Academy retains accounting firm for Oscars but will confiscate envelope handlers’ phones

Other new protocols are being put in place to ensure a wrong winner isn't announced again

L-R: PWC accounts Martha Ruiz and Brian Cullinan, La La Land actor Ryan Gosling (Getty)

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 54-person board of governors has “decided to continue working with PwC” in spite of the Best Picture snafu at the 2017 ceremony.

PwC has overseen the awards since 1934 and more recently started handling The Academy’s taxes and board voting, with chairman Tim Ryan’s apology for the “human error” apparently proving sufficient.

"Heading into our 84th year working with PwC, a partnership that is important to the Academy, we've been unsparing in our assessment that the mistake made by representatives of the firm was unacceptable,” Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in an email to members, adding that after a review it would keep on the accounting firm but with caveats.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, there will be rehearsals, new envelope handlers, a third balloting leader privy to the results who will sit in the control room at the Oscars and quickly flag any mistakes, and all envelope handlers will be forced to hand in their smartphones before the show.

The Moonlight/La La Land mix-up was largely attributed to accountant Brian Cullinan’s tweeting. He had reportedly been warned about using his smartphone during ceremonies in the past, and apparently threw a party the night before the Oscars where he was bragging about knowing the winners.