Why Al Pacino's 2024 Oscars Best Picture Flub Has the Internet Divided
Say hello to Al Pacino at the 2024 Oscars.
While the Hollywood legend received a standing ovation at the Dolby Theatre March 10, he left the internet stumped with his unconventional approach to presenting the Best Picture award. (Click here for the complete list of winners and see all the red carpet arrivals here.)
Traditionally, the presenter would list the nominees in the category before announcing the winner. However, Pacino did not when he took the stage, instead telling the audience, "Ten wonderful films were nominated, but only one will take the award for Best Picture—and I have to go to the envelope for that."
The 83-year-old also opted to forgo building up fanfare. Upon opening the envelope, the Scarface star simply said, "My eyes see Oppenheimer."
Needless to say, fans had varying opinions of how the night's biggest prize was handled after sitting through a three-and-a-half hour ceremony.
"Most anti-climatic Best Picture announcement ever," one Oscar watcher wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. "I wanted to see all of the nominees."
Meanwhile, another spectator wondered if the actor had forgotten to announce the nominees, writing, "Did Al Pacino just mess up the biggest category of the evening???"
However, some viewers were tickled by Pacino's unique delivery, with one X user affectionately saying that it "couldn't have been more chaotic or confusing."
"I'm obsessed with the way Al Pacino announced Oppenheimer as Best Picture," the viewer wrote, while second fan jokingly called it an "Oscar worthy performance in its own right."
Added a third Oscars viewer, "I was screaming at the television."
Ultimately, Oppenheimer beat out beat out nominees American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Past Lives, Poor Things and The Zone of Interest for Best Picture.
The J. Robert Oppenheimer biopic—which stars Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon and Florence Pugh—also earned filmmaker Christopher Nolan is first-ever Best Director Oscar. In the acting categories, Murphy nabbed the Best Actor prize, while RDJ was honored with the title of Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role.
"Any of us who make movies know that you kind of dream of this moment," Oppenheimer producer Emma Thomas—who is married to Nolan—told the crowd during her Best Picture acceptance speech. "I have dreaming about this moment for so long, but it seemed so unlikely that it would ever actually happened. And now I'm standing here, everything's kind of gone out of my head."
To see who else won big at the Oscars, keep reading.
American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
WINNER: Oppenheimer
Past Lives
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest
Annette Bening, NYAD
Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall
Carey Mulligan, Maestro
WINNER: Emma Stone, Poor Things
Bradley Cooper, Maestro
Colman Domingo, Rustin
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
WINNER: Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
America Ferrera, Barbie
Jodie Foster, NYAD
WINNER: Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction
Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon
WINNER: Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer
Ryan Gosling, Barbie
Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things
Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet
Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese
WINNER: Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan
Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos
The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer
WINNER: The Boy and the Heron
Elemental
Nimona
Robot Dreams
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Best International Feature Film
Io Capitano, Italy
Perfect Days, Japan
Society of the Snow, Spain
The Teachers' Lounge, Germany
WINNER: The Zone of Interest, United Kingdom
Bobi Wine: The People's President
The Eternal Memory
Four Daughters
To Kill a Tiger
WINNER: 20 Days in Mariupol
Best Documentary Short Film
The ABCs of Book Banning
The Barber of Little Rock
Island in Between
WINNER: The Last Repair Shop
Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó
The After
Invincible
Knight of Fortune
Red, White and Blue
WINNER: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
Letter to a Pig
Ninety-Five Senses
Our Uniform
Pachyderme
WINNER: War Is Over! Inspired by The Music of John & Yoko
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
WINNER: Poor Things
"The Fire Inside," Flamin' Hot
"I'm Just Ken," Barbie
"It Never Went Away," American Symphony
"Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)," Killers of the Flower Moon
WINNER: "What Was I Made For?," Barbie
American Fiction
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Killers of the Flower Moon
WINNER: Oppenheimer
Poor Things
The Creator
Maestro
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
Oppenheimer
WINNER: The Zone of Interest
Golda
Maestro
Oppenheimer
WINNER: Poor Things
Society of the Snow
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
WINNER: Poor Things
WINNER: Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers
Maestro
May December
Past Lives
WINNER: American Fiction
Barbie
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest
The Creator
WINNER: Godzilla Minus One
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
Napoleon
Best Film Editing
Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
WINNER: Oppenheimer
Poor Things
Best Cinematography
El Conde,
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
WINNER: Oppenheimer
Poor Things
