Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel jabs Al Pacino's Best Picture announcement: 'Guess he’s never watched an awards show'
Pacino presented Best Picture at the 2024 Academy Awards — but not in the traditional sense.
Al Pacino seemingly announced the 2024 Oscars' highest competitive category exactly how Al Pacino wanted to, thank you very much — a development that amused ceremony host Jimmy Kimmel.
Instead of listing off the 10 Best Picture nominees and revealing the winner by stating the traditional, "And the Oscar goes to..." phrase, the 83-year-old Godfather star took the stage and delivered the news in conversational style.
In an interview that aired Monday morning, Kimmel told Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos that Pacino might've come into the night refreshingly unprepared.
“I guess he’s never watched an awards show before," Kimmel quipped with a laugh. "It seems like everyone in America knows the rhythm of how it’s supposed to go, down to ‘And the Oscar goes to…’ but, uh, not Al."
Pacino's appearance quickly courted feedback online, with many fans expressing amusement over the way the star introduced the prestigious category.
"This is the time for the last award of the evening, and it's my honor to present it. Ten wonderful films were nominated, but only one will take the award for Best Picture," Pacino told the audience. "And, uh, I have to go to the envelope for that, and I will. Here it comes. And my eyes see Oppenheimer. Yes. Yes."
The Oscars crowd appeared to be confused by Pacino's words, as there was a brief pause after he read Oppenheimer's name. Attendees didn't fully applaud until he confirmed that Oppenheimer had won, and the show played the movie's score in the room.
EW has reached out to the Academy and a representative for Pacino for comment.
Pacino was initially set to present Best Picture with Michelle Pfeiffer in a planned Scarface reunion, though EW confirmed that Pfeiffer had to drop out due to a family emergency.
Elsewhere at the show, Poor Things star Emma Stone won Best Actress amid a wardrobe malfunction with her dress after seemingly getting annoyed at one of Kimmel's jokes about her film, John Cena took the stage while wearing only a pair of sandals and covering his crotch with a cue card, and Messi the Anatomy of a Fall dog got his own seat inside the Dolby Theatre — and closed the show by peeing on Matt Damon's Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.