Al Pacino is at the centre of much confusion and chaos after his delivery of the Best Picture Oscar was not only the most underwhelming and anti-climatic moment of the evening — it also disregarded the traditional order of events at the Oscars. Or did it?
Pacino, when announcing the award, skipped reading out the nominees or even announcing the category properly.
He simply got on stage and said: “Best Picture…uh, I have to go to the envelope for that. And I will. Here it comes. And my eyes see Oppenheimer?”
No dramatic pause. No creating of mood. Not even a surefire statement — Oppenheimer‘s win truly was framed as a question.
He has since addressed the monumental fuck up and claimed that his announcement for the award was actually scripted that way by producers.
“There seems to be some controversy about my not mentioning every film by name last night before announcing the best picture award,” Pacino said in a statement.
“I just want to be clear it was not my intention to omit them, rather a choice by the producers not to have them said again since they were highlighted individually throughout the ceremony. I was honored to be a part of the evening and chose to follow the way they wished for this award to be presented.”
Honestly, the whole thing was pretty funny. BUT, justice for the films that were nominated who didn’t get much limelight throughout the night!
Sure, films like Oppenheimer, Barbie and Poor Things are well known to everyone and were spotlit often. However, Past Lives for example (my favourite from all the Oscar-nominated films), was only nominated for one other Oscar and went home with zero. It deserved to have another moment while the nominees were read out!
The full list of nominees for Best Picture, in case you were wondering, is below:
- American Fiction
- Anatomy Of A Fall
- Barbie
- The Holdovers
- Killers Of The Flower Moon
- Maestro
- Past Lives
- Poor Things
- The Zone Of Interest
Well, I suppose it all could have been worse. Imagine a repeat of the La La Land / Moonlight kerfuffle, but with Barbie and Oppenheimer. Now that would be a mess.
Image: Getty
