The award is given last at the Academy Awards, and Pacino, 83, was entrusted with announcing Oppenheimer’s achievement during the ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday night.
While The Godfather star avoided a blunder on the scale of the Oscars’ historic La La Land fiasco in 2017, he did receive criticism for seemingly forgetting to name the ten nominees before the winner.
However, Pacino has since issued a statement claiming that, while the moment was “offensive and hurtful,” it was entirely deliberate.
Rather than listing the best film candidates all at once, the Oscars included separate tributes to each film, with the clips spaced throughout the three-and-a-half-hour broadcast.
