Awkward Oscars moment explained
Al Pacino is clearing the air after his awkward best picture announcement at Sunday night's Academy Awards went viral.
The casual way in which Pacino, 83, announced Oppenheimer as this year's top film sparked confusion in the audience and plenty of jokes on social media.
After the awards for best actress and actor featured lengthy presentations that brought back past winners to celebrate the nominees, the nine-time nominee, who won best actor for 1992's Scent of a Woman, took to the stage to hand out the evening's last award.
But instead of listing all of the nominees by name, Pacino only said: “Ten wonderful films were nominated, but only one will take the award for best picture.” There were 10 nominees this year, including Killers of the Flower Moon, The Holdovers, American Fiction, Poor Things, Past Lives, The Zone of Interest, Barbie, Anatomy of a Fall, Maestro and eventual winner Oppenheimer.
Pacino then continued: “Uh, I have to go to the envelope for that and I will. Here it comes. And my eyes see Oppenheimer. Yes, Emma Thomas.”
But Pacino said he was just following the instructions of the show's producers when he skipped the names of the best picture nominees in the night's biggest category.
“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 honoured to be a part of the evening and chose to follow the way they wished for this award to be presented,” Pacino said in a statement Monday afternoon.
“I realize being nominated is a huge milestone in one's life and to not be fully recognized is offensive and hurtful. I say this as someone who profoundly relates with filmmakers, actors and producers, so I deeply empathize with those who have been slighted by this oversight and it's why I felt it necessary to make this statement.”
Academy Awards producer Molly Mcnearney told Variety in an interview after the telecast that “it was a creative decision” to have Pacino jump straight to the winner.
“By the time you get to the end of the show, you've seen all 10 best picture clip packages,” Mcnearney said.
“People just want to hear who wins and they're pretty ready for the show to be over. At least that's what we anticipated. So we did not give him a clip package. We did not give him nominations to read. I apologize if our decision to not have to read through all those nominations put him in a tough spot.”