Al Pacino's Awkwardness While Announcing Best Picture At The Oscars Is Going Viral

"Incredible how famous actors keep finding new ways to make reading the contents of an envelope seem so hard."

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Al Pacino's "chaotic" announcement of Best Picture at the 2024 Oscars is going viral.

Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic

Al, who won Best Actor in 1993 for Scent of a Woman, took to the stage to announce the biggest award of the night, which had a total of 10 nominees.

ABC / Via youtube.com

His appearance onstage was met with a standing ovation, and the actor began by saying, "Some Shakespeare is in order. 'To be'...I'm not going to do it."

ABC

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"Well, this is the time for the last award of the evening. It's my honor to present it. Ten wonderful films were nominated, but only one will take the award for Best Picture," he continued.

ABC

Normal enough, right? Well, Al then said, "I have to go to the envelope for that. And I will. Here it comes. My eyes see Oppenheimer."

ABC

This led to an awkward pause and confused gasp from the crowd, due to the way Al just went ahead and said it:

ABC

It's safe to say that Oppenheimer producer Emma Thomas looked fairly surprised, and not because of the win:

ABC

The music did eventually start as planned as the film's team made their way to the stage, albeit without any customary reaction shots from the other nominees:

ABC

Twitter quickly went abuzz with the awkward moment:

“my eyes see Oppenheimer” is the craziest way to announce the biggest award of the night LMFAOOOOOO

— ZAY DANTE (@zaydante) March 11, 2024

Twitter: @zaydante

incredible how famous actors keep finding new ways to make reading the contents of an envelope seem so hard

— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) March 11, 2024

Twitter: @davidehrlich

why do they have the most confused person read the best picture award

— ashley ray🍦ice cream money out 3/1 (@theashleyray) March 11, 2024

Twitter: @theashleyray

Al Pacino stumbled out of bed, walked onstage, opened an envelope, and said the name of the winner. This is the ideal award presenter. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.

— sreekar (@sreekyshooter) March 11, 2024

Twitter: @sreekyshooter

Al Pacino just going “uh yeah Oppenheimer” lmaooo perfect ending no notes

— yc (@yc) March 11, 2024

Twitter: @yc

Al Pacino did not give a fuck and didn't read the nominees that's a true 83 year old man

— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) March 11, 2024

Twitter: @big_business_

On Monday, Al released a statement saying that the decision not to name all the nominees was intentional. “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,” he said. “I was honored to be a part of the evening and chose to follow the way they wished for this award to be presented."

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UPDATE This post has been updated to reflect Al Pacino's statement.

Mar. 12, 2024, at 13:14 PM

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