Actor Al Pacino apologized Monday after the embarrassing moment he caused at the Academy Awards when he failed to mention the best picture nominations and read out the winner directly, Variety magazine reported.

The 83-year-old American actor was invited to the 96th Academy Award ceremony for the best film. Oppenheimerdirected by Christopher Nolan.

But Al Pacino, himself an Academy Award winner for his role in Scent of a Woman (1992), caused confusion after breaking with the custom of reading out the award nominations before the winner. Instead, he took the stage and, after a brief speech, opened the envelope and said only: “My eyes see ‘Oppenheimer.’

Variety magazine noted shortly after that moment that it would likely go down in Oscar history and that it confused everyone in attendance.

Al Pacino speaks out about ‘injustice’ at 2024 Oscars

“Looks like there was some controversy about not mentioning each film by title last night before the Best Picture awards were announced. I just want to make it clear that it was not my intention to leave them out, it was the producers’ choice to not repeat them again, as they were lit separately during the ceremony,” explained Al Pacino in a press release.

“It was an honor to be a part of this evening and I decided to follow the way they (gala organizers) wanted to present this award. I understand that I will be nominated [la Premiul Oscar] it’s a huge milestone in someone’s life and not being fully recognized is insulting and hurtful,” he continued.

“I say this as someone who is deeply involved with the directors, actors and producers, so I have the deepest sympathy for those affected by this escape, and that is why I felt it necessary to release this statement,” concluded Al Pacino.

Molly McNearney, one of the organizers of the Oscar ceremony, confirmed in comments to Variety after the ceremony that the “creative decision” to no longer mention the feature films nominated for the award “Best Picture” belonged to the organizers.

Organizers of the Oscars offer a simple explanation for Sunday night’s strange moment

McNearney explained that the organizers were “very concerned that the screening would take a long time” and decided to shorten the time of the award for Best Picture, since the ceremony had already shown sequences of all the nominated feature films.

“By the time you get to the end of the show, you’ll have seen all the clips of those [nominalizări] for the best film. People just want to hear who’s going to win, and they’re kind of ready for the show to end,” she explained.

McNearney also confirmed that the ticket in the envelope received by Al Pacino did not even have other nominations, only the name of the winner, and apologized to the actor on behalf of the producers “if our decision (…) to put in a difficult situation” .

But she said Al Pacino’s decision not to use the traditional “And the Oscar goes to…” formula likely contributed to the confusion, but “that’s the magic of live television.”

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