When it was time to announce the winner for the 96th Academy Awards' Best Motion Picture of the Year, Oscar-winning iconic actor Al Pacino went on stage to read the name of the winning film.

To preface what comes next, the actor did ask if he was expected to do a Shakespeare soliloquy. However, he opted not to do that.

Instead, he ran through the basics of what the award means: that there's one who's getting it. Then he proceeded to narrate what he was going to do: open the envelope. And then he read what it said on the envelope… in a sort of dramatic and suspenseful way?

“My eyes see Oppenheimer,” the actor said.

“Yes,” he confirmed, “Yes, yes, Emma Thomas, Charles Roven — What happened?”

I think that the actor was confused as to why the music started playing after he said the winner's name. Maybe Pacino wasn't briefed that the music was the cue for the winners to start reacting and celebrating.

Maybe he wasn't briefed — or forgot the briefing — that there's now a cue for these things (winner announcements) to avoid what happened seven years ago with Moonlight and La La Land.

In 2017, Warren Beatty read from the supposed envelope that contained the name of the Best Picture winner. He saw La La Land and Emma Stone's name — because he was incorrectly given the envelope for the Best Actress winner —  so he gave the card to Faye Dunaway announced the winner.

When the cast of La La Land went on stage and began their speeches, one of the producers Jordan Horowitz noticed the error and stopped midway.

He said, “There's a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won best picture. This is not a joke, come up here. Moonlight has won Best Picture.”

However, in this case, it was the right envelope and the right name. Pacino just made it confusingly suspenseful. In any case, no harm done.

One question, though: wasn't Al Pacino supposed to read the other nominees as well? To make up for that, you can go here to see the 2024 Oscars complete list of nominees and winners.