awards show. I mean, uh, we hate to see people disappointed. But the good news is we got to see some extra speeches. We have some great movies. Um. I knew I would screw this up. I really did. Thank you for watching. I’m back to work tomorrow night on my regular show and promise I’ll never come back. Good night.”