2018 Oscars to Implement New Set of Rules to Avoid Another 'Moonlight' Mix-up
The Oscars will be implementing a couple of new rules ahead of its 2018 ceremony in order to avoid another "Moonlight" situation.
It should be remembered that last year, there had been a mix-up with the announcement of the winner for Best Picture. Instead of "Moonlight" which had been the designated winner of the award, an envelope mix-up had led the presenters to announce "La La Land" as best picture. After a truly awkward situation, which would go down as one of the most horrible things to occur in Oscars history, wherein the cast of "La La Land" had to get down the stage so that the people behind "Moonlight" could accept the award, the 2018 Oscars are hoping not to make the same mistake twice with their newly established protocols.
After taking the blame and admitting their mistake for last year's screw up, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has implemented a new set of rules for this year's ceremony, according to chairman and senior partner Tim Ryan who also expressed his regret from last year.
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"One of the most disappointing things to me was all the great work that had been done, not only last year but over the last 83 years, around accuracy, confidentiality integrity of that process," Ryan said in an interview with the Associated Press. "And where we got it wrong was on the handing over of the envelope," he added.
The measures that would be taken for this year's Oscars ceremony would include a planned exchange between the celebrity presenters and the PwC accountants where both parties would have to confirm that the envelope to be taken indeed contains the right names before heading onto the stage.
Two partners will be stationed on both sides of the Oscars stage while a third balloting partner will join the Oscars producers in the main control room complete with their own set of envelopes. The three partners will also be attending the rehearsals so that they would be able to grasp their roles effectively.
Furthermore, all cell phones will be banned as well as the use of social media backstage so that the PwC employees would solely focus on their tasks. Lastly, the two employees who had mixed up the envelopes last year had also not been reinvited for the 2018 Oscars.
