It was the most dramatic moment of the night.

Mere minutes after La La Land was announced as the winner of tonight's 'Best Picture' Oscar at the 89th Academy Awards, it was then revealed there had been a major mistake and, in fact, director Barry Jenkins' Moonlight had won the coveted gong.

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Moments after Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announced that La La Land was the winner, there seemed to be a massive kerfuffle on stage when attendees handed around the envelope that revealed Moonlight was ACTUALLY the winner, not Damien Chazelle's musical film.

You can watch the wrong announcement unfold in the below clip:

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But then Jordan Horowitz walked onto the stage, through the throngs of La la Land cast and crew who had been trying to give their acceptance speeches, to announce the mistake.

And to hold up the winner's announcement card for the audience (and the cameras) to see:

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Beatty attempted to explain to the audience why they had made the mistake and announced the wrong film, revealing he had read the name 'Emma Stone' inside the envelope and automatically presumed the winning film was La La Land.

At least that's the explanation that most people seem to believe, although now that we've seen the winning card from the envelope, it's hard to understand where he would have read the words 'Emma Stone.'

Of course, it didn't take long before news hit social media and Twitter users began comparing the embarrassing gaffe to the Presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Jenkins' win for Moonlight comes just one day after nabbing the top prize at Saturday's Independent Spirit Awards .

Yesterday, the Miami-based film won six awards including best feature, best director and best screenplay – a phenomenon that makes tonight's win even more poignant seeing as four of the last five Spirit winners for best feature have gone on to win the Oscar.

Jenkins' story is based on the play Black Boys Look Blue Chiron and follows the life of Chiron, a young black boy who embarks on a journey of self-discovery from childhood to adulthood, struggling with a drug addict mother, his sexuality and identity.

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Despite fierce competition from Damien Chazelle's hotly-tipped film, La La Land, Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester By The Sea and Denzel Washington's Fences, Jenkins collected the award with the film's stellar cast including the likes of Naomi Harris and Mahershala Ali.

The win comes after months of debate over Moonlight and La La Land's competition for Oscar – Oscar-nominated films that celebrated their world premieres mere days apart, five months ago.

Despite Moonlight's Oscar nod, many presumed La La Land to take the coveted gong after the Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone-led musical broke the record for the most Golden Globes last month, winning seven prizes, and was nominated for a staggering 14 award at tonight's ceremony.

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Meanwhile, Moonlight was nominated for almost half the amount of Oscars as La La Land (eight) and won just one award at the Globes – the prize for 'best motion drama' – resulting in outrage across social media with users coining the hashtag 'JusticeForMoonlight'.

Tonight's win has been made even more significant for Moonlight Oscar-nominated actor, Mahershala Ali, who welcomed his first child with wife, Amatus Sami-Karim, on Wednesday.

Posting a photo of his baby daughter with his wife, Ali captioned the image: 'Bari (Bar-ee) Najma Ali'.

They might have had their moment snatched from them a little bit, but at any rate, congratulations, Moonlight.

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Katie O'Malley
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Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.