If the great La La Land / Moonlight fuck up at the 2017 Academy Awards taught us anything, it’s that you should never zone out of an award ceremony until it’s fully over. Same goes for the 2024 Oscars because history has repeated itself and a major blunder has just occurred with the announcement of Best Picture.
When the time came for the final award to be announced, actor Al Pacino made his way to the 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?”
He failed to properly announce the category or read the nominees, he just went ahead and opened the envelope and read out the winner.
The winners followed suit and made their way to the stage, albeit immensely confused by what had just happened.
“To the Academy — movies are just a little bit over 100 years old. We don’t know where this incredible journey is going from here. But to know that you think I’m a meaningful part of it means the world to me,” director Christopher Nolan said in his victory speech.
“Any of us who make movies know you dream of this moment,” Nolan’s wife and longtime producing partner Emma Thomas said while accepting award.
“I’ve been dreaming of this moment for so long. It seemed so unlikely it would ever happen.”
Al Pacino, you literally had one job. (Credit: ABC)
My god the Best Picture category is cursed, isn’t it?
Never forget the time when Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty incorrectly announced that La La Land had won the award for Best Picture at the 2017 ceremony.
The La La Land gang made their way to the stage, only to discover that a terrible mistake had occurred and Moonlight had actually won. It turned out that the envelope contained a card naming a previous award won by La La Land.
To be fair, this year’s fuck-up doesn’t quite trump the Moonlight / La La Land fuck-up. That was an error of overwhelmingly awkward proportions. This one was just… a lil jarring.
In case you were wondering which other films were nominated for Best Picture this year, here’s the list:
- American Fiction
- Anatomy Of A Fall
- Barbie
- The Holdovers
- Killers Of The Flower Moon
- Maestro
- Past Lives
- Poor Things
- The Zone Of Interest
The biggest takeaway from all this is, as I mentioned earlier, you should never ever ever zone out of an award show just ‘cos it’s nearly over. ‘Cos as it turns out, that’s when the real magic happens!
