Shocks and surprises at Oscars 2017

The 89th Academy Awards was meant to make history - and it did, but for the wrong reason.

The Oscars, held on Sunday night (Monday morning Singapore time) at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, was ready to break records and put #OscarsSoWhite to rest once and for all.

The biggest surprise of the night wasn't that La La Land failed to win Best Picture despite being the frontrunner.

It was the shocking mix-up when La La Land was announced as the Best Picture winner, and then had the award taken away.

Everyone's jaw dropped when Moonlight was then named as the correct winner.

That flub was the most embarrassing mistake in Oscar history. Cameras had a field day capturing mouths agape and befuddled faces.

So what went wrong?

Veteran actors Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were presenting the last and biggest award of the night.

After taking the winner's card out of the envelope, Beatty, 79, looked puzzled. After several seconds of awkward silence, Dunaway, 76, thought Beatty was pulling a fast one, took a quick glance at the card and called out La La Land.

Cue standing ovation and cheers as the producers and cast members of the hit musical went on stage to collect their trophies and make their acceptance speeches.

Then came the revelation that it was Moonlight, an indie drama about a black youth coming to terms with his sexuality in an impoverished Miami neighbourhood, that had won.

It had dominated the critics' awards but La La Land had won most of the industry awards.

Beatty took the mic again to explain the boo-boo.

"I wanted 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."

PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm responsible for tabulating Oscar ballots, issued an apology for an "error", saying Beatty and Dunaway were handed the wrong envelope.

"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 firm said in a statement.

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

INVESTIGATING

"We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred."

Though hot favourite La La Land ended up with only six wins out of its 14 nominations, it did take home two major awards, Best Actress for Stone and Best Director for Damien Chazelle.

First-time host Jimmy Kimmel kept the ceremony light-hearted, peppering the four-hour show with several elements from his daily late-night show.

For instance, he skewered his "frenemy" Matt Damon, and included a Mean Tweets segment where celebrities read out nasty tweets from fans about themselves.

It has also become a trend to feed the audience ever since host Ellen DeGeneres started the ball rolling with pizzas in 2014.

This year, Kimmel dropped sweets and donuts from the "sky" like little parachutes.

One of the highlights was when he brought a busload of unsuspecting tourists into the Dolby Theatre. Starstruck and shocked, the lucky gatecrashers had a field day taking selfies with the front-row celebs.

Best Actor nominee Denzel Washington even played minister to an engaged couple, playfully pronouncing them husband and wife.

Oscars 2017 was nothing short of epic.

Moonlight's unexpected triumph, and Viola Davis' and Mahershala Ali's wins for Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor respectively ended two years of racism controversy.

The encore telecast of the 89th Annual Academy Awards will be aired on HBO (StarHub TV Ch 601) tomorrow night at 10.35pm and on March 5 at 4pm.