The grand finale of the Oscars is always the announcement of the winner in the “Best Film” category – but as has often been the case in the past at the Academy Awards, not everything went quite according to plan in 2024. The reason for this is Al Pacino, who took the tension out of the big moment.
The actor came on stage at the end of the event to announce the winner. And he apparently took his task quite literally, because instead of listing the ten nominated films in advance and saying a few warm words about them, the 83-year-old quickly opened the envelope and spoke out. “My eyes see Oppenheimer,” he explained, and it took a short moment in the audience before the winners rose from their seats to receive the prize. Nobody expected the announcement to be so short and painless. After all, a few warm words were always addressed to the respective nominees in the important categories.
For the sake of form, here is an overview of all the nominees in the “Best Film” category:
- American fiction
- Anatomy of a case
- Barbie
- The Holdovers
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- maestro
- Past Lives
- Poor things
- The Zone of Interest
- Oppenheimer
Al Pacino at the Oscars: Excitement or Defiance?
You can see the bizarre moment again here:
It is not clear why Al Pacino was given such short shrift. Perhaps he wanted to avoid making any promises when reading out the film titles – or the “emotion” was simply too much for him. Not listing all the films definitely took some of the excitement out of the ceremony at the end, but also the chance to receive the recognition they deserve for the highest award in Hollywood. Al Pacino’s behavior was also hotly debated on X (formerly Twitter): “I wish Al had read all the nominees first. I was looking forward to seeing the sizzle reels and a bit of excitement,” while another remarked: “What a weird, anticlimactic way to reveal the winner. Everyone looked as if they wanted to say: WTF!”